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This easy Crockpot Stuffing recipe is made with dried bread all the classic flavors like onion, celery, and sage. And don’t worry: you’ll still get crispy edges! Save the oven space and make this side dish in your slow cooker.
When oven space is in short supply, it’s nice to pull out your crock-pot for an assist. This slow cooker stuffing has all the right flavors and textures that you can expect from a classic stuffing recipe without the need to bake it.
You’ll still start the recipe like a standard version: sauté onions and celery in butter, toss with lots of fresh herbs, eggs, and chicken broth, then mix it with a pile of toasty-dry bread cubes.
Instead of firing up the oven (or probably because it’s already fired up and in use), transfer the bread mixture to your nearest slow cooker. Cover and cook, and look forward to chewy bread chunks, plenty of flavor, and even crispy edges!
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Chicken broth: I keep jars of homemade chicken broth in the freezer (it’s a delicious by-product of poaching a chicken), but store-bought is also good. Or use turkey broth if you have that.
- Herbs: Fresh herbs taste the best in this stuffing, but dried work too. I rarely find fresh marjoram and almost always substitute dried. Or, customize with your favorite herbs like fresh rosemary, a few cloves garlic, or poultry seasoning.
- French bread: Use any sturdy bread such as Italian, challah, or sourdough bread. Dry the bread up to 3 days in advance (keep it covered with a dry kitchen towel on counter, or slice and dry in a 300-degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes).
Step-by-step instructions
- Coat the inside of a slow cooker with butter or nonstick spray. In large skillet over medium heat, melt butter until foaming. Add onion and celery and sauté until translucent, about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk eggs in large bowl. Stir in broth, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper.
- To skillet, add parsley, sage, thyme, and marjoram until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl with the egg mixture and stir well. Add bread cubes and toss to combine.
- Transfer to prepared slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for for 30 minutes, then reduce temperature to LOW and cook for 4 to 5 hours. Keep warm until serving time.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This Crock-pot Stuffing recipe makes about 10 cups, enough for 10 side-dish servings of about 1 cup each.
- Storage: Store leftover crock pot stuffing covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make Ahead Stuffing: After you’ve assembled the stuffing, refrigerate it up to 1 day in advance. See my full Make-Ahead Thanksgiving menu for more ways to cook in advance including a Make Ahead Roasted Turkey, Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes (that won’t get watery in the freezer), and Make Ahead Pumpkin Pie.
- Freezer: For best results, assemble and freeze the bread stuffing uncooked. Then thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake as directed in the recipe.
- Classic oven-baked stuffing: To make my homemade Bread Stuffing recipe, preheat oven to 400 degrees and rub a 9×13 inch baking dish with butter. Add stuffing to the baking dish, cover tightly with foil, and bake until mostly heated through, about 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake until crispy edges form, about 10 to 20 minutes longer.
- Gluten-free stuffing: transforms gluten-free bread into a side dish worth making. You’d never know the difference when you tuck into this glorious gluten-free bread stuffing.
- Small batch: My Bread Stuffing for Two is the same delicious, buttery stuffing with all your favorite flavors, but scaled down to a smaller quantity for small gatherings. See my full Thanksgiving for Two Menu which includes a pair of roasted Cornish Hens with Stuffing and two Mini Pumpkin Pies for dessert.
- Sausage stuffing: My homemade Cornbread Dressing is made with plenty of sausage for a spicy kick.
- Vegan stuffing: Filled with wild mushrooms, leeks, fresh kale, and all the classic Thanksgiving herbs you love, this Vegan Stuffing recipe has bread cubes that are soft and chewy on the inside with browned, crispy edges outside. The entire recipe is 100% vegan and delicious.
- Best Thanksgiving Slow Cooker Recipes: Discover the best slow cooker recipes for your Thanksgiving feast including turkey and all the classic sides. Free up oven and stove top space when you need it most by cooking one (or more!) Thanksgiving recipes in a crockpot.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best bread for stuffing is a sturdy loaf with a tight crumb. Bakery French bread, Italian bread, Challah, and Sourdough are all good choices. When you cut up a 1-pound loaf into cubes, it should fit in an even layer on a single half-size rimmed baking sheet. If you need 2 sheet trays to fit your pound of bread cubes, the bread is too soft an airy. It won’t make good stuffing and you’ll wind up with a dish full of mush, no matter how well you dry it out.
Dry the bread up to 3 days in advance (keep it covered with a dry kitchen towel on counter, or slice and dry in a 300-degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes).
For food safety reasons, and for a more evenly cooked bird, most modern recipes don’t encourage stuffing a turkey, chicken, or Cornish hen. If you decide to stuff your turkey, combine wet and dry stuffing components just before placing them in the cavity, ensuring any raw meat, poultry, or seafood used in the stuffing is fully cooked beforehand. Do not stuff a bird with cooked stuffing. Use a large spoon or your hands to loosely stuff the body and neck cavities (do not pack it tightly because the stuffing expands while it cooks). Truss the main cavity with trussing pins to keep the stuffing inside. The stuffing must register 165 degrees on an internal thermometer to be safe to eat. For more information, see the USDA website.
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Crockpot Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) plus more for buttering the crockpot
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 celery ribs halved lengthwise and chopped
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups chicken broth (see note 1)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley minced (see note 2)
- 1 teaspoon fresh sage minced, or ½ teaspoon dried
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme minced, or ½ teaspoon dried
- 1 teaspoon fresh marjoram minced, or ½ teaspoon dried
- 1 loaf French bread cut into 1/2-inch cubes and dried (about 1 pound, see note 3)
Instructions
- Coat the inside of a slow cooker with butter or nonstick spray. In large skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter until foaming. Add onion and celery and sauté until translucent, about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk eggs in large bowl. Stir in broth, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper.
- To skillet, add parsley, sage, thyme, and marjoram until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl with eggs and mix well. Add bread cubes and toss to combine. Transfer to prepared slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for for 30 minutes, then reduce temperature to LOW and cook for 4 to 5 hours. Keep warm until serving time.
Notes
- Chicken broth: I keep jars of homemade chicken broth in the freezer (it’s a delicious by-product of poaching a chicken), but store-bought is also good. Or use turkey broth if you have that.
- Herbs: Fresh herbs taste the best in this stuffing, but dried work too. I rarely find fresh marjoram and almost always substitute dried.
- French bread: You can also use brioche, challah, or Italian bread, any sturdy bread with a tight crumb. Dry the bread up to 3 days in advance (keep it covered with a dry kitchen towel on counter, or slice and dry in a 300-degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes).
- Yield: This Crockpot Stuffing recipe makes about 10 cups, enough for 10 side-dish servings of about 1 cup each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
why do you add eggs to this recipe in the bird it doesnt call for eggs
I add eggs as a binder to make the stuffing stick to itself and form clusters, but you can leave the eggs out if you want to. You’re right, they aren’t necessary, it probably depends on the kind of stuffing you grew up with. I use eggs in all my stuffings except for the vegan one, but I didn’t use a “flax egg” in the vegan one and it works fine. You can leave them out if you want to! Thanks Barbara! -Meggan
what size crock pot please?
1 pound loaf = number of cups of bread cubes.
Hi Sandy, thank you for your question. This recipe makes 10 cups stuffing, so you’ll want to use a 3 quart or larger slow cooker. A 1-pound loaf usually makes around 10 cups of bread cubes. I hope you love this stuffing! – Meggan