Gluten Free Stuffing Recipe

Recipe ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this stuffing recipe, including the role of each ingredient in great holiday stuffing for maximum flavor and ideal texture:

• Gluten free bread: Provides the structure and most of the substance of the recipe. You'll need a full 1 pound loaf of gluten free bread for this recipe. My classic white gluten free bread recipe works great, and I also like to use my recipe for gluten free Japanese milk bread here. You can also use store-bought gluten free bread like Canyon Bakehouse; just cut it into cubes as large as you can. Dry-toasting this moist, enriched bread prepares it to absorb the flavors of the cooked vegetables and stock without turning mushy. If all you have is relatively stale bread, you can still use it, but toast it less in the first step of the recipe.
• Olive oil and butter: This combination adds richness, flavor, and helps to deliver the flavors of the aromatics.
• Onions & celery: These are your aromatics, cooked down without browning so they retain lots of their unique flavor and aroma and provide a rich base that infuses the bread with flavor. When I can, I like to use a combination of robust, earthy yellow onions for and more subtle, slightly sweet shallots for layered flavor. The celery adds some saltiness, natural moisture that it releases as it cooks down, and visual interest.
• Salt & pepper: Enhance, brighten and balance the flavors in the dish.
• Vegetable bouillon: A simple mix of nutritional yeast flakes, minced dried onion, garlic powder, dried parsley, and dried thyme adds so much umami flavor and deepen the impact of the cooked aromatics. If you don't have nutritional yeast, you can try replacing it with a bit of finely grated Parmesan cheese. You can also replace the homemade vegetable bouillon with 2 tablespoons or 2 cubes of packaged gluten free chicken or vegetable bouillon.
• Poultry seasoning or herbs de Provence: Spice blends that add extra rich poultry aroma and traditional holiday flavor. Dried spice blends also cut down on the number of fresh ingredients you have to buy and prepare. To make your own herbs de Provence, combine (all dried) 1 T thyme, 2 t marjoram, 2 t savory, 1 t rosemary, 2 t lavender + 1/2 t sage. Or, to make your own poultry seasoning, combine 1/2 t parsley, 1 t sage, 1/2 t thyme, 1/2 t marjoram + 1/2 t rosemary.
• Chicken stock: Moistens the bread and adds another layer of poultry flavor. You can use vegetable broth if you prefer, as long as it has a rich savory flavor and aroma. Choose a high-quality stock that's rich and has good depth of flavor, like Pacific brand. Watery stock that doesn't have much flavor will lead to a much more flat, uninteresting dish.
• Eggs: Bind the dish together and add some structure. The yolks add some fat for richness and the whites hold the bread together as the dish cools.

Expert tips

This recipe is simple and versatile, but there are still a few tips to help make sure your stuffing is flawless:

Toast the bread low and slow

We’re using a loaf of bread that’s very soft inside with a thick, bakery-style crust outside. When we tear or slice it into pieces, we expose that tender center, which we then dry out in the oven.

Toast the bread and dehydrate it in a low, 300°F oven, but don’t bake it. It takes some time, but this is how we create just the right textured bread to absorb all the flavors we will add.

Choose bouillon carefully

Instead of making your own bouillon, you can use packaged gluten free bouillon. Unless the packaging specifically says that it's gluten free, I would avoid it. Herb Ox and Edward & Son’s Not Chick’N brands are gluten free.

Be gentle with the bread

When you mix the wet ingredients into the toasted bread chunks, don't be too forceful. Take it gently and steadily so you don't beat up the bread and cause it to break down too much.

Collect leftover pieces of bread all year

Save and freeze all of those ends and slices of gluten free bread in a freezer-safe ziptop bag. This way, I'm ready whenever I need gluten free breadcrumbs, bread for stuffing, or homemade gluten free croutons.

Ingredient substitutions

You can switch up this simple recipe to accommodate pretty much any dietary need. Just remember you may also need to tweak the bread recipe or choose a different bread, depending on the substitutions you want to make.

Dairy free

In place of the butter in this recipe and in the bread recipe, try using vegan butter (Melt and Miyoko’s Kitchen brands are best). For milk in the bread, use your favorite unsweetened nondairy milk, but make sure it's not nonfat. And just leave out the cheese or add more nutritional yeast for flavor.

Egg free

You can try using one “chia egg” instead of each egg in the recipe. I make a “chia egg” by combining one tablespoon ground white chia seeds with one tablespoon lukewarm water, and allowing it to sit until it gels.

Storage instructions

To make the recipe ahead of time, bake it covered at 350°F for 30 minutes, then stop cooking. Remove the foil, and let it cool completely, cover with freezer-safe wrap and freeze. The day before serving, defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Finish baking it, uncovered, according to the remaining recipe instructions.

Leftover gluten free stuffing can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge to enjoy in the coming days. Zip-top bags work well here to stop the bread from losing its moisture. When ready, reheat the bread on low power in the microwave or oven. 

For longer storage, store extra stuffing in the freezer for up to three months in an airtight container. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator, sprinkle it lightly with lukewarm water, then bake at 300°F until warmed through.