Don’t Stuff Your Turkey With Stuffing

Stuffing and dressing are essentially the same dish, but the taxonomy can be confusing—and highly regional. They’re both made with bread that’s been moistened with stock, flavored with aromatics and herbs, bound by eggs and baked. And no matter what you call it, it needs to be on the Thanksgiving table.

But for the pedants out there: The real difference comes down to where and how it is baked. It’s stuffing if you stuff it inside the bird and dressing if you cook it in a separate pan. But outside the American South (or Iowa), the word “stuffing” is used to refer to all versions of bread-based side dish unless the bread in question is cornbread. There is no such thing as “cornbread stuffing.” It’s always “cornbread dressing.” And while we may use the word “stuffing” here at Milk Street—we’re Boston-based and it’s just more fun to say—we do not recommend stuffing bread inside the turkey. Baking it outside the bird is safer and tastier.

Why dressing is safer—and tastier—than stuffing

Taxonomy aside, you should not stuff your stuffing into a large, raw bird. For starters, you can’t stuff a spatchcocked turkey, and spatchcocking is the key to Chris’ favorite turkey recipe (here’s how to do it). Baked inside the cavity of the big bird, the stuffing gets saturated with raw meat juices that are full of bacteria, meaning you now have to worry about the meat and meat juice-soaked bread reaching a safe temperature of 165℉. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to take the temperature of something that’s cooking inside a giant bird in a hot oven, but it’s not something I want to futz with on a hectic food-focused holiday.

Then there is the matter of taste and texture. The cavity of a large bird is quite damp, which discourages browning, so you don’t get any crispy bits, or any textural contrast—just mush. It doesn’t help the turkey at all either. Stuffing the bird with wet bread blocks air flow in and out of the cavity, which can result in uneven cooking or overcooked meat, and make the whole ordeal take far longer than it should. Do yourself a favor and let go of the Norman Rockwellian ideal of a stuffed, roasted whole turkey. Value taste over aesthetics—spatchcock the bird and cook your stuffing (or dressing) in its own pan.

The best stuffing recipes to make for Thanksgiving

OurEasy-Bake Herbed Stuffing is packed with classic flavors to satisfy the traditionalists. Created by our Creative Director of Recipes, Matt Card, it’s everything boxed stuffing strives to be. Matt’s no boxed stuffing snob, but he describes the texture as “mushy with a soupçon of crispy crunch.” And dehydrated ingredients will always sacrifice some flavor.

We solve those problems by creating a buttery paste of fresh herbs and raw shallots, which seasons the bread cubes as they toast in the oven. We then moisten the bread with chicken broth and a touch of cream, and bake again. The result is dramatically fresher flavor and improved texture—a super crispy top and custardy interior.

Any sturdy, high-quality sliced sandwich bread from the grocer works well here, so pick your favorite. As the bread bakes, the raw bite of the shallots cooks off, leaving behind a mellow tang.

If you crave a little more umami, we have a mushroom version that gets deep, savory flavor form 2 pounds of mushrooms—portobellos and shiitakes—along with a little soy sauce and poultry seasoning.

For a bread-based side that’s totally decadent, consider a Savory Bread Pudding with Mushrooms, Gruyère and Tarragon or Kale and Pepper Jack Cheese. Crusty white bread is soaked in a mixture of heavy cream, chicken broth and nearly a dozen eggs—get it soaking the night before to save time Thanksgiving morning—then baked until golden brown and puffed. It’s not technically stuffing (or dressing), but it is delicious.

And while we may not have a recipe for cornbread dressing, our Browned Butter Skillet Cornbreadis an excellent place to start.

Unlike sweet, cakey-crumbed, Northern-style cornbread, this one is decidedly savory, with a deep nuttiness and shatteringly crisp crust that comes from being baked in a pool of browned butter.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.