Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Two years ago, I hunted for a no-frills stuffing recipe. I didn’t want meat, apples or anything like that in it. I found this recipe, got loads of compliments on it, and have made it multiple times since. So, here’s what you do.

Easy Bread and Celery Stuffing

Ingredients (for 10 servings):
1 1lb loaf of sliced white bread (or some people use french bread)
1 cup of butter
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 teaspoons Poultry Seasoning
1 cup chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste

Let the bread slices dry until a little bit rough on the outside. If you don’t have time to dry the bread, just turn your oven to 200 degrees, spread the bread slices on a cookie sheet and bake for a few minutes until the side up is dry.

Flip the bread over and bake the other side until dry. In fact, I thought I didn’t have enough stuffing last weekend so I just took a frozen loaf of white bread and put it straight in the oven. Totally fine. Then cut the bread into cubes.


Melt the butter in a stock pot or dutch oven. Cook the onion and celery until barely soft. If you cook them too long, they will be soggy in the stuffing. It needs a little texture. Season with Poultry Seasoning, salt and pepper.


Stir in bread crumbs until coated. Pour in chicken broth. Chill and then stuff turkey or bake in a casserole pan at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. I like it a bit crispy on top so do it for almost the full 40. Up to you. Here’s the Poultry Seasoning I used. It was about $3.50 on sale at VONS.


You can make your own Poultry Seasoning though.

Here’s the other thing:  Once I tripled the recipe. Four pounds of white bread at Costco is about $4.00 (so I used $3.00 of that). Poultry Seasoning was $3.50 (didn’t use the whole thing). Celery and onions were maybe $2 and butter around $3.00. So, 30 servings of stuffing were about $11.50. Not too shabby, right?

The other thing I do is save the ends of bread that no one wants to eat. Even if they are wheat, I’ll toss them into this stuffing. No one has any idea they are there.

Also see Roasted Brussel Sprouts With Grapes and Walnuts or Easy Whole Wheat Stuffing for other Thanksgiving side dish recipe ideas.

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Try this easy bread and celery stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving or any day.

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Katie Dillon is the managing editor of La Jolla Mom. She helps readers plan San Diego vacations through her hotel expertise (that stems from living in a Four Seasons hotel) and local connections. Readers have access to exclusive discounts on theme park tickets (like Disneyland and San Diego Zoo) and perks at luxury hotels worldwide through her. She also shares insider tips for visiting major cities worldwide like Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Shanghai that her family has either lived in or visits regularly (or both).

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7 Comments

  1. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I keep thinking to myself “I do not know how to use this camera….” constantly. The stuffing is a good totally basic stuffing. I don’t like a lot of extra stuff in mine, pardon the pun.

  2. THANK YOU. Did I tell you I am hosting this year?
    And that I can’t cook, bake, or prepare foodstuffs?

    I am very much so completely using this recipe.

    And…how many people did you feed with the recipe you tripled?

  3. I fed 10 adults and 10 kids and had like half left over. I felt like we were eating it for ages. The people on Allrecipes.com have all sorts of variations if you like other “stuff” in your stuffing.

    Since it’s so cheap, I would recommend doing a practice run first. Trader Joe’s has boxed gravy that’s not too bad!

  4. Pingback: Kids Recipes: Healthy Halloween Snacks
  5. Thanks for the recipe & photos. For this year, I bought the Trader Joe’s stuffing mix but next year I will try this whole recipe. I was searching for tips on spicing up boxed stuffing with celery and onion and this is perfect!