Once I started drying my own bread cubes for my stuffing, it took my Thanksgiving stuffing recipe to new heights. Learn how to dry your own bread for DIY stuffing cubes, and win Thanksgiving this year and every year.
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Why you’ll love this recipe!
If you think those crunchy stuffing cubes only come from a bag or box from the market, I’m here to tell you they are so easy to make yourself. Once you give it a try, you’ll never go back to store-bought again. I promise.
When you read the package on many prepared, store-bought bread cubes for stuffing you’ll find ingredients you may not want to eat. For example, no need to add preservatives to your dried bread cubes.
If you bake your own stuffing cubes, you can choose what breads you use, how you want to season them, how toasty you want them to be, what size bread cube you prefer. You can even use up leftover bread scraps if you want to avoid waste.
See my homemade bread cubes for stuffing web story for a quick visual guide to making this recipe!
Ingredients you’ll need
These are the ingredients I use for my stuffing recipe. Use this technique, but feel free to change the seasonings and bread type to fit your stuffing recipe. I've adjusted my bread mix over the years and really love this challah and cornbread combination. But you can make bread cubes out of whole wheat bread, white bread, sourdough bread and more.
- Cornbread: I make a sage and olive oil cornbread for my bread cubes but you can purchase pre-made cornbread or make a boxed-mix and that will work too!
- Challah: Bake one of my challahs (this recipe for the rolls minus the filling and formed into one loaf is perfect) or grab a pre-made loaf at the store. Whatever works best with your schedule and skill set!
- Sage: I happen to grow sage in my garden but dried sage is just fine. Remember around Thanksgiving time, the popular dried herbs like sage and thyme often sell out at the store so stock up early! Remember that dried herbs are more flavorful than fresh and you will use a bit less.
- Thyme: Dried thyme or fresh will work - just follow the same advice I mentioned above under sage. Also remember you may adjust the choice of seasonings to fit your recipe and flavor profile.
How to make this recipe
Drying bread for stuffing is more of a method than a hard and fast recipe. I give you lots of guidelines and tips and tricks but as I mentioned above, you can change the bread you use and match the seasonings to your stuffing recipe and menu. Here are the basics – the rest of the details are in the recipe card below.
1. Cut your bread into ½ - 1-inch cubes and place the cubes on parchment-lined sheet trays.
2. Add some olive oil and seasonings and mix (I do this right on the sheet tray to avoid another bowl to wash).
3. Put in preheated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, checking frequently and mixing around to ensure even cooking.
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4. Let them cool and store in an airtight container or even freeze for 2-3 months.
Expert Tips and FAQs
- How many cubes will your loaf of bread yield? My sage sausage stuffing recipe asks for 16 cups of cubes. Many stuffing recipes ask for 10 cups of cubes. Extra cubes will last in a sealed container or in the freezer so if you make more than you need, that's ok!
- One medium-sized 16-ounce loaf of challah yields about 10 cups of cubes.
- One 8X8 pan of cornbread yields 9 - 12 cups of cubes.
- Six slices of sourdough bread yields about 4 cups of cubes.
- I line my sheet trays with parchment for easy clean-up. I also mix my bread cubes with the seasoning and olive oil right on the parchment-line sheet tray. One less bowl to wash.
- If you make your own bread, feel free to make it a couple days ahead if that helps you space out your cooking. You're going to be drying the bread out anyhow - doesn't have to be fresh from the oven - in fact, it's better if it's not. It's easier to cut and handle dryer bread.
Our family stuffing started as the Cornbread Sausage Stuffing from The Silver Palate Cookbook. Over the years, I've used white bread, challah bread, whole wheat bread and sourdough bread in addition to cornbread. The only restriction is your imagination and your personal preferences.
Yes, you can freeze stuffing bread cubes. Either use two freezer bags or preferably an airtight re-usable storage container. Just take them out when you are ready to make your stuffing.
If by chance you stuff the actual turkey, be sure to defrost them so you don’t slow down the cooking of the stuffing in the bird. But if you are cooking the stuffing outside of the bird, you should be able to go straight from freezer to stuffing mixture.
In many ways, seasoned bread cubes for stuffing are very similar to croutons. One of the key and important differences, though, is the amount of oil or butter used in croutons. Croutons are meant to stand on their own in a salad and are therefore more heavily seasoned including the added oil or butter.
Bread cubes for stuffing are flavored but need less added oil and butter and are not meant to stand on their own. They become part of the stuffing mixture.
More great Thanksgiving recipes on OMG! Yummy
For ease of browsing, find all of my Thanksgiving recipes here and lots of menu ideas and planning tools here.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Looking for a unique way to use leftover stuffing? How about this Turkey Shepherd's Pie with Stuffing Crust!
See my seasoned bread cubes web story for a quick visual guide to making this recipe!
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Bread Cubes for Stuffing
Beth LeeIngredients
- 10 cups Bread cubes (check your stuffing recipe for how many cups you need and see notes below for how many cubes each type of bread yields)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil per sheet pan of cubes
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme per sheet pan of cubes
- ½ teaspoon dried sage per sheet pan of cubes
- ½ teaspoon salt per sheet pan of cubes
- ½ teaspoon pepper per sheet pan of cubes
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees regular or 325 degrees convection.
- Slice your bread into approximately ½ inch cubes. Spread the cubes on parchment-lined cookie sheets, not too tightly packed. I usually fill up about 4 large sheet pans but it really depends how big a crowd you are feeding.
- Pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over each tray of cubes and sprinkle your dried herbs - thyme, sage, salt and pepper or whatever flavorings you have chosen. Mix the cubes all around to distribute the flavors. If your corn bread is really crumbly, be gentle and don't mix too much but I personally like some of those bread crumbs in my stuffing too.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, checking at about 10 minutes for doneness and to mix around. Cubes should be browned but not completely dark. They will firm up when you take them out.
- These can be made several days in advance and stored in a bag or container on the counter or in the pantry.
Video
Notes
- How many cubes will your loaf of bread yield? My sage sausage stuffing recipe asks for 16 cups of cubes. Many stuffing recipes will ask for around 10 cups of cubes. Extra cubes will last in a sealed container or in the freezer so if you make more than you need, that's ok!
-
- One medium size 16 ounce loaf of challah will yield about 10 cups of cubes
- One 8X8 pan of cornbread will yield 9 - 12 cups of cubes
- Six slices of sourdough bread will yield about 4 cups of cubes.
- I line my sheet trays with parchment for easy clean-up. I also mix my bread cubes with the seasoning and olive oil right on the parchment-line sheet tray. One less bowl to wash.
- If you make your own bread, feel free to make it a couple days ahead if that helps you space out your cooking. You're going to be drying the bread out anyhow - doesn't have to be fresh from the oven - in fact, it's better if it's not. Easier to cut and handle dryer bread.
- These are my approximations and choice of seasonings - don't be afraid to experiment with other herbs and spices and don't be concerned if you under season them or even over season a bit. When you mix all the stuffing ingredients, you can adjust the flavor again.
Jem Reandeau-Azar says
Just made these and the temperature is way too high, try 300 degrees in a conventional oven and watch them closely. My first batch burned in just 6 minutes at 350.
Beth Lee says
Hi Jem - thanks for sharing your experience. It's possible your oven temperature is mis-calibrated. Do you have a thermometer you can hang on the inside and test whether the oven temp matches the set temperature? I've made this recipe literally dozens of times and you can see others have made it over and over with great success as instructed. No doubt each oven varies so definitely adjust to your oven characteristics and check the calibration if you can. Hope your second batch worked out better for you.
Also, what kind of bread did you use? A higher fat bread like brioche might cook/burn more quickly because of higher fat content. Just a thought.
Sari Colbry says
I use this for Thanksgiving stuffing every year and it is perfect. I consider it a no fail recipe!
Lorena Anguiano says
The last couple of years I've been making my own bread cubes for stuffing and this is by far my favorite recipe I've tried!! I popped a couple in my mouth and not going to lie I could totally eat them like that . I did also add a little bit of rosemary but I can't wait to see how the stuffing comes out!
Beth Lee says
So glad you enjoy these - easy right? But a big flavor boost. Enjoy and happy Thanksgiving!
Pam Spencer says
Thank you so much
You helped me alot!!
Pam Spencer
Beth Lee says
Yay! Thanks for stopping by to tell me. I appreciate that! What kind of cubes did you make?
Shenay C. says
Loved this thank you! Turned out perfect! I doubt I’ll ever by bread crumbs again.
Beth Lee says
That's music to my ears! Glad you loved them. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Sue says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made croutons from Keto bread and will now be able to enjoy a hearty serving of stuffing at Thanksgiving. I did not have sage so I used 1 tsp of Bell's Poultry Seasoning for 10 cups of croutons--in addition to salt and pepper only. I mixed it thoroughly in a bowl because I don't mind the extra dish. :^)
They are delicious as-is, so I will be making them again to sprinkle on salads.
Beth Lee says
I am so glad you found a way to enjoy stuffing your way! That's how I felt years ago when I figured out to make these. Love your use of seasoning and yes, these would work wonderfully as croutons too. Brilliant! Have a delicious holiday.
Linda Clifford says
Do you toast before you freeze? Then do you thaw out?
Beth Lee says
Yes Linda, I would prepare them as though you were going to use them immediately, so definitely go ahead and toast/bake them. Then let them cool and then freeze. Then they can go straight from freezer to your stuffing mixture. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Shadi Hasanzadenemati says
I was looking for a recipe like this, thank you for sharing!
Gloria says
I need to give this a try. Sometimes I cannot find them in the store. This will solve the problem.
Crystal says
Thoroughly enjoyed enjoyed this recipe, I've made it twice and both times using gluten free white bread and poultry season in place of the sage because I didn't have any on hand. Thank you, I will never ho back to store bought.
Gina says
Never thought making my own stuffing cubes until I saw this recipe. Tried it for Thanksgiving and it will now be my go-to way of making stuffing. Great recipe and easy to make!
Beth Lee says
Thanks Gina - it's so easy but so elevated my stuffing game when I started doing it! Glad you found it to be the same!
Karen Carmody says
Thank you so much for this recipe. I used Keto bread so I was able to make a more keto friendly stuffing for Thanksgiving.
Beth Lee says
Yay! I am so glad. It's so easy to do but really elevates the final stuffing doesn't it?