I made stuffing using 4 recipes from celebrity chefs — the best used a boxed mix and beat Ina Garten's

• To find the best stuffing recipe, I turned to Ina Garten, Paula Deen, Ree Drummond, Sunny Anderson.
• Anderson's recipe was my favorite because of its mostly savory flavor and easy preparation. 
• Both Deen and Drummond's stuffing required the extra step of baking homemade cornbread.

For many Thanksgiving menus, stuffing is a must — but the countless recipes and techniques can make this Turkey Day staple feel overwhelming. 

In search of the best stuffing recipe, I turned to celebrity chefs Ina Garten, Paula Deen, Ree Drummond, and Sunny Anderson. Here's how their recipes stacked up. 

Garten's herb-and-apple stuffing features plenty of fresh ingredients

Unlike the other recipes I tested, Garten's requires only one type of bread — baguettes — which made it easier to prepare.

I also appreciated the addition of fresh herbs but was unsure how I'd like the apples and almonds combined with the savory onions and celery. This recipe yields a huge portion, so I cut it in half.

This stuffing was quite easy to make

Overall, the process was pretty simple. While drying the bread in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, I sautéed the veggies, apples, and herbs in a saucepan with butter.

Once the mixture was combined, I poured it and the vegetable stock over the bread cubes.

This recipe calls for cooking the filling inside a turkey cavity for two-and-a-half hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

I wasn't making a bird for this taste test, so I baked the stuffing at the same temperature in a shallow dish for an hour instead. 

I enjoyed the apples but not the almonds

The final dish was pretty crispy and golden on top, but its center looked less appetizing. 

The texture was OK and the insides definitely seemed soggy. I probably could've avoided this by adding a little less broth than instructed. 

Next time, I'd definitely omit the nuts. I used slivered almonds, and their crunchiness, size, and shape threw off the dish's overall texture. The crusty breaded exterior was delicious and added all of the crunch this dish needed. 

I could definitely taste the rosemary, and I actually enjoyed the apples, which gave the stuffing a slight sweetness that balanced the other savory flavors.

Deen's recipe calls for a lot of butter and homemade cornbread

In true Deen fashion, this stuffing calls for a full stick of butter. 

I was also unsure about the mixture of carbs here — saltine crackers, white bread, and cornbread, which I made from scratch using Deen's recipe.

My stuffing mix ended up with too much broth, some of which I had to carefully pour out before baking

For the carbs, I started by making the cornbread — a quick and easy process that resulted in a savory, slightly dense dish — and dried white-bread slices in the oven.

I then sautéed the veggies with the stick of butter and mixed all of the prepared ingredients in a bowl. 

When adding the vegetable stock, I stopped after about five cups because the mixture looked far too soggy already. I was shocked the recipe asked for seven cups.

Still concerned about the texture, I poured out more broth before adding five eggs to the mix.

I then transferred everything into a shallow, glass baking dish. It took about an hour in the oven for the mix to really crisp up.

The flavor was fine, but the texture was disappointing

The top was slightly golden, but it didn't get as crispy as the other recipes I tested. 

When I took a bite, I found the interior was far too soggy — there was definitely too much broth, and the crackers turned mushy after absorbing the liquid. 

The flavor was OK — very savory and buttery — but the extra-soggy texture was not appetizing. 

If I made this again, I'd swap some of the crackers for more bread and put way fewer cups of broth.  

Drummond's stuffing recipe requires 3 kinds of bread

The Pioneer Woman's recipe calls for a lot of bread — three different types, including homemade cornbread. Because I already had the ingredients needed to make Deen's cornbread, I used that option for this dish as well. 

In addition to a large amount of bread, this recipe also requires a lot of parsley.

The process involved making cornbread and carefully ladling broth onto the cubed carbs

I noticed a little too late that I was supposed to dry the bread out for one to two days, but I threw it in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes and it still firmed up really well. 

In general, this recipe had a similar process to the other two, from making the cornbread and dehydrating the other carbs to sautéeing the veggies. 

The recipe instructed me to add six cups of broth to the sautéed vegetables, then ladle this mixture onto the tossed bread cubes until they were soaked to my liking.

I preferred this approach, as it was easier to control and prevent the stuffing from becoming soggy. 

My stuffing took about 40 minutes in the oven — not the 20 to 30 minutes the recipe called for — but the extra time helped it achieve a crisp, golden top.

The flavor would've been better with less celery

Although the stuffing was toasty on top, it still looked soggy inside.

However, upon tasting it, the dish's flavor and texture weren't bad at all. The center was slightly soggy but not overwhelmingly so, and the extra-crispy top helped balance the texture. 

My only issue with this recipe was it had way too much celery. I'm not a fan of it in general, but I can tolerate it in moderate amounts — still, almost every bite tasted strongly of it. 

That said, the savory, herby bites with minimal celery were delicious. 

Anderson's stuffing recipe has 4 flavor combinations to choose from

Anderson's simple and quick recipe combines store-bought stuffing mix with sautéed veggies, broth, and herbs to make it taste homemade. 

I swapped turkey stock for vegetable broth since I don't eat meat products, and I left out the thyme as a personal preference. 

Anderson also shared four add-on combinations to give the dish more flavor — sausage and bell peppers, oysters and hard-boiled eggs, walnuts and apples, and sautéed fennel bulb and dried apricots. I opted for the last combo. 

Most of the prep work involved chopping veggies

This recipe was quick to put together. For the base, I just dumped the stuffing mix into a bowl and added freshly chopped parsley. 

I got to work mincing the garlic and chopping the onion, celery, fennel bulb, sage, and dried apricots. Then I cooked the veggies, sage, garlic, salt, and pepper in a pan until the mix started to soften.

After combining the sautéed mixture with the boxed stuffing and vegetable broth, I mixed in the dried apricots and pressed everything down into a glass baking dish. 

I covered the whole thing with foil and let it bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, I removed my foil and cooked it for an additional 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

The stuffing turned out crispy and flavorful

I was worried this recipe would turn out too soggy since it's meant to be a wet dressing, but it actually baked up really well. It came out of the oven with a soft, almost creamy center and an extra-crispy exterior. 

The sautéed veggies created a very savory flavor profile, and I couldn't even taste the celery. 

I was also a little unsure about the apricots, but they added a touch of sweetness and melt-in-your-mouth texture. 

Anderson's easy stuffing was my favorite, but all of these recipes would be worth making again with a few tweaks

If I had to choose a favorite, I'd go for Anderson's unique stuffing.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the fennel-and-apricot combination — it added an interesting twist to the dish but still felt traditional. Plus, this recipe was the quickest and easiest to make.

I also loved the flavor of Garten's herby stuffing with rosemary and apple, but next time, I'd leave out the almonds and use less broth.

Deen's recipe had an enjoyable savory, buttery flavor, but it needed far less liquid to fix the texture. I think adding more bread would also help. For Drummond's stuffing, I'd use slightly less broth for an even better texture and way less celery to help the flavor of the sautéed veggies and fresh herbs shine.

Click to check out the other celebrity-chef recipes we've put head-to-head so far.

This story was originally published on November 19, 2020, and most recently updated on November 26, 2024.