Betty Crocker's Classic Bread Turkey Stuffing

By Addie

"This is the stuffing that my mom makes very Thanksgiving, and it's absolutely divine. The holiday just isn't the same without the taste of this dish. The day after it's cooked, it's wonderful cold, too! This recipe makes enough for a 12-pound turkey, about three quarts of stuffing."

Ingredients

• 12 cups bread, cubes ( Mom makes her own sometimes)
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup minced onions
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery, stalks and leaves
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms (optional)
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground sage
• No-salt-added chicken broth (optional)

Preparation

Step 1

In a large, heavy skillet over medium heat melt the butter, then sauté the onion and celery (and mushroom, if using) until the onion is soft, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the salt, pepper, and sage and cook for an additional 3 minutes.

Place the bread cubes into a large, deep bowl.

Pour 1/4 cup of the butter/celery mixture over the cubes and toss well, then repeat steps until all of the butter mixture is used. Toss the cubes thoroughly to coat.

(Regarding the optional chicken broth: for dry stuffing, add little or no liquid; for moist stuffing mix in lightly with fork just enough chicken broth to moisten dry crumbs.) Let cool and use as stuffing for the turkey.

We've made this stuffing in the crockpot, as well, adding the chicken broth for moistness.

Adapted from Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, circa 1950.
....................................

Note: regardling the amount of salt - yes, the amount listed above is correct and is what is listed in the original Betty Crocker recipe. When the butter mixture is first added to the bread, if you taste it at this point it might seem salty (because it is sitting right on the surface of the bread) but remember that the liquid and butter soaks into the bread and redistributes evenly. Also, this recipe, being from the 1950s, is specifically for cooking *inside* the turkey, which a lot of people no longer do, and again the salt will redistribute from the juices in the meat. If you use a crockpot for cooking your stuffing, I'd recommend reducing the amount of salt.

Note #2: again, regarding the salt. You're going to have to decide for yourself about the salt. Having eaten this recipe for every year of my life I know it tastes wonderful as it's written. But that's just me.

..........................

REVIEWS:

Very tasty and very easy to make. The stuffing that came out of my turkey was the first thing on my table to disappear. The only ingredient that I added was leek. 3 stalks, finely chopped and sauteed with the onion. {I love leek and try to use it as often as possible)

Simple. I always hated stuffing until I discovered this recipe! I upped the bread to 16 c., added 1/2 c. of butter, reduced the salt to 2 tsp, dampened with chicken broth, and baked in casserole dishes at 350 for 20-ish minutes. I think next time I'll throw in some poultry seasoning and pork sausage for fun, but it's amazing as is.

I'm Mom, and this is how I make our dressing every year. We now use the crock pot rather than stuffing the turkey, but it still comes out wonderful. If you think your dressing is a bit too dry, try adding a mixture of broth and a little melted butter, mix well, cover, and let it sit for a few minutes before fluffing with a fork for serving. My kids won't let me make stuffing any other way but by using this recipe, and I love it, too.

Made this in the crockpot to accompany a roasted turkey breast recipe. It was fantastic. We loved the addition of baby bella mushrooms and the sage. We'll definitely make this again. Thanks!

This is, like many here, the stuffing that my family has used for 40 years and the only stuffing recipe I use. We do have our own way of making it (of course!), I use a little more butter and blend one egg per loaf of bread used to the broth before I mix it in with the bread. Plus we use A LOT of broth, the stuffing ends up almost being a solid lump of bread that is NOT fluffy at at but it's so good! :)

I have used the Betty Crocker stuffing dressing many times in the past and it is a "keeper". I printed out this one so I could have it handy and not have to get out the big cookbook. The amount of salt was way too much. I used a little over a Tablespoon and the stuffing was so salty that no one ate the stuffing. I got out the Betty Crocker Cookbook and her recipe uses only 2 teaspoons , not 2 Tablespoons. Needless to say, I had to throw all of it out, it was so very inedible!!

I needed a recipe for stuffing "just like mom made" and this was it! The stuffing was delicious! My first thanksgiving turkey and stuffing were a hit!

This is the best stuffing I have had! My husband and daughter have never been fans of stuffing and even they loved it! I agree with cutting the salt down. I use 2 teaspoons - you can always add additional salt later if needed. Thank you for sharing my new go-to stuffing recipe!

I made this for Thanksgiving and it was good but VERY salty! I should have listened to other reviewers & gone with much less salt. But other than that, it was just perfect. Just what I was looking for as a traditional stuffing like my grandma used to make. Sadly, I don't have her recipes, but who knows, maybe she used this one!

Great stuffing!!! Everyone enjoyed very much!!

Did I not add enough broth? Should I have used white bread instead of wheat? I don't know, for some reason it didn't satisfy. Don't get me wrong, it will get eaten. It wasn't bad. But, it didn't have the "wow" factor.

Everything in this recipes is fantastic, but adding one ingredient has made me family adore this for years! Just by adding ground pork sausage, it adds a special amount of spice and complexity to the dish! Thanks for the recipe, and give my idea a try!

Sounds just like my GRANDMA's...except as stated below we use a cream of mushroom soup, poultry seasoning, and 1 baked jiffy cornbread pan. We do not use the broth. But this recipe is great!

I think this is the recipe my mom used to make but she used a can of mushroom soup instead of the mushrooms. It doesn't surprise me as she never used mushrooms! Her stuffing was always very moist. She would add a can of mushroom soup and then water (she never used chicken broth either) to moisten it. I know she used poultry seasoning instead of the sage. Anyway, it's fantastic to find it.

Great stuffing. I did cut down the salt because I used salted butter and the chicken broth also had salt. I did not use mushrooms as I did not have any fresh on hand. I will try with mushrooms next time. Thanks for sharing this great stuffing recipe.

This is the best stuffing recipe ever b/c it is just so basic and simple, the way stuffing should be!! I used less than 1 tablespoon of salt and did not add the mushrooms or sage (personal preference). I stuffed half in the bird and the other half I baked in a casserole dish. The stuffing that came out of the bird was the best in my opinion because it was nice and moist!!

This was excellent. I did not add the salt as i used a broth with salt in it, 2 tablespoons seems like far too much anyway. I will use this recipe again.

Wow this is so good. I've never had stuffing this good, and I love stuffing! I just mixed mine all together and added some broth till moist then heated it in the oven (about fifteen minutes). My six year old just pointed to the screen and said "that is totally awesome". Need I say more?

Can't go wrong with a classic! My mom also made this every year, although she used poultry seasoning instead of the sage. I made mine in the crock pot and realized after 6 hours on low that I put in WAAAYY too much broth. I took it out and baked it for 30 minutes at 400 and it dried out nicely.

So perfect!! Somethings just never change classic stuffing my Mom mad and I have the cookbook that's been passed down for 3 generations now!

I loved this stuffing! I made it in France for 3 people who had never had anything like Turkey and stuffing and they LOVED it. They were eating the stuffing alone after the Turkey was gone. There have been some complaints about the salt, but we all thought it was perfect- guess it depends on how salty you like things. I actually added a little bit of spicy olive oil, which gave it a bit of an extra kick. Thanks for this recipe!

Love this! I followed suggestions of foundajob and worked out well. I used salted butter and then left out the 2 Tbsp of salt. I also started out with over 16 cups of bread crumbs (12 cups from a loaf I left out all night and the broke into pieces in the morning and then 4 from Stove Top). I then increased the chicken broth accordingly. I stuffed my turkey and then baked the rest in a side dish for about the last 25 minutes with my turkey. My family loves stuffing so I didn't want to run out! Thanks again!

I made this as a side dish and simplified it - I sauteed celery and 1 T. of poultry seasoning in 1/2 cup of butter, then added it to 1.5 loaves of cubed white bread. Poured about 1 can of low-sodium chicken broth over it and cooked at 350 for 20 minutes or so. I did NOT use the 2 T. of salt - just used a sprinkle and it came out fine.

I didn't have any unsalted butter, so I did cut back on the salt, quite a bit. I used chicken base which is a little more salty also to make my broth, and made about 3 cups. I used one loaf of whole grain white bread and just air dried overnight to make semi-soft bread croutons, and to use what my Mom had bought, a package of stove-top stuffing bread crumbs (seasoning already added). I didn't use mushrooms either. I also used Poultry Seasoning AND Sage. I just "dampened" the stuffing about 1 1/2 cups, mixed well and then stuffed the Turkey. I added the remaining broth to the bowl of stuffing, and then put it in a small casserole dish (sprayed with non-stick spray). I baked that by itself. I haven't made a more simple stuffing in ages! I usually make an elaborate Oyster stuffing, but decided to keep it simple. It was full of flavor, not too salty and got rave reviews from family. Thanks for the base recipe to follow!

Great recipe. You have to use unsalted butter as the recipe calls for. If you use salted butter, it will be too salty. For the bread I used a combonation of regular sandwich bread, and cornbread for a little texture. I didn't stuff the bird with this, rather, I used the no salt added chicken broth and it turned out very lovely.

WAY too much salt! We had no stuffing at Christmas dinner and threw away the entire casserole because of the 2 TABLEspoons of salt. I questioned that and should have known that you can always add more, but you can't take it out. If I were to make this again, I would use perhaps 1-2 TEAspoons of salt to start and go from there.

I have to say that this recipe definately calls for too much salt. We ended up throwing away all the stuffing because it was soooooo salty. Because of that, I can't really say whether or not it is a good recipe, all I can say is if your making it, I would half the salt content, if not less.

This was so good. Everyone told me it was like GRANDMA'S! That is a compliment. I didn't add mushrooms and I did add 1/2 can of evaporated milk. Thanks!

This is indeed a "classic" recipe which everyone should have tucked away in their cookbooks. It was exactly what I was looking for and was incredibly simple and easy to prepare - thanks for posting :)

Julesong did respond to my concern about a possible misprint on the salt measurement. After checking the recipe, it was confirmed that the recipe is correct in calling for 2 TBLS. of salt. Like I said earlier..I'm a rookie.

Incredible recipe! I made this for Thanksgiving this year and added pork sausage to the recipe. It received rave reviews!

Very good stuffing. I really liked the idea of cooking the stuffing in a crockpot. After stuffing the bird I placed the rest (with one can of chicken broth) in the crockpot, cooked on low and was very happy with the result! As far as the salt amount which one reviewer mentioned I must admit I misread the directions and used a bit under 1 tablespoon, but used the whole amount of sage and pepper. I also used the optional mushrooms. Next time I think I will add a bit of garlic and more onions though and skip the mushrooms. Thanks for sharing!

This is my Mom's dressing exactly, maybe they went to the same school! I have made this stuffing for years, and it is my families favorite- I stuff the bird with one batch, made without the broth, and make an extra batch with the broth and do in a casserole dish, that way there is enough for leftovers!