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Meet your must-have Christmas side dish! Homemade Stuffing with sausage meat, apricots and chestnuts. It’s SO GOOD, it’ll be the star of the show! Also perfect for a special roast dinner at any time of year.
What’s your favourite Christmas lunch side dish? After roast potatoes (OBVIOUSLY), Stuffing is mine.
For me, it should be super tasty, with the texture of intensively savoury sausage meat, but added fruity bits and a crunchy top.
This recipe is so easy AND you can prep it ahead of time, leaving you precious time in the kitchen when it’s all going on!
It’s a lovely addition to have ready in your freezer too for special dinners throughout the year. And it’s equally good (perhaps even better?) sliced cold in a sandwich the next day.
Super simple but super special too – you can’t say fairer than that for a humble side dish!
Why you’ll love this easy Stuffing recipe
⭐️ So quick and easy to whip up
⭐️ Fruity and full of flavour
⭐️ Easy to make in advance
Sarah’s Notes
For me, Christmas dinner (and every dinner) is all about getting the most out of the corners we can cut and easy wins we can take while making the best meal we can.
This Christmas Stuffing recipe ticks that box. Growing up in the 80s, the stuffing most often known to me came from a box. This is something entirely different.
I wanted to come up with a delicious and special side dish but an achievable one, which is why I’ve made sure this can be made ahead of time AND is freezer-friendly.
I hope you love it!
Homemade Stuffing recipe Ingredients
- Butter – Go for unsalted butter for this
- Onion – This will need to be peeled and finely chopped
- Sausages – You favourite good quality ones with a high meat content, or go for the equivalent weight in sausage meat, which is often found in supermarkets and butchers around Christmas
- Dried apricots – These will need quartering
- Chestnuts – The peeled, vacuum-packed type that are cooked, also readily available at Christmas
- Breadcrumbs – I like Panko for this recipe
- Fresh sage – Finely chopped up
- Sea salt
How to make stuffing
1. Dice and start to fry your onions in butter.
2. Keeping frying until the onions and butter are nicely soft.
3. Add the butter and onions to the rest of ingredients and mix well (you may need to use clean hands for this job!)
4. Spoon the mixture into a shallow dish and bake as per the recipe below until cooked through.
How to make stuffing ahead of time
Follow the recipe to step 4. Cover and put it in the fridge for up to 48 hours.
When you’re ready, cook as per step 5, but be aware it may take an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven if it’s come straight out of the fridge.
To make even further ahead of time…
Alternatively, make the recipe to step 4, cover and freeze for up to 1 month. Allow it to defrost fully before baking as from step 5.
Substitutions
- Dried fruit – You can swap the apricots and chestnuts for other dried fruit if you prefer. It is what gives this stuffing its gorgeous texture though!
- Dried sage – You can use this instead of fresh, but add it in with the onions and butter when you’re frying, so it softens
Leftovers
In the fridge You can keep this recipe in the fridge for up to 3 days.
How do you reheat it? It’s fine to eat leftover stuffing cold, or you can reheat it thoroughly, covered in the oven or microwave, before serving.
Can you freeze Stuffing? Wait until it’s totally cold and then put into a freezer-proof container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before reheating.
More Christmas Side dishes…
Side Dishes
Braised Red Cabbage {with Apple}
Christmas Recipes
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Chestnuts {EASY RECIPE}
Christmas Recipes
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Christmas Recipes
Vegetarian Gravy {Make Ahead Recipe}
FAQs
Use any good quality sausages you and your family enjoy which have a high meat content. I tend to use a fairly plain pork ones without too many other flavourings as we are adding lots in the recipe.
You can also use the equivalent weight of sausage meat from the supermarket or butchers, which is usually readily available around Christmas time.
I have to say I’ve never bothered with stuffing the turkey itself, as I very much like the crunchy edges this stuffing gets as it cooks in its own dish.
You could do if you wanted to though. It’s a traditional way to do a turkey but it’s also lot of faff!
While we don’t really use stuffing to actually ‘stuff’ a meat cavity to cook anymore, it is still a hugely popular side dish because it’s so delicious.
Traditionally we eat it on our main Christmas lunches alongside Roast Turkey and Cranberry Sauce but we can also have it as part of any roast dinner the rest of the year – or even on its own! And leftovers are perfect in sandwiches.
Serve this next to some other festive (or non-festive) sides, such as sprouts, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese or carrots and parsnips.
Make sure your sausage meat is gluten free, and use gluten free Panko breadcrumbs to make this gluten free Stuffing.
In the UK, this is traditionally known as a Christmas side dish or literally ‘stuffing’ for the turkey, and the classic version is with sausage meat and herbs.
In the US, it’s traditionally enjoyed at both Christmas and Thanksgiving, and is more generally a bread-based side dish flavoured with herbs and other vegetables. It is known is some regions as ‘dressing’ too.
This serves roughly 6 people, depending on the portions you serve. Feel free to double it or reduce it, but keep an eye on it as cooking times will vary from this recipe.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
The Best Stuffing Recipe {with Sausage Meat}
Ingredients
- 25 g Unsalted butter
- 1 Onion, Peeled and finely chopped
- 450 g Pork sausages, Or 8 sausages
- 50 g Dried apricots, Quartered
- 90 g Cooked chestnuts (the vacuum-packed type), Roughly chopped
- 50 g Breadcrumbs, Such as Panko
- 10 g Fresh sage, Finely chopped
- Sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ fan/200℃/Gas Mark 6.
- Put the butter and onion in a small frying pan over a medium heat and cook for 5-10 minutes until slightly softened but not coloured.
- Remove the skins of the sausages – cutting along the long edge of each sausage and then turning them inside out – and discard the skins. Put the sausage meat in a large bowl with the cooked onion (and the butter it cooked in) and all the remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed (you may need to use clean hands!).
- Spoon the mixture into a shallow ovenproof dish (don't smooth the top, as the lumps and bumps given a good texture).
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, until cooked through and golden on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi. Love the look of this recipe but I’ve got 17 people coming for Xmas dinner so want to prepare this stuffing early. Can I freeze it?
Just made this today as a taste test for Xmas dinner. It’s awesome really very tasty. I followed recipie as it was, but there is room to add anything. But I really like it as is. Thanks. Ceri, Wales UK
Absolutely delicious, made this recipe this evening and it is so tasty. Definitely my new go to stuffing recipe going forward
It’s not over clear ? Presume you skin the sausages and chop finely the chestnuts and apricots
Do u skin the sausages ?
It is clear:
INGREDIENTS – chestnuts (the vacuum-packed type), Roughly chopped
INSTRUCTIONS – Remove the skins of the sausages – cutting along the long edge of each sausage and then turning them inside out – and discard the skins.