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Stuffing Muffins are a delicious and fun rendition of traditional Thanksgiving stuffing. This small batch version is filled with crumbled Italian sausage, toasted sourdough bread, autumnal herbs and chicken broth. Serve it with my classic cranberry sauce, homemade apple pie and caramelized shallot dip.
What Are Stuffing Muffins
Stuffing muffins are traditional Thanksgiving stuffing but in muffin form. It’s a cuter, more fun delivery of our way to eat stuffing. I personally LOVE stuffing and this is just a hand-held delivery of our favorite Thanksgiving side.
I like that they’re sort of crunchy on the outside and soft and moist on the interior. The smell and taste of Thanksgiving is the combination of chicken/poultry with fresh thyme. I love them so much!
Ingredients You’ll Need for Stuffing Muffins
- Bread – I love using a thinly sliced sourdough bread for these. You don’t want the bread cubes to be too big or else they won’t hold together. I also love the flavor of sourdough.
- Celery – We need our favorite duo of celery and onions for these.
- Fresh herbs – In this instance I love using fresh thyme and fresh sage. They are a dynamic duo that we need in our life for stuffing.
- Butter – We can’t have Thanksgiving without butter.
- Chicken broth – good quality chicken broth is going to add to moistness and a delicious flavor to them.
- Egg – We need this to bind the cubes of stuffing together.
For the rest of the ingredients, please see the recipe card at bottom of this post.
How to Make Stuffing Muffins
- Start by toasting the bread. I love buying sour dough that’s sliced because it ends up being the perfect small cube. Very ideal! And the sourdough adds a nice dimension of flavor.
- Cook the Italian sausage in the pan until it’s browned. Remove it and then add the onions and celery. We really want to slowly cook these so they melt into the olive oil. Add the sage and thyme. Then add the salt and pepper. I like to add a decent amount of pepper in these muffins because I think it adds a nice flavor.
- In a big bowl, add the cubed bread, the onion mixture, the crumbled and cooked sausage and then mix it all together. We are going to taste test it right now for salt BEFORE we add the egg. Important step! Add the appropriate amount of salt to taste.
- And then add in the beaten egg. This will help bind the muffins. Give it a good mix and then pack the muffin tins with the stuffing mixture.
- I ended up with 9 stuffing muffins.
- Transfer to the oven to bake. When they’re all done, run a butter knife along the inside edge of the muffin tin and remove them. Serve them warm!
How to Make Stuffing Muffins
- Start by toasting the bread. I love buying sour dough that’s sliced because it ends up being the perfect small cube. Very ideal! And the sourdough adds a nice dimension of flavor.
- Cook the Italian sausage in the pan until it’s browned. Remove it and then add the onions and celery. We really want to slowly cook these so they melt into the olive oil. Add the sage and thyme. Then add the salt and pepper. I like to add a decent amount of pepper in these muffins because I think it adds a nice flavor.
- In a big bowl, add the cubed bread, the onion mixture, the crumbled and cooked sausage and then mix it all together. We are going to taste test it right now for salt BEFORE we add the egg. Important step! Add the appropriate amount of salt to taste.
- And then add in the beaten egg. This will help bind the muffins. Give it a good mix and then pack the muffin tins with the stuffing mixture.
- I ended up with 9 stuffing muffins.
- Transfer to the oven to bake. When they’re all done, run a butter knife along the inside edge of the muffin tin and remove them. Serve them warm!
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely. Simply use veggie broth instead of chicken broth and leave out the Italian sausage. It’ll still taste delicious.
Thanksgiving is the holiday of reheating things. I understand. We’re all trying to time manage correctly. I like to make these and keep them covered in foil before serving. You can loosely wrap them in foil and pop them in a 300F oven to warm them up.
Tips and Tricks Â
- Prep the bread the day before – If you want to divide the work between days, you absolutely can cube up the bread and bake it the day before. Simply leave it out on the counter and assemble the next day.
- Different fillings – I wouldn’t get too wild with the additions because you really do want them to hold together but feel free to add bacon or pancetta in place of the Italian sausage.
What To Serve with Stuffing Muffins
I love making these for my Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving. These definitely should be served with these T-Day favorites:
- Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Salted Honey Parker House Rolls
- Caramelized Shallot Dip
- Basque Cheesecake
- Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie
If you tried these Stuffing Muffins or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Stuffing Muffins
Ingredients
- 6 1/2 cups white bread, cubed (about 1 loaf)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 5 ounces Italian sausage, removed from casing
- 1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
- 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
- Kosher salt
- 6 large fresh sage leaves, minced
- 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Thoroughly butter or grease the muffin tin and set aside.
- In a single layer, place the bread cubes on a sheet pan and bake for 10 minutes, or until barely toasted. Remove and set aside.
- In a medium skillet, set over medium heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the Italian sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Cook it until browned and thoroughly cooked, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the pan and transfer to a small bowl.
- Turn the heat to medium-low and if needed, add a teaspoon or two more of olive oil. Add the diced onion and celery, adding a few pinches of salt and cook until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the sage and thyme and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, along with a few more pinches of salt and about 10 rounds of freshly ground pepper.
- Add the toasted bread crumbs to a large bowl, along with the Italian sausage, cooked onion mixture and chicken broth; mix it until thoroughly combined. Do a taste test? Does it need a bit more salt? If it’s good, pour in the beaten eggs and mix one last time until combined.
- Using a tablespoon, transfer mounds of the stuffing mixture to each muffin tin. Be sure to tightly pack the stuffing in each of the muffin cups. This will make sure the mixture adheres to itself and the muffins don’t fall apart. You’ll end up with 9 stuffing muffins.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until top is browned. To remove, take a butter knife and go around each of the stuffing muffins’ outer edge. Using your knife, gently lift it up out of the muffin tins. Serve warm.
Notes
- To Make Ahead – Thanksgiving is the holiday of reheating things. I understand. We’re all trying to time manage correctly. I like to make these and keep them covered in foil before serving. You can loosely wrap them in foil and pop them in a 300F oven to warm them up.Â
- Variations – If you want to make these vegetarian, simply skip the Italian sausage and use organic vegetable broth.Â
- Different fillings – I wouldn’t get too wild with the additions because you really do want them to hold together but feel free to add bacon or pancetta.Â
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I think I would eat those all day long, everyday! haha
Chipped nail polish aside, your stuffing muffins are adorable, so your mission to make things cute was successful!! They also look good enough to eat, right out of the screen that is.
Girl am I happy to have stumbled upon your blog. For a while now I am so amazed by your way of cooking and pardon me but do you live in my head?
To vary our not so amazing food palette here on Cape Verde islands (scarce resources and nearly 85% is imported) I give simply recipes a tweak by adding more spice (HARISSA of course) or a whole new ingredient like pears in a zucchini soup …
After reading your blog for the past month I was like pleasantly surprised how you work with the food and then I started to think what would she do with X and then you come up with the idea a day or so later! Must be a telepathic thingy going on here 😉 It all started with your bean and carrots fries post.
Now last weekend I baked salty muffins for our beach-apero picnic : goat cheese, ham, persil in cute christmas tree silicon muffin mold. Although I am not a big plastic lover I adore the silicon molds … oh so easy and simple
These muffins were great and I baked another batch and froze them. Yesterday I defrost one, cut it into cubes and made croutons out of them …mmmmh
Today you come with these stuffing muffins … EXCELLENT!
Btw I’m a pragmatic girl with my hair, make-up and nails: hair the most natural possible (I love my grey and white hairs), make-up in this heat no way!!!, nails no polish ever sticks to them and it chips right after it was put on so … no polish for me but I have one great polish friend 😉
Maybe tonight I will try your dog treat recipe as I have an oh so cute doggy and I wanna treat her with just the best! I will tweak the recipe a little and let you know about the outcome!
I love everything about this entire comment. xo
As promised I tried the dog treat recipe! I tweak it as I couldn’t find any peanut butter so I used chocolate/hazelnut spread and instead of the chicken broth I minced a can of chicken luncheon meat with water!
Fuffi loves them …. she even digged one away at the beach on Saturday so they must be worth saving!
A propos polish … I had a friend to visit over the weekend and we had our nails done at the local market. Paid less then a $ do get funny colors and a few flower designed on the big toes! On the fingers already chipped off on feet still doing fine !
xoxo
No offense, but why in the world would someone use Nutella in dog treats? Really? And I do realize this post is two years old.
Also, no offense, but chocolate is actually BAD for dogs.
PERFECT for my company Thanksgiving potluck tomorrow…in the oven as we speak!
YAY!
These make me wish it was Thanksgiving again so I could make them. Such an awesome idea!
Oh. My. God. I have to make these…now. PS – not like you need ANY help bringing the yum-yum-delish magic for Thanksgiving, but I made these last year and they were a. maze. balls:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/stuffed-mushrooms-recipe/index.html
Giada smiles too much, but I kind of have a crush on her anyway. MOOTS-arella. xo!
Oh my mother makes that exact recipe EVERY year. I looooove it.
Any thoughts on changes you would have if using cornbread…perhaps more stock?
Yes! I thought of making these cornbread stuffing muffins. I’d recommend using 4 cups cubed cornbread and 2 1/2 cup cubed white bread. Toast it the same exact way. And yes, you might need 1/2 cup MORE broth since cornbread is drier. I’d just add 1/4 cup at a time and see where you end up. You’ll know you’re there when the stuffing starts to get moist and sticks to itself. 🙂
Oh no!!! This close to Thanksgiving and you throw this out there…we are going to have WAY too much food on our table this year. This look so yummy!! They definitely are giving me ideas on ways to enjoy other stuffing recipes I enjoy!
And I won’t judge your nail polish – I’m pretty jealous that you can keep it on as long as you do! Mine chips the minute I leave the salon. At this point in life, I’ve given up…
Thanks for sharing!!
Ohhh… I love the stuffing bundles – – baking them in the muffin dish is amazing for portion control (lol especially since I can see myself eating about 5 :$) – – great recipe.
Great idea, these would be so much nicer on a holiday plate than a big glob of stuffing that comes out of a turkey ( which when you think about it is kind of disgusting).