Cranberry Pecan Stuffing

Cranberry Pecan Stuffing is a twist on the classic stuffing recipe. This version gets a slightly sweeter and crunchier makeover with the addition of dried cranberries and toasted pecans. It's perfect for your Thanksgiving table or as a fall and winter side dish!

Update: This recipe was originally shared in November 2018. The recipe and photos have been updated as of November 2020.

Up until a few years ago, I'd only had one type of stuffing on Thanksgiving - the old-fashioned celery and onion kind, made with stale sandwich bread. Of course, I knew that stuffings could also be made with ingredients like pecans, walnuts, oysters, sausage, cranberries, etc., but I had never made one. Thankfully THAT has changed!

Stuffing, the Thanksgiving side dish

Whether you call it stuffing or dressing and whether you serve it in the turkey or outside, it's pretty much a given side dish on any Thanksgiving table. It's the ultimate comfort food, right? Who doesn't love flavorful, seasoned and toasted bread?

🥘 Ingredients for this recipe

• white bread, toasted
• celery
• onions
• dried cranberries
• vegetable broth
• pecans, chopped and toasted
• fresh sage
• salt and pepper
• butter

🔪Instructions for this recipe

• Toast the bread and pecans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place pieces of bread on top. Toast both sides of the bread, then remove the bread and add the pecans. Toast those. Cut or tear bread into bite sized pieces. Roughly chop pecans.
• Plump up the cranberries and cook the veggies. Soak dried cranberries in chicken broth to plump them back up. Melt butter in a skillet and cook celery and onions until soft. Stir in salt, pepper and half of the fresh sage.
• Assemble the dish. Drain cranberries from stock. Discard stock. In a large bowl combine bread, pecans, celery and onion mixture and cranberries. Pour vegetable stock on top and toss to combine. Press into a greased 8x8 baking dish.
• Bake the stuffing. Sprinkle remaining sage on top of the dish and bake for 25 minutes or until slightly crunchy on top.

Tips and Tricks for the best stuffing

• What kind of bread to use for stuffing? I've tried nearly every type of bread in stuffing recipes - Italian, french, sandwich and even brown-and-serve dinner rolls. Sandwich bread will give you denser stuffing as the bread is thinner. Thicker sliced bread will give you an airier, fluffier stuffing. However, the best bread is stale bread. If you don't have time to wait for it to get stale, you can toast it, like I did in this recipe.
• Can you make stuffing ahead of time? Yes! Stuffing can be assembled and refrigerated for 2 days before baking. Let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes before baking.
• How to freeze stuffing: Prepare and assemble the stuffing, then freeze it for 2-3 weeks. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight, then rest on the counter 30 minutes before baking.
• My stuffing is dry. If you stuffing looks dry before you bake it, add additional broth. It should look moist but not soggy. If you've already baked it, you can still add more broth and return it to the oven, or just double your batch of gravy and serve that on top.
• Do you cook stuffing covered? No, you want the top layer of the bread to get toasted and crispy, not get soggy, which it could do from the steam getting trapped between the dish and cover.

Serving Suggestions for cranberry pecan stuffing

Of course stuffing goes great with turkey, like my Cajun Roasted Turkey Breast or Brown Sugar-Cured Turkey with Apple Bourbon Gravy but it also goes well with pork, like my Pork Loin with Cranberry Sauce or a baked ham.

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