Note: I have updated this recipe since originally posting it. I’ve added sausage as an optional ingredient, reduced the amount of olive oil, and improved the cooking method slightly. I highly recommend the sausage, which gives the stuffing a wonderful savory flavor– but if you’d prefer to keep it vegetarian, it’s still a great stuffing without it.
When Thanksgiving rolls around, we expect certain foods to be on the buffet. Like stuffing. Or dressing. Dressing, or stuffing? A stuffing by any other name…
Some people say that it should be called dressing unless it’s cooked inside the bird. But in our family, it’s always been called stuffing, so that’s what I call it. I don’t actually stuff my turkey, though. I follow the Alton Brown school of thought; he stuffs the turkey with aromatics, because he feels that stuffing draws moisture out of the bird (making the meat drier). But everybody expects a little stuffing with their Thanksgiving meal, whether you’re stuffing a turkey or not, so I like to prepare a batch in the slow cooker. This frees up oven space and makes the holiday prep just a little less manic. Knowing that the stuffing is slowly cooking, filling the air with delicious herby aroma, gives me one less thing to worry about.
I make my Thanksgiving stuffing with the ultimate Jewish bread– challah! When cubed and toasted, this eggy bread becomes the perfect sponge for savory chicken broth and herbs. This Challah Slow Cooker Stuffing doesn’t need butter or margarine (and those unnecessary calories) to taste great. It has plenty of flavor and mouth-watering aroma from fresh herbs, a good quality chicken broth, and sautéed vegetables.
Think of this stuffing recipe as a base; you can add unique touches to make it your own. Some people integrate different spices, dried cranberries or roasted turkey giblets. This year I’m thinking about adding some kosher Merguez sausage to mine for a spicy kick!
Tip: If you want an extra savory flavor in the stuffing, omit the 1 tsp salt added with the broth. Instead, dissolve 1 tsp of chicken consomme powder (or a bouillon cube) into the broth before adding to the challah cubes. Taste the stuffing and season with additional salt at the end of cooking, if desired– chicken powder can be quite salty, so be sure to taste and season with care.
So what do you call it… stuffing? Dressing? Or both?
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Challah Slow Cooker Stuffing
Ingredients
- 12 ounces turkey or chicken sausage, ground or removed from casing (optional - omit for vegetarian or vegan)
- 1 large challah (about 1 ½ lbs - use a vegan challah for vegan)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or 6 tbsp if not using sausage)
- 1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 pound celery, peeled and chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped (or 1 ½ tsp dried sage)
- 1 tablespoon fresh marjoram, chopped (or 1 ½ tsp dried marjoram)
- 2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 tsp dried oregano)
- 1 quart chicken broth (you probably will not need all of the broth, start with 2 1/2 cups per instructions below - substitute vegetable broth to make vegetarian or vegan)
- 1 pound sliced white mushrooms
- 2 large eggs, beaten (use 6 tbsp aquafaba for vegan)
- Salt and pepper
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the challah into ½ inch cubes. Spread the cubes out across two baking sheets. Place the trays in the oven for about 12 minutes, switching trays on racks halfway through cooking. The challah cubes should be toasted and slightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high. Add sausage to the pan and cook until browned. Transfer to a bowl using a slotted spoon and reserve for later. If you are not using sausage, see note at the end of this recipe.
- Add the onions, carrots and celery to the same pan and sauté for 5-6 minutes until softened and fragrant. Add garlic and sauté for an additional 2 minutes.
- Pour 2 ½ cups of chicken broth into the pan along with 1 tsp of salt and ½ tsp of black pepper. Remove from heat. Reserve remaining chicken broth.
- Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a clean skillet over medium high heat. Add sliced mushrooms to the skillet. Sauté for 10 minutes, until the mushrooms begin to brown and shrink in size. Remove from heat. You may need to cook the mushrooms in two batches depending on the size of your skillet.
- In a very large mixing bowl, combine challah cubes, sausage, vegetable/chicken broth mixture, mushrooms and herbs. Stir to blend all ingredients, making sure the challah cubes are evenly moistened. Add the beaten eggs to the mixture and stir until they are fully incorporated into the stuffing. The mixture may seem dry now, but wait to add more broth until it’s had a chance to cook—the liquid will slowly be absorbed by the bread.
- Spray the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray; then pour in the challah mixture.Set slow cooker on high heat and cover the pot. Cook for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and stir to redistribute the liquid throughout the stuffing, then check the stuffing for dryness. If it still seems dry, drizzle a little more broth over the top of the stuffing and stir again. Return the lid and reduce heat to low.
- Let cook on low for 4 hours, checking and stirring every hour to make sure the stuffing isn’t too dry. If it is, add more broth—carefully, as it can easily go from the right texture to overly wet and mushy.After 4 hours, stir, taste, and add more salt or pepper, if desired. Switch to warm setting until ready to serve.
- Variation: If you prefer to make your stuffing without sausage, skip that step and begin by first sautéing the onions, carrots and celery in 6 tbsp of olive oil, then continue the recipe as written, omitting the sausage.
Nutrition
Hands down the BEST Thanksgivukkah site anywhere! Thanks so much!
Thanks D-J! 🙂
I don’t like mushrooms. Do you think it would work if I just omitted them? What if I added apples?
You can omit them Joy. I’ve never enjoyed sweet stuff in my stuffing personally, but if you like that sort of thing then the apples might be nice. Totally a personal preference here. 🙂
Well, just made your challah dough, both for Shabbat tonight and TDay. Using your recipe with about 5.5 C of flour – a mix of bread flour, regular and some Whole wheat. My plan is to put one aside to then use for the stuffing.
Should I freeze the challah whole today, then defrost Tues. nite in order to make the challah cubes on Wednesday? Will put the stuffing in slow cooker on Thursday.
Also, did you use a raw type of sausage versus the smoked/sort of pre-cooked chicken sausages? I have never put meat in stuffing but this sounds interesting if it is chicken sausage.
I am planning on using this challah and some real rye bread for the bread cubes. BTW, this stuffing is my favorite…..other than one that I grew up with, a sort of matza meal, potato, oats strange sort of kishke like taste, but have not been able to tastily make it outside of the bird. Have you ever made a kishke stuffing? Thanks, probably too many questions…..
Hi Sharon, sorry for the delayed response. For future reference, freezing the challah ahead of time and defrosting before using it would be fine. I used raw turkey sausage links and removed the meat from the casing before browning in the skillet. You could use any kind of kosher sausage including Merguez for a spicy kick. I have not made a kishke stuffing.
Hi Tori this looks great and I’d love to try but is the sausage optional? or did you just mean it;s option to take it out of the casing. I have a lot of trouble finding chicken or turkey sausage that isn’t in pork casing 🙁
Thanks!
Hi Martha, the sausage is optional. If you’re having trouble locating non-pork sausage, try a kosher market, where all of the sausage sold will be non-pork (both sausage and casing).
I love this idea and plan to use my slow cooker. I don’t love sage; any suggestions for other spices.
My mom used to make the stuffing and put it in the bird. I will cook it on the side, but since she is no longer with me, I need to invent it myself. Never got that recipe.
thanks
This looks so good. Do you think it would be OK to prepare ahead of time, the day before and put in the crockpot the day of?
Hi Lisa, I wouldn’t make all of it ahead due to the fact that eggs are added to the warm mixture, which can cause a food safety concern if not cooked right away. If you want to make some elements of the stuffing a day ahead, toast the challah cubes and chop up your veggies in advance. This will cut the prep time down to only 15-20 minutes.
I call it stuffing when it goes inside a turkey or something else… It is dressing when it is cooked separately! 😉
Making this!!!!
to me it is stuffing, dressing dresses a salad, stuffing use to stuff the bird. I started doing the stuffing in a pan years ago
dressing from the south!
I’m definitely trying this! Thanks for the recipe!
….dressing while it’s on the plate….stuffing after you’ve eaten it! 😀
Stuffing in a bird, always bread based, dressing cooked outside of bird, cornbread based. We always had both, growing up in Texas.
YUMMMMM!
dressing! We make it with cornbread.
In our house, it’s stuffing when cooked inside the bird and dressing when cooked away from the bird.
I saved the recipe
stuffing in the bird –dressing alongside
You bad bad girl. I say that in a good way. I love dressing.
LOL!
Sounds excellent.