Try these Stuffing Recipes from Popular Chefs + Photos

• I have tried to stuff dishes prepared by famous chefs Ina Garden, Paula Deen and Ree Drummond.
• Anderson’s recipe is my favorite due to its savory flavor, easy preparation, and delicious taste.
• Drummond and Deen’s stuffing required extra baking of homemade cornbread.

Stuffing is an essential part of many Thanksgiving menus. However, the multitude of recipes and techniques available can make it feel overwhelming.

I looked up celebrity chefs Ina Garden, Paula Deen and Ree Drummond to find the best stuffing.

Find out how the stuffings are stacked.

Garden’s herb and apple stuffing is full of fresh ingredients

This recipe is different from the others I tried. Garten’s requires only one type of bread — baguettes — which made it easier to prepare.

I enjoyed the fresh herbs, but I was not sure how I would like the apples and the almonds with the celery and savory onions.

I cut this recipe in half because it makes a large amount.

It was easy to make this stuffing

The process was fairly straightforward.

While drying the bread in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, I sautéed the veggies, apples, and herbs in a saucepan with butter.

After the mixture was well combined, I placed the vegetable stock and it over the bread cubes.

This recipe calls for cooking the filling inside a turkey cavity for two-and-a-half hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit — however, I wasn’t making a bird for this taste test, so I baked the stuffing at the same temperature in a shallow dish for an hour instead.

Although the cooking of the onions, celery and apples was the most difficult part, it only took 10 minutes.

I found that the addition of apples was more enjoyable than the almonds.

Although the final dish was crispy on the top and deliciously golden, it was not as appealing in its center when I took a bite out of the pan.

The texture was OK — the insides were definitely soggy, but not terrible. This could be solved by adding a little more broth.

Next time, I’d definitely skip the nuts. I used slivered almonds. Because of their size, crunchiness, and shape, they affected the overall texture of the dish.

The crusty breaded exterior was delicious, and it added all the crunch that this dish needed.

I could taste the rosemary and the apples gave the stuffing a subtle sweetness that balanced out the other savory flavors.

Deen’s recipe calls to make a lot of butter, homemade cornbread and a lot more butter.

True Deen fashion This stuffingIt is necessary to use a whole stick butter.

I was also unsure about the mixture of carbs here — saltine crackers, white bread, and cornbread, which I made from scratch using Deen’s recipe.

My stuffing ended up having too much broth. Some of it I had to carefully pour before baking.

For the carbs, I started by making the cornbread — which was a quick and easy process that resulted in a savory, slightly dense dish — and dried the white bread slices in the oven.

I then sautéed the veggies with the stick of butter and mixed all of the prepared ingredients in a bowl.

I stopped adding vegetable stock after 5 cups, as the mixture was already too soggy. Concerned about texture, I added five eggs to the mix.

Then I transferred the mixture into a small, glass baking dish. For the mixture to crisp up, it took around an hour in the oven.

Although the flavor was good, the texture was terrible.

Although it was lightly golden, the top didn’t turn out as crisp as some of my other tested recipes.

When I took a bite, I noted the interior was far too soggy — there was definitely too much broth, and the crackers turned mushy after absorbing the liquid.

The flavor was OK — very savory and buttery — but the extra-soggy texture was not appetizing.

I would make it again with more crackers and less broth.

Drummond’s stuffing recipe uses 3 kinds of bread

The Pioneer Woman’s recipe calls for a lot of bread — three different types, including homemade cornbread. Deen’s cornbread recipe was already available to me so I made that version.

This recipe requires a lot more parsley than a large amount.

This involved making cornbread, and then carefully pouring broth onto the cubed carbs.

I realized a bit too late that the bread should be dried for at least one to two days. However, I baked the bread for 15 minutes at 300 F.

In general, this recipe had a similar process to the other two, from making the cornbread and dehydrating the other carbs to sautéeing the veggies.

The recipe instructed me to add 6 cups of broth to the sautéed vegetables, then ladle this mixture onto the tossed bread cubes until they were soaked to my liking.

This method was more convenient for me, since it made it easier to control the stuffing and prevented it from getting too wet.

My stuffing took around 40 minutes to bake in the oven, instead of the 20-30 minutes it called for. But the extra time allowed it reach a crisp, golden crust.

It would have been more flavorful if there was less celery

Even though the stuffing was nicely browned on the top but not burned, it still looked stale inside when I ate a portion.

The dish’s texture and flavor were actually very good, according to my taste buds. The texture was balanced by the extra-crispy topping and a slightly soggy center.

This recipe had too much celery. I’m not a fan of the vegetable in general, but I can tolerate it in moderate amounts — still, almost every bite tasted strongly of it.

The bites made with little celery were still delicious with a savory, herby taste.

Anderson’s stuffing recipe has 4 flavors to choose from

Anderson’s This recipe is simple and fast combines store-bought stuffing mix with sautéed veggies, broth, and herbs to make it taste homemade.

Since I don’t like meat products, I switched to vegetable broth and the thyme was left out.

Anderson also offers four add-on combinations to give the dish more flavor — sausage and bell peppers, oysters and hard-boiled eggs, walnuts and apples, and sautéed fennel bulb and dried apricots. The last combination was what I chose.

The prep work consisted mainly in chopping vegetables

This recipe was easy to prepare. I used the stuffing mixture as the base and then added the freshly chopped parsley.

I set to work chopping the onion, celery and fennel bulbs, as well as the sage and dried apricots. This step was the most time-consuming, aside from the baking part.

Next, I sauteed the vegetables, garlic, salt and salt in a large pan until they softened.

After combining the sautéed mixture with the boxed stuffing and vegetable broth, I mixed in the dried apricots and pressed everything down into a glass baking dish.

I wrapped the whole thing in foil and baked it at 350°F for 45 mins. After that, I removed the metal top and cooked it for another 15 minutes at 400°F.

The stuffing was delicious and crispy.

This recipe was not meant to be too wet, so I was concerned it would become too watery. However, it baked really well. It emerged from the oven with a soft and almost creamy center, and a crispy exterior.

The sautéed veggies made for a very savory flavor profile, and I couldn’t even taste the celery.

Apricots were also something I was uncertain about. However, they added a bit of sweetness to my meal and made it taste great.

Anderson’s easy stuffing is my favorite. However, all of these recipes are worth trying again with a few tweaks

Anderson’s unique stuffing would be my choice if I had a choice.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the fennel-and-apricot combination — it added an interesting twist while remaining true to the traditional dish. This recipe was easy and quick to prepare.

Garten’s herb-stuffed apple with rosemary and apple was also delicious. However, I would use less broth and leave out the almonds next time.

Deen’s recipe has a pleasant savory, buttery flavour, but it needs far less stock for texture. It would be a good idea to add more bread than as many crackers.

For Drummond’s stuffing, I’d use slightly less broth for an even better texture and way less celery to help the flavor of the sautéed veggies and fresh herbs shine.

Click here to see the celebrity-chef recipes that we have compared so far.