Perfect Homemade Old-Fashioned Dressing for the Holidays

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Transform your holiday feast into a culinary masterpiece with this mouthwatering Homemade Old-Fashioned Dressing recipe. Your guests will be asking for this flavor packed recipe!

 

There is nothing I look forward to more during the holidays is stuffing or dressing.  I call it stuffing some call it dressing.  Some are very opinionated on what it should be called based on how it’s cooked or served.  We’ll get to that later.  No matter what you call it, that combination of bread, broth, herbs, and spices makes my mouth water every year!

 

My mother, God love her, made a bread dressing.  It was not my favorite thing on the buffet for the holidays.  Everyone else devoured it, but I wanted Stove Top.  I wanted that cornbread dressing with all the sage and spices in there.  For me it’s a texture thing.  The Stove Top, that they would make just for me, had texture. 

 

Mom’s dressing was not.  I don’t remember how she made it, but I don’t think she toasted the bread.  And she used the giblets and other parts to make the broth.  I think the latter is really what set me off as a picky kid eater.

 

 

What is the history of stuffing?

 

While no one really knows when it first became an actual dish, we do know that a similar recipe shows up in a collection of Roman recipes from the 1st century AD.  They used spelt along with herbs, spices, and vegetables to make stuffing for chickens, rabbits, and pigs among their most favorite. 

 

This dish remained popular throughout the centuries and changing names from farce to forcemeat to dressing as we know it today.  Also during this time, the cultures and cuisines shaped the ingredients of today’s recipe leaving the original ingredients a mystery to some.

 

It isn’t a mystery that this dish is synonymous with American holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It’s almost an American tradition that this dish show up on those holiday tables.  Understandably so because this recipe is completely customizable.  Change the bread around.  Change the vegetables around.  Add some beef, pork, or even shellfish to the recipe.  Put a Latin spin with a chorizo dressing.  That’s just a few options for this versatile recipe.

 

 

What’s the difference between dressing and stuffing?

 

When it comes to this recipe, the debate between dressing and stuffing is a topic that can spark passionate discussions among food enthusiasts. While most use these two terms interchangeably, there are subtle differences that can impact the overall taste and texture of the dish. 

 

Dressing is cooked outside of the turkey.  Stuffing is cooked inside the meat.  We rarely stuffed the bird.  It adds to the cooking time.  When you’re cooking a huge turkey and maybe a ham for the large dinner party timing is key.  That’s why we always made dressing in a large, white, enameled pan.  And I had my small bowl of Stove Top.

 

 

What is the secret to making the most delicious homemade dressing?

 

To make the most flavorful and memorable dressing, you need to use a combination of both fresh and dried herbs.  The double whammy of herbaceous goodness makes for the most flavor packed dressing for your holiday table.  Sautéing the fresh herbs with the vegetables gives them amazing flavor.  Then adding dried herbs and spices to the broth brings more flavor to absorb into the bread cubes.

 

Another secret to making a memorable dressing recipe is a drizzle of butter.  When the dressing has baked covered for 40 minutes or so and the cubes are good and moist, that’s when the butter magic happens!  Uncover the dressing and drizzle some melted butter on top and let that bake in for another 10 minutes or so.  That added richness really sets this recipe apart from other dressing recipes.

 

 

Ingredients for this old-fashioned dressing recipe

 

The ingredients are simple and readily available at any grocery store.  Granted, you might want to get the bread cubes now because, from my experience, they usually run out the closer it is to the holidays.

• Pantry – dried bread cubes (I used Pepperidge Farm), chicken broth, rubbed sage, dried thyme, dried rosemary, salt, and pepper
• Produce – cremini mushrooms, onion, celery, fresh sage, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme
• Remaining – melted butter, olive oil

 

Instructions to make this dressing recipe

 

Preheat the oven to 350 F so it’s ready when you are.  While it’s preheating, chop the mushrooms, onions, and celery into a medium dice making sure they’re about the same size so they cook evenly. 

 

 

Next, remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and if the thyme stems are woody, remove the thyme leaves, too.  My thyme had baby stems, so I finely chopped them along with the rosemary leaves.  Roll the sage leaves and chop into a chiffonade and then chop into smaller pieces similar in size to the rosemary and thyme.

 

Sauté the onions and celery with the herbs until the onions begin to soften.  Add the mushrooms and sauté all the vegetables and herbs until the mushrooms are tender.  Toss the vegetables with the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.  Pour the mixture into a 9 x 12 lidded casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray.

 

 

Heat the chicken broth with the dried herbs and spices for 3 minutes in the microwave.  Pour the chicken broth mixture over the bread mixture.  Tightly wrap the casserole with aluminum foil.  Place the lid on top of the foil.  This allows the bread to steam better than just the lid alone, especially if it’s a glass casserole dish.  Bake the dressing at 350 F for 35 to 40 minutes or until the bread is moist and tender.

 

Remove the cover and drizzle the dressing with the melted butter.  Bake the dressing for an additional 10 minutes.  Since we were almost ready to eat, I just turned the oven off and let the dressing continue to cook as the oven cooled. 

 

Can you make this dressing ahead of time?

 

I would definitely sauté the vegetables and herbs ahead of time.  Baking ahead of time might make it a little dry as you reheat it.  However, you could do the initial bake with it covered then remove it to cool.  When you reheat it then you could drizzle the butter on top to keep it from drying out when you reheat it.  When I reheat leftovers I drizzle them with a little broth before putting it in the microwave.

 

 

What does this homemade old-fashioned dressing taste like?

 

Well, it’s not bread paste which I was worried about.  I didn’t want to have a flashback of that one Thanksgiving where I was forced to eat the bread dressing and got sick.  This dressing is packed with herbaceous flavor!  The double whammy of the fresh herbs in the vegetables and the dried herbs in the broth really make sure that every bite is packed with flavor. 

 

Then you taste it.  The richness from the butter drizzle on top.  It’s that umami flavor that really sets this dressing recipe apart from all the others I’ve eaten.  It’s not a lot.  There’s a half cup in this recipe that serves 8.  But that little bit of richness really goes a long way.  I even contemplated using the herb butter in the fridge, but thought it might be a little bit of an herb overkill.  I may try that next time for even more herb flavor in this dressing recipe.

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