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
I love this stuffing recipe – I make it with leeks instead of the onion and hot sausage. Perfectly moist and full of veggies!
I lost my mother’s recipe for sage, onion, giblet turkey stuffing and searched and searched online for something similar. Again and again, I end up at Tory Avey’s website. I’m cooking for neighbors who also want to bring back the traditional flavor of what they had as kids when we’re all 58-83 years old now and living independently still. This stuffing recipe brought us all together during social distancing by delivering it to their doors and then we talk on the phone.
I baked two batches, rather than put in a slow cooker, as the oldest neighbor misses crunchiness in her diet, rather than mushy microwaved food.
One thing all mentioned is that they like their carrots separate, not mixed in the recipe. We all wanted only the onion and sage, salt and pepper Challah to be there, with roasted carrots on the side. I used the chopped giblets from making turkey bone broth instead of the vegan sausage and Tory’s recipe helped me get my Mom’s recipe back. I’ll be making another batch without carrots or mushrooms today. Food sharing helps my neighbors in isolation feel a little less anxious about the times we are living in.
Your crunchy potato latkes are next, because she also comes from a semi orthodox family on the East coast and at 83 memories evoked by great food are hugely comforting.
Thank you so much, Tory!
This is such a lovely way to stay connected during this time, Alicia! So happy the recipes are helping.
Second year preparing this recipe on Thanksgiving. Big hit! Love it. I made my own chicken sausage which added some heat.
This recipe is a labor of love I take on every year. The prep time is off by a LOT when you consider how long it takes to chop all the vegetables. Nevertheless, I do it because it is just that delicious and special!
I make almost the exact recipe, but baked – using Ritz Crackers. It is absolutely amazing and guests each year can’t stop talking about it. But I have been making it for so many years. I actually don’t like stuffing much, but since your recipe only subs the challah bread (which is my fav), I am going to make this – it’s just the 2 of us this year. SO, my question is – do you think I can cut this recipe in half? Will it still work?
I think it probably would, Elly. Just keep an eye on liquid levels – it can easily go too soggy if you’re not careful. Add broth slowly, let it soak in for 20 minutes or so, and adjust amounts as needed.
Amazing! Took awhile but it was worth every minute of prep time. I ground kosher chicken and made my own sausage the day before which gave the stuffing a nice kick. We can’t wait to eat the leftovers. I would definitely recommend this and will prepare again next year.
I made this yesterday and it turned into a mushy mess. The flavor was outstanding but way too much broth I guess. I will try to bake it down so its edible for today.
So sorry to hear that Leza! Did you use a large 1 1/2 pound challah? Also, did you add additional broth after the initial 2 1/2 cups in the instructions? If you added the whole quart at once that may have been the problem — you are only supposed to add 2 1/2 cups at first, then more as needed. Either way, sorry it didn’t turn out! I use this recipe every year with my family and never have that issue. I am going to put an extra note in the ingredient section just in case that was the issue, to help others avoid the same mistake in the future.
Made it. Used al fresco chicken sausage and added family favorite chopped dried apricots. Yumminess!
Hi Tori and Ashley,
I print out the recipes I want to use and I’d like to have the color photo, too, but that doesn’t print. Can this be arranged?
Hi Carol, the print recipe button is for readers who requested to print the recipe without photos to save on printer ink. If you would like to print the picture, you can simply use the print function on your browser on the blog page itself. I am not sure we have the functionality to add the photo as optional to the print page, but I will check.
If I make the dried Challah ahead, do I have to freeze it? Doesn’t dried bread stay fresh (mold free) a few days in an airtight container at room temperature? Or doesn’t that apply to an egg bread, like Challah? I was planning to dry the bread a few days before and storing it until use. Somehow, I just don’t trust making the whole stuffing, freezing it, and then cooking it in the slow cooker on that day. I also don’t have much room in my freezer for anything I don’t have to freeze.