This butternut squash stuffing is the perfect side dish for your Thanksgiving meal! With baked apples, fresh sage, and all the other fresh fall flavors, you'll love this tasty homemade twist on a classic.
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📋 About the Recipe
- This baked butternut squash and apple stuffing has all the delicious flavors of fall in one dish! From fresh sage and thyme, to juicy apples, and toasted pecans, it's a wonderful side dish to celebrate the harvest season.
- Homemade recipes always taste better than store-bought, and this made from scratch stuffing is no different! Ditch the dry store-bought stuffing mix and start making your stuffing from scratch with fresh ingredients. You'll definitely taste a difference!
- This recipe combines both sweet and savory flavors. The butternut squash, apples, and cranberries are all slightly sweet, while the onions, celery, and herbs provide touches of savory. The best balance for a hearty holiday meal!
- This is an easy holiday dish that's perfect for a crowd. Serve it up on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any day of the week, along with some other fall side dish favorites: maple cinnamon roasted butternut squash, roasted asparagus and brussels sprouts, fall cobb wedge salad, garlic mashed potatoes, and apple arugula salad.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Challah - challah is a braided Jewish egg bread that's airy in texture and slightly sweet in flavor. You can find it in the bakery section of your local grocery store or at a Jewish bakery. Make sure to buy a whole loaf of challah, not a pre-sliced loaf.
- Butternut squash - butternut squash is a sweet and savory squash that's perfect for baking. It becomes perfectly fork tender, just make sure to cut it into ½ inch cubes so it cooks properly in the amount of time.
- Leeks - leeks are part of the onion family with a slightly milder flavor. They look like large green onions (or scallions) and can be found in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Make sure to slice the leeks, separate the layers, and wash them thoroughly.
- Apples - apples add a sweet and semi-tart element to the butternut squash stuffing. Use any kind of apples you like best.
- Turkey gravy - turkey gravy is a great addition as it gives the stuffing that delicious poultry flavor without being stuffed inside a turkey! If you don't have turkey gravy, use extra broth instead.
📓 Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Set it aside.
2. Cube the bread into ½ inch cubes. Roughly chop the pecans. Add bread and pecans to a sheet pan and toast in the oven for about 15 minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn.
3. Remove the sheet pan from the oven and increase the temperature to 350 degrees F.
4. Chop the butternut squash into ½ inch cubes, apples, onion, celery, and leeks. Place the leeks in a colander and wash them thoroughly, as they are usually very sandy and dirty.
5. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions for about 5 minutes. Add in the leeks, apples, and celery. Stir to combine. Cook until they start to soften, about 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Remove the apple and onion mixture from the heat. In a large bowl, combine toasted bread, pecans, dried cranberries, herbs, and the squash. Add the cooked apples, onions, leeks, and celery.
7. Toss to combine all of the ingredients in the bowl. Pour in chicken broth, gravy, and eggs. Toss again to coat everything.
8. Scoop out into the baking dish, cover with foil, and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
9. After the time is up, increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F, remove the foil, and cook for another 25 to 30 minutes, or until the butternuts squash and apple stuffing has set, is golden brown, and no longer wet on top.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
Instead of challah: you can use any large, crusty loaf of bread. Make sure to buy a whole loaf, instead of pre-sliced bread, so you can dice it into the right size pieces.
Instead of gravy: you can use additional broth instead. The gravy adds more poultry or turkey flavor, but the stuffing will still have plenty of flavor without it.
🔍 FAQs
To help make your holiday gathering a breeze, you can toast the bread, cook the vegetables, and chop everything the day ahead. However, you should keep it all separate until you're ready to bake the stuffing.
Just before baking, combine all of the ingredients, pour the broth, gravy, and eggs over the top. Then, scoop the mixture into a baking dish, cook, and enjoy.
If you’d like to make this squash stuffing further ahead of time, you can easily freeze it!
Follow all of the recipe’s instructions, allow it to cool completely, and wrap it tightly in both plastic wrap and foil to prevent freezer burn before placing it in the freezer. Store up to 3 months.
As an added tip: If you plan to freeze the stuffing, I highly recommend baking it in a disposable tin pan instead of a metal or glass dish, so you can easily transfer it from oven to freezer.
If you freeze the stuffing, allow it to thaw completely in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Remove any plastic wrap, but keep it covered with foil. Heat in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until it is warmed through.
If needed, add a light drizzle of chicken broth over the top to prevent it from drying out.
For the most part, stuffing and dressing are very similar. The main difference is in how they are cooked.
Often, stuffing is defined as a mixture stuffed into another food or poultry, like chicken or turkey, and cooked together at the same time.
Whereas, dressing is composed of similar elements, but is baked more like a casserole in a dish.
However, geographical regions may have different definitions of the words as well. In the USA, typically those from the southern United States call it “dressing” and those from the northern states call it “stuffing,” no matter how it is prepared!
💭 One More Tip
This butternut squash stuffing is a great way to use up stale bread that's just sitting on your counter. Instead of throwing it out, cut it into cubes and add it in place of the challah in this recipe!
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
📖 Recipe
Baked Butternut Squash and Apple Stuffing
Equipment
- large skillet
Ingredients
- ½ pound challah bread (5 cups ½ inch cubes) about half a loaf
- ½ cup pecan halves
- 1 medium butternut squash (4 cups ½ inch cubes) peeled and seeded
- 1 granny smith apple (2 cups chopped and peeled) or any variety
- 1 yellow onion (2 cups diced)
- 3 celery ribs (1 cup sliced)
- 2 leeks (4 cups sliced) white part only
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 5 fresh sage leaves minced
- ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves only
- 14.5 ounces low sodium chicken broth (1 can)
- ½ cup turkey gravy or additional chicken broth
- 4 large eggs beaten
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Set it aside.
- Cube the bread into ½ inch cubes. Roughly chop the pecans. Add bread and pecans to a sheet pan and toast in the oven for about 15 minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn.
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven and increase the temperature to 350 degrees F.
- Chop the butternut squash into ½ inch cubes, apples, onion, celery, and leeks. Place the leeks in a colander and wash them thoroughly, as they are usually very sandy and dirty.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions for about 5 minutes. Add in the leeks, apples, celery, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Cook until they start to soften, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove the apple and onion mixture from the heat. In a large bowl, combine toasted bread, pecans, dried cranberries, herbs, and the squash. Add the cooked apples, onions, leeks, and celery
- Toss to combine all of the ingredients in the bowl. Pour in chicken broth, gravy, and eggs. Toss again to coat everything.
- Scoop out into the baking dish, cover with foil, and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
- After the time is up, increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F, remove the foil, and cook for another 25 to 30 minutes, or until the stuffing has set, is golden brown, and no longer wet on top.
Notes
- What is challah? Challah is a braided Jewish egg bread that's airy in texture and slightly sweet in flavor. You can find it in the bakery section of your local grocery store or at a Jewish bakery. Make sure to buy a whole loaf of challah, not a pre-sliced loaf. If you can't find challah, use any loaf of bakery bread.
- What are leeks? Leeks are part of the onion family with a slightly milder flavor. They look like large green onions (or scallions) and can be found in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Make sure to slice the leeks, separate the layers, and wash them thoroughly.
- Turkey gravy gives the stuffing that delicious poultry flavor without being stuffed inside a turkey! If you don't have turkey gravy, use extra broth instead.
- If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can substitute with dried.
- See notes in the above post for instructions on how to freeze and make this stuffing ahead of time.
- For a vegetarian stuffing: Instead of using chicken broth and turkey gravy, opt for vegetable broth.
Nutrition
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Lori
This stuffing was Unbelievably delicious. My family opted to exclude the butternut squash, and it was a hit! Gotta remember to double the recipe next year cuz everyone took seconds and You’ll definitely want leftovers. Definitely going to make this my go-to stuffing recipe. 😋
Alana Lieberman
That's amazing! Yes, the butternut squash is completely optional based on your family's preferences. Thanks for sharing 🙂