Gluten Free Stuffing - Make Your Own Easily

It's already October! Where has the time gone? Thanksgiving is under two months away and I'm already thinking about this year's stuffing and pumpkin pie. I'm a Thanksgiving Baby so I love this time of year. I've been cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for the family since I was in my early twenties and had pretty much perfected my stuffing recipe. Then Celiac disease showed up and threw a monkey wrench into the mix. I've made several good batches of stuffing since going gluten free, but last year's stuffing was an utter disaster and left me grumbling for several days. This year I'm determined to set things straight. I've already made my first test batch of stuffing using the croutons I made last week and it came out pretty tasty. Read on to see how I did it.

Photo By Tom Curtis

Like most of my cooking, my stuffing is made by eyeing it and tasting it rather than measuring. I'll try my best to let you know approximately how much I used, but often times, I don't keep track of it. 


What you'll need:


1. Gluten free cubed dried bread or croutons - I make my own - it's easy!
2. Two uncooked pork or turkey sausages - I like Wholefood's mild Italian
3. Hazelnuts - half to three quarters cup crushed
4. Half large onion
5. several stalks of celery
6. 1 1/2 cups chicken stock - Pacific Foods is Gluten Free  
7. Butter
8. Celery Salt
9. 1 Large sauce pan w/ a lid
10. Glass cookware w/ a lid - If you want to put it in the oven


First, I start by chopping up the veggies and sauteing them in a decent sized pat of butter and a few quick shakes of celery salt. Cook them until they've just softened and then add the crushed hazelnuts. Stir and cook the mix a little more, but don't brown the veggies.

Onions & Celery

Take the sausages and squish the insides out of the casing and into the pan. This is kind of gross, but it's a good time saving tip. The spices in the sausage make for a savory stuffing. Cook everything together and until the meat is cooked through and separated into smaller pieces. It cooks a lot like hamburger.

Onions, Celery, Hazelnuts & Sausage

Once that's all set, put in all your croutons. I made a quart sized freezer bag full with all my bread ends and use the whole thing for stuffing. Dump them in the pan and stir them around with all the ingredients in the pan. 

Gluten Free Croutons

Slowly pour the chicken stock over the whole mixture, coating it evenly. Don't put too much liquid in. If you're using lighter gluten free bread it will mush and fall apart from too much liquid. Also, I think it mushes if the bread is too dry. After all the ingredients are mixed in, turn down the heat to just above simmer and cover the pan. 


It should cook down in about 15 - 20 minutes. You can also take the mixture and stick it in an oven safe pan after to keep warm while you're making everything else. Shamefully, it was a week night when I made this and we wound up scarfing it all down before I took a picture.... D'oh. Don't worry though, there will be many more batches and I'll make sure to upload the pictures to this article for you too see.


What's your favorite gluten free stuffing recipe?