Don't you just LOVE stuffing? I do! I LOVE all kinds of stuffing and this Homemade Bread Stuffing is not only delicious, it's EASY! So incredibly EASY.
I think stuffing is one of my favorite things to eat at Thanksgiving, maybe just second to these Scalloped Potatoes. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. The funny thing is, I only make it about once a year and I'll bet you can guess when that is! Thanksgiving, of course.
I used to always stuff my turkey with a homemade bread stuffing, but about 13 years ago, I started making all kinds of different versions of stuffing and just stopped stuffing my turkey. I do think this led to a more consistently cooked turkey, but I'll get into that a little later.
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My sister used to make this cornbread, sausage, and pepper stuffing and oh my goodness is it good! It takes FOREVER to make, though. Seriously, it takes hours and hours. I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of time when I'm cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, so I need a QUICK & EASY version and this recipe for Homemade Bread Stuffing is it! Seriously. Quick & Easy.
What type of bread do I need for stuffing?
Any kind you like! In this recipe, I used a plain old inexpensive white sandwich bread, but in the past I've used various breads. Some of my favorites are:
- rye bread
- pumpernickel bread
- cornbread
- combination of pumpernickel and rye
- sourdough
- white or wheat
You can use any types of bread you like, get creative and pick a few! You'll need enough bread to fill the inner pot to about the 10-12 cup mark.
What is your favorite bread to use for your homemade bread stuffing? Leave me a comment and let me know!
What type of broth or stock should I use?
The best broth in my opinion is going to be the juices from your turkey, but you can also use a turkey or chicken bone broth that you either make or buy at the store. I 
have a recipe for Turkey Bone Broth that is so delicious, so keep that in mind to make with the bones from your Turkey. I made it in the Instant Pot, but you can make it without changing anything right in the Ninja Foodi.
If you don't have homemade bone broth, you can purchase it at most grocery stores. Pick up either turkey or chicken bone broth. I have tried several brands and some are very expensive.
You can't go wrong with Kettle & Fire bone broth, but it's a little too pricey for my budget.
Believe it or not, the Member's Mark brand from Sam's Club is very good! I have also liked the Sam's Choice brand that is reasonably priced at Walmart.
Of course homemade is always better, but when you can't have homemade these bone broths will work great.
I do recommend getting bone broth instead of chicken stock or using bouillon in this recipe because it will add that depth of flavor almost like the juices from your turkey.
When you have a recipe with so few ingredients, it's important to use the best ingredients you can find. Except for the bread. You can use any bread you want, even the least expensive sandwich bread works great!
Can I make this Homemade Bread Stuffing ahead of time?
Absolutely. What I would do is make it up to the point of transferring it to your buttered pan. Then just cover it and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it.
Dense foods, like this stuffing take so long to reheat and if you did this in the oven or even using bake/roast in the oven, it would dry out quite a bit.
So, add your bone broth and then pressure cook for the 5 minutes, this will heat up your stuffing and should hold the heat (if it's covered) for a good 30 minutes.
Broil just before serving.
Can I freeze stuffing?
Yep! It freezes very well in fact. Just make sure you get all the air out of the bag or container before sealing to prevent freezer burn. It is also important to let your stuffing (or any foodi) cool completely before placing in containers or bags for freezing. The trapped heat will lead to condensation as it cools and that trapped moisture will turn into ice crystals and that is no fun for your food.
So, if you want to make a big batch of stuffing and freeze individual servings, you can do that very easily. You would want to transfer your stuffing to a pressure-safe container (covered), place 1 cup of water in the inner pot and PC on high for about 10 minutes from frozen and you should have perfect stuffing. Hit the top with broil for a few minutes and it will be just like it was freshly made.
Since your stuffing will be frozen when you put into your pan to pressure cook, don't freeze too big of a portion. Make sure it will fit into the container you want to use because you won't be able to easily break it up.
I usually fill a ziploc bag with 1-2 servings and once I get the air out, I make sure it fits in the container I want to use and then I freeze it. I cut the plastic bag off the frozen stuffing and place the frozen block of stuffing into my pressure safe container and proceed with pressure cooking.
Stuffing should last at least 6 months in the freezer with proper freezing technique.
Variations on Homemade Bread Stuffing
The beauty of this recipe is you can change the ingredients, add ingredients, omit ingredients, and truly make this stuffing any way you want. The technique will remain the same for the most part.
Here are few variations that popped into my head immediately.
Sausage Stuffing: Sausage gives a wonderful flavor to stuffing and I almost always use it when making bread stuffing. To add sausage to this recipe, simply sauté the sausage until it is about 75% cooked, add the vegetables and sauté for about 5 more minutes or until the sausage is cooked. You can add a little bit of butter or skip it if you have enough grease from the sausage. Then just continue with the recipe.
Vegetarian Stuffing: Simply replace the chicken or bone broth with a vegetable broth. You can also add in any vegetables you want or keep it simple like I did.
Cornbread Stuffing: If you want to replace some or all of your bread with cornbread, you can. You will want to make up your cornbread the day before and let it sit out on the counter to start to dry out. Then, cube it up and use the TC lid to dry it out even more. You could even use the dehydration function on 110° F
Really, the variations of how to make this stuffing are infinite. You can add fresh herbs, various types of meats or seafood. Add in different vegetables like mushrooms or garlic. The possibilities are endless.
How to Make Homemade Bread Stuffing in the Ninja Foodi or the IP Duo Crisp
Gather your ingredients. This is really a quick recipe, so having everything nearby and measured out will make it even quicker!
Cut up your vegetables. In this recipe I kept things very simple. I used 1 sweet onion, 2 stalks of celery, and a few mini sweet peppers. The onion & celery is diced in about ½" dice. I just sliced the mini peppers into rings. If you don't have or can't find mini sweet peppers or just prefer a bell pepper, those work perfectly fine, too. You will only need 1 bell pepper in your color of choice for this recipe.
Turn on the sear/sauté on high and add 4 tablespoon of melted butter. Allow the butter to melt and add the vegetables. Stir. Add the seasonings and stir. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the veggies are sautéing, cut the bread into bite size cubes. Once all the bread is cut up, dump it right on top of the veggies. Close the TenderCrisp lid and select broil for 5 minutes. Once the 5 minutes is up, toss the bread around and continue to broil in 2-3 minute increments until he bread is lightly browned and dried out. Toss the bread every 2-3 minutes to ensure that the soft bread underneath gets the effects of the broil function.
Pour 1 cup of broth over the dry bread and stir. You can add more broth if you like, but you don't want the bread too wet. Taste for seasonings. Now is the time to add whatever extra ingredients you want. Mine didn't need any because I had a super flavorful broth to begin with. This will vary for everyone, so please, season to taste.
Transfer the stuffing to a buttered, pressure safe dish. I used the bottom part of my (affiliate link)double rack steamer pans, but any pan that is 7-9" and about 3-4" deep will work. Since we are going under pressure, make sure it is pressure safe.
Add 1 cup of broth to the inner pot. Set the dish with the stuffing on the rack in the low position and place the rack in the pot. Put the pressure lid on and turn the valve to seal. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes and when the time is up immediately release the pressure.
If your stuffing still isn't as moist as you would like it, go ahead and add more broth. Make it the way you like it, but keep in mind we are only going to broil the top for a few minutes, so don't let the bread get too soggy because it won't have time to dry out.
*If you accidentally add too much broth, no worries, just set the Ninja Foodi on Bake/Roast at 250° F until it dries out some.
Broil the top of the stuffing for about 5 minutes or until it is brown on top.
When the top is browned to your liking, Serve & Enjoy!
Easy Homemade Bread Stuffing
Equipment
- Instant Pot Duo Crisp
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon butter salted, plus some for buttering your dish
- 1 onion sweet
- 2 stalks celery
- 4-6 mini sweet peppers or 1-2 sweet bell peppers
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 loaf bread any kind you like.
- 2-3 cups chicken bone broth or turkey* see notes for more information
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Instructions
- Turn the Ninja Foodi on high sear/sauté and melt the butter. Add onions, celery, and sweet peppers and seasonings. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Cut up the bread into cubes and dump into the inner pot. Broil for 5 minutes and then open the lid and toss around the bread. Continue to broil at 2-3 minute intervals, tossing the bread cubes after every 2-3 minutes until the bread is nicely toasted. This usually takes around 12-15 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of chicken or turkey bone broth and toss the bread around to dampen the stuffing. You can add more liquid if you want it a little moister, but you don't want it to be wet. Taste for seasonings and add more if needed. This will all depend on how flavorful your broth is.
- Butter the pan you are using and transfer the bread mixture to the pan. Add 1 cup of broth to the inner pot. Set on the rack in the low position and place the rack in the inner pot. Put the pressure lid on and turn the valve to seal. Set the Ninja Foodi to high pressure for 5 minutes, immediately release the pressure when the time is up.
- Check your stuffing and if it isn't as moist as you would like it, add some more broth. Lower the TenderCrisp lid and select broil for 5 minutes or until it is done to your liking.
- Serve & Enjoy!
Notes
- when choosing a broth for your stuffing, make it as flavorful as you can by either making it yourself at home or using bone broth instead of stock. If you are using stock, you may need to season your stuffing with more than what this recipe calls for because the broth I used was seasoned already.
Nutrition
ABOUT THE RECIPE AUTHOR, LOUISE LONG
Louise is a full-time recipe creator and food blogger @ The Salted Pepper. She has over 30 years of 
experience with cooking and recipe development. She owned a restaurant for several years and was a full-time RN until retiring to blog full-time.
Louise has several very active Facebook groups that help people with the basics of cooking and getting the most out of the Ninja Foodi.
Ninja Foodi Fresh & Healthy Meals
Seeing the need for easy, delicious, and high quality recipes, she is focusing all of her efforts creating recipes specifically for the Ninja Foodi. Her recipes are easy for the home cook to follow and provide step-by-step instructions.
Louise is also a YouTube creator and you can find most of her recipes in video format on The Salted Pepper YouTube channel.
She is very responsive to messages and eager to help in any way she can.
Jeri Little
How do you reheat left overs in the ninja deluxe?
Louise
That all depends on what you are reheating, but I like to use the steam function a lot. I put the food in a covered pan and use steam with 2 cups of water in the inner pot.
Cindy Cain
I usually make slow cooker stuffing. This year I would like to use my Ninja Foodi. Do you thing I could use the slow cooker function to cook the stuffing and then air crisp or broil at the end? I would use the inner pot that comes with the Foodi. Or should I use the bake function? I'm using dry bread cubes not fresh bread.
Louise
Yes, I'm sure the slow cooker would work out just fine. I would use the broil at the end unless your stuffing is really close to the heating element and then I'd probably bake to avoid burning.
Brandy
We are traveling via car for thanksgiving. Do you think I can get the stuffing prepped except for the broth and pressure cook when we get there. I am planning to take my foodi due to lack of space to reheat in the oven. Also, do u think I can use both of my pans in the foodi and double the recipe? Then just Broil separate?
Louise
Yes, that should be fine. I don't see any problems with using two pans stacked either, but you do want them to have some room in between them or, if you can't do that, add more broth to the one that isn't exposed to the steam.