Challah, Wild Mushroom & Herb Stuffing
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This stuffing crispy on top and loaded with an earthy, buttery mix of onions and vegetables.
There are as many versions of Thanksgiving stuffing as there are cooks who make it. The truth is, as long as you stick to the basic bread-to-liquid ratio, you can pretty much add any vegetables or seasonings that you like. This challah stuffing, modestly adapted from Mrs. Wheelbarrow on Food52, reminds me of the one my grandmother used to make. It’s golden and crispy on top and loaded with a flavorful and earthy mix of onions and wild mushrooms. A few tips: buy the “poultry blend” of fresh herbs if your supermarket carries it, as it contains all the herbs you’ll need, and buy your mushrooms pre-sliced to cut down on prep time.
What You’ll Need To Make Challah, Wild Mushroom & Herb Stuffing
Step-By-Step Instructions
Cut the challah into 1-inch cubes and spread onto a rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until dry and lightly toasted. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a large sauté pan. Cook the onions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent.
Add the celery, herbs, mushrooms, salt and pepper.
Cook until celery is slightly softened, about 5 minutes more.
In a large bowl, combine bread cubes, onion/vegetable mixture, and chicken stock.
Toss well.
Transfer the stuffing to the prepared baking dish and cover with foil.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until golden, about 25 minutes more. Serve immediately.
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Challah, Wild Mushroom & Herb Stuffing
This stuffing crispy on top and loaded with an earthy, buttery mix of onions and vegetables.
Ingredients
- 1 large loaf challah (about 1 pound)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for buttering baking dishes
- 2 cups yellow onion, diced (from 2 medium onions)
- 2 cups celery, diced
- 2 cups wild mushrooms, diced
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (or ¼ teaspoon dried and crumbled)
- ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage (or ¼ teaspoon dried)
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Cut the challah into 1-inch cubes and spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until dry and lightly toasted. Set aside.
- Increase the oven temperature to 350°F.
- Melt the butter in a large sauté pan. Cook the onions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent. Add the celery, mushrooms, herbs, salt, and pepper and cook until celery is slightly softened, about 5 minutes more.
- In a large bowl, combine the toasted bread cubes, onion/vegetable mixture, and chicken broth and toss well.
- Transfer the stuffing to the prepared baking dish. Cover the dish with buttered foil and refrigerate until ready to bake (up to overnight).
- Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until golden, about 25 minutes more. Serve immediately.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: This dish can be prepared (but not baked) up to 1 day ahead of time. Cover the dish with buttered foil and refrigerate. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until golden, about 25 minutes more. Serve immediately.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: This dish can be frozen after baking, tightly covered, for up to 3 months. Defrost it in the refrigerator overnight then reheat it, covered with foil, in a 325°F oven until hot.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (10 servings)
- Calories: 259
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated fat: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 29 g
- Sugar: 4 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 7 g
- Sodium: 448 mg
- Cholesterol: 50 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I made your stuffing last year and it was delicious. Thank you. My question to you is why not any eggs? Some recipes have 2 cups chicken broth and 2 eggs? Just curious?
I didn’t think eggs were necessary here because challah already contains eggs and the stuffing is rich enough and binds well without them. That said, feel free to add an egg if you’d like. Hope you enjoy!
I made this recipe for a Friendsgiving and it was a hit! Bonus points for how easy this was to make!
Thanks for all of your wonderful recipes! I keep a kosher home, so I need to replace the butter. I am not a fan of dairy-free margarine, as it is so processed. Can I replace the butter with olive oil? Canola Oil? If so, how much? Thanks so much.
Glad you like the recipes Elana! Yes, olive or canola oil will work here. Hope you enjoy!
Hi Jenn! I was going to make this a day ahead and refrigerate but I’ve never done this before—I always have made things the day of. Can you walk me through what to do specifically so everything turns out the next day? Like reheating wise? Do I make the entire dish the day before or just make the vegetables and toast the bread? What would you do?! I hope that makes sense! Thanks so much!
Hi Elle, I would assemble the dish (but not bake it) today, then cover the dish with buttered foil and refrigerate overnight. When ready to bake tomorrow, preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until golden, about 25 minutes more. Then serve and enjoy!
Thank you so much! My whole family loves so many of your dishes! We love your book too! You make some delicious food that’s for sure. I also want to make your roasted green bean dish, would you kind enough to tell me what you’d do for that? I was going to comment on that page last night but I forgot! Ugh! We hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!!! Thanks again! <3
Happy to help (and so glad you like the recipes)! Are you referring to these green beans? If so, you can make them ahead and reheat them in the microwave. You can add all the toppings ahead as well or, if you’d prefer, you can wait until serving to add the cheese, zest and pine nuts. Hope you enjoy!
I think I figured it out for the green beans, I saw someone else asked you! Woohoo! Everything’s ready for tomorrow! Thanks again! I will update with a review after we all shove food in our faces for thanksgiving 🙂
This stuffing is amazing! I doubled the recipe and used onions and celery from a pre-chopped Mirepoix mix (so amounts weren’t exact & they cooked the same amount of time), and I used regular (salted) chicken broth instead of stock (I eased up on added salt and skipped the pepper). I also substituted fresh Crimini mushrooms, using one 8oz container (chopped, with stems mostly removed) in place of each one cup of the wild mushrooms.
I tried this recipe because I was hoping to improve on a similar recipe I’d been using that had more broth and added eggs, but whose texture came out either a bit too gloopy inside or too dry/overdone on top. I love using Challah bread for stuffing, so I wanted a recipe that presumed Challah as the bread being used. With this recipe’s perfect ratio of Challah to liquid, omission of eggs (which are already in Challah), and excellent herb selections, this stuffing recipe delivers exceptional flavor without sacrificing great texture—it’s crisp on top, but moist and not too heavy inside. Using enameled cast iron casserole dishes meant just the right amount of extra crispness all around the sides as well. I flipped the cook times by accident, but it was perfect (25” covered, then 20” uncovered.) I prepared these the day before Thanksgiving, baking one immediately and refrigerating one to bake the next day (adding 5” covered cook time due to the extra chill, so 30” covered then 20” uncovered).
This stuffing was so delicious, my family started eating it as soon as it came out of the oven and enjoyed it at every meal and snack time for 3 days straight, until it was gone 😄
This is a fabulous and moist stuffing. The ‘mushroom haters’ in our family never realized there were mushrooms in the recipe—so don’t let that ingredient deter you from trying it!
I made this fabulous stuffing to accompany our turkey and it was, by far, the best stuffing I’ve ever eaten. My guests raved!
Thank you.
can you stuff your turkey with this recipe?
Hi Jill, you could; you may want to reduce the broth by just a bit (maybe by 1 cup) if you prefer a dryer stuffing. (The inside of the turkey will add a lot of moisture to it.)
Hi Jenn,
I decided to make this stuffing and have had a hard time finding challah bread, so I decided to make the challah from your book. My question is about the challah-I was out of veg oil and so I replaced it with canola. After baking the bread, my husband and I tried a piece (how can you not!) and immediately noticed it had a very noticeable “off” taste. I’m pretty sure it was the canola – can you recommend an oil to sub, or do I really need veg oil? The taste is strong enough that I won’t use the bread for this stuffing,
I’ll need to male another loaf… Thank you!
Hi Karen, Is it possible your canola oil was bad? I wouldn’t think it would make much of a difference.
Yes, I believe it was – that was the first thought that crossed my mind when I woke up the next morning. I threw it out and opened a new bottle. Sigh – learned my lesson about rancid oil!
You say 1 large loaf of challah. About how many cups of bread cubes is this?
Thank you.
Hi Gail, I’ve never measured it in cups, but I would guesstimate that it would be somewhere between 10 and 12 cups. Hope that helps!
Hi, I just sent a review in, we absolutely love everything that you post! We are preparing for Thanksgiving, and always make the Challah with herb stuffing recipe that you post. However, right now we are finding that all Challah bread is sold out. What can we do if we can not find it???? Can we use use your Honey Challah bread from the cook book to make it right to put in stuffing? I hope it is possible – Jen , you are the absolute best!!!!!!!
Sure, Michelle – that will work but you won’t use the whole homemade challah (it’s huge!). If you don’t want to go to the trouble, it really is fine to substitute another type of bread. Brioche is a good option. Hope that helps!