Thanksgiving brings with it endless arguments and opinions about the best ways to prepare each dish. Turkey: to roast, deep-fry, or smoke? Green bean casserole: exquisite or abomination? Pie: pumpkin or pecan? But one thing that is absolutely not up for debate is whether to dry out your bread before turning it into stuffing. You must. It is nonnegotiable, unless you want your stuffing to be a hom*ogenous mush, I suppose, but at that point, you might as well throw some poultry seasoning into a bowl of Cream of Wheat and call it a day.
Drying bread for stuffing is a must, and, contrary to popular belief, leaving it to air-dry at room temperature isn’t actually a great way to go. As explained in this article from Cook’s Illustrated, bread that is simply stale still has pockets of moisture in it, which prevents the bread from fully absorbing new, flavorful liquid. So the best way to dry out your bread for stuffing is in the oven—but if you have a gadget-heavy kitchen, you might have a few other options too.
Dry, my pretties, dry (in the oven)!
The oven is the most reliable, tried-and-true way to prepare any bread for stuffing. Start by cutting the bread of your choice into half-inch cubes. Spread the cubed bread on top of two cooling racks set in two half-sheet pans. Heat your oven to the lowest setting (typically 150°–200°F) and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until completely dry. If your oven only goes down to, say, 250°, start by baking for 30 minutes, then check the dryness of a cube or two. It’s okay if the bread gets slightly toasted—that caramelization is just going to add a little more toasty flavor to your stuffing.
This method is easy peasy, but it does mean you lose your oven for up to an hour, which might not be convenient if you’re making your stuffing right before turkey time. Here’s some good news: You can totally dry your bread for stuffing in the oven a few days ahead—just store the cubed bread in an airtight container at room temperature until ready to use.
Once you've dried your bread, stuffing can go any way you like. Here's a vegetarian version that's a reader favorite.
Short on time? Put your gadgets to work.
Now, if it’s Thanksgiving Day, and the oven is in use, but you happen to have either an air fryer (or other countertop convection oven) or food dehydrator, you’re in luck. All of these are fine options for drying your bread for stuffing, though you may have to do it in batches depending on the size of your air fryer. If using a food dehydrator, spread the cubed bread evenly over as many of the racks as needed, set to 150° and let dry for an hour.
Because air fryers use convection heating, you can get away with using a higher heat setting for considerably less time than the oven and food dehydrator methods. So, even if you have to do this in two or three batches, it’ll still be faster than the oven method, but it is a bit more hands-on. Fill your air-fryer basket to the max fill line (if all of your bread fits, great!), set the machine to 300°, and air-fry for five minutes. Pull out the basket, toss the cubed bread to redistribute (and check dryness), and then air-fry for an additional three to five minutes or until completely dry.
Any of these methods will keep your stuffing from becoming a mushy mess, whether you opt to use your oven, or one of the above gadgets. Choose whichever works for your time table, kitchen size, and emotional bandwidth. Of course, there is absolutely zero shame in serving Stove Top—it is nostalgic, tasty (you heard me), and much nicer than sloppy, wet stuffing. Please, Aunt Joan. I’m begging you—anything’s better than your stuffing.
