When you think of Thanksgiving, you think of stuffing, and when you think of stuffing, you think of Thanksgiving. It’s just the way it is. Though it’s technically a side dish, it’s as important to the holiday meal as the turkey, which is exactly why we set out to find the best stuffing recipe out there. We chose four celebrity stuffing recipes — each with their own unique techniques and ingredients — and put them to the test. Read on to see if we found the ultimate one!
The Contenders:
We chose Stuffing recipes from four different celebrities — some chefs, some not so much.
Ina Garten:
The Barefoot Contessa is a cook you can trust. Her recipes are reliably delicious, but also generally a little rustic and plenty approachable, which is just how we like our food at 12 Tomatoes. So who better to turn to for a reliable stuffing recipe?
Gwyneth Paltrow:
While you might think to turn to Gwyneth Paltrow for a good rom-com, you can also turn to her for a good recipe. She’s become known for a lot more than just acting. She’s a businesswoman, a cookbook author, and so much more. Can she also make great Thanksgiving stuffing? It was time to find out.
Emeril Lagasse:
Bam! Emeril Lagasse cooks everything with an exclamation, so you can naturally expect his ‘Simple but Fabulous’ Stuffing to be full of flavor.
Marilyn Monroe:
Marilyn Monroe is our most iconic Hollywood starlet… but could she also cook? Judging by her handwritten recipe for a unique stuffing with a bevvy of ingredients, it’s seemed that she could and often did. Scrawled on a title insurance company notepad, Marilyn’s stuffing includes both unusual ingredients and unusual methods (liver! parmesan cheese! soaked bread!), so we just couldn’t wait to give it a try and see what it was like.
How We Tested:
We had two chefs take two recipes each and make them side by side in the studio. (These are some of our favorite days at work!) We stayed true to the original recipes, not changing a thing, and then tasted them all.
The Stuffings:
Ina Garten
Ina’s stuffing relies on white or sourdough bread and is accented by Granny Smith apples, Italian sausage, dried cranberries, and fresh parsley. The flavor is simply lovely. There’s a balance of savory, sweet, and tangy thanks to the apples, sausage, and cranberries and some brightness from the parsley. The bread to other ingredient ratio was great. That being said, for being branded as an “herb” stuffing, we felt like this could have used more herbs. A mix of fresh herbs instead of just parsley would have been nice.
While the flavor was great, the main drawback for us was that the stuffing didn’t really hold together. It wasn’t quite dry, per se, but it definitely could have used some more stock and/or an egg to bind it all together. Because of that, it didn’t taste like a cohesive dish. And while, again, the flavor was great, it was very flavorful, so we could see it working as a more independent dish rather than something you’d serve as a side to be incorporated into a full holiday meal.
Get the full recipe here: Ina Garten’s Sausage and Herb Stuffing.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwenyth calls for ciabtta, challah, or multi-grain bread, which she says is what she usually has in her bread box. She also adds fennel and celery seeds, plenty of butter, and both fresh parsley and rosemary. How does it taste? Well, friends, it tastes great. We loved this stuffing. It tastes like the classic stuffing you want on your Thanksgiving table, but the fennel gives it just enough of a unique touch to make it interesting. And it’s moist. We used challah, so our final result might be softer than if you use ciabatta, but everything held together beautifully and really felt like one cohesive dish. It also had a richness that you don’t often find in stuffing, thanks to that combination of oil and butter and the addition of extra butter on top before baking. It’s a great stuffing. Even a “go-to” stuffing, you might say.
Get the full recipe here: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Classic Bread Stuffing.
Emeril Lagasse
Emeril uses a few unique things in his stuffing — there’s bacon and scallions, and a hint of his signature Bam seasoning. It was also the only stuffing we made that included garlic and eggs as a binder. So how did it taste? It’s good! At first appearance, it seems to have a lot going on, but it handles it well. It has really nice flavor, but for being a stuffing that’s influenced by bacon, it actually could’ve used more bacon. If you’re going to use bacon, just go for it! The Bam seasoning and scallions give it a somewhat southern vibe. Overall, we found it to be a really tasty and savory stuffing, and a nice departure from your usual holiday fare.
As for the texture, in some parts, it was almost too moist, though the top was wonderfully crisp. (Love that combo in a stuffing!) If we were to make it again, we’d back off one of the eggs and some of the liquid.
Get the full recipe here: Emeril Lagasse’s Simple but Fabulous Stuffing.
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn’s stuffing has a lot going on. She includes ground beef, liver (or other giblets), parmesan cheese, five herbs and spices, walnuts, pine nuts, or chestnuts OR a combination of all three, raisins, and hard-boiled eggs. She also asks you to soak the whole loaf of bread in water for fifteen minutes and then wring it out, but adds no other broth or liquid after that. In sum, not quite like any other stuffing recipe we’ve seen! So how does it taste?
It tastes… unique.
If you like liver, you might love this, but there’s just a lot going on in this stuffing. And yet, the liver kind of permeates it all. You’re hit with sweetness from the raisins, an overpowering amount of herbs, and a lot of meaty flavor, but none of it is really playing well together. It’s a creative combo and was fun to try but none of us could see ourselves making this again. The texture left a lot to be desired too. Because the bread was soaked, it basically crumbled, and combined with all the other finely chopped ingredients, the whole thing had a somewhat mealy texture. We could see a stuffing like this working with some editing of ingredients, and some different techniques.
Get the full recipe here: Marilyn Monroe’s Thanksgiving Stuffing.
The Final Verdict:
So, who won it all?!
Gwyneth Paltrow!
It was a hard choice, as always, but Gwyneth’s stuffing was the one we would want on our holiday table. With enough of a unique flavor to make it stand out, it was also classic enough that it felt traditional. And the lovely texture and buttery, rich flavor was hard to beat.
See some of our other Celebrity Recipe Showdowns here:
Celebrity Macaroni Salad Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Brownie Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Showdown
Celebrity Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Showdown