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The best paleo stuffing recipe! Perfect for Thanksgiving or as a healthy grain-free side dish for roast chicken. Made with simple ingredients, you’ll be shocked at how much it tastes like “real stuffing”… but better!
Before You Get Started
- Choose a type of apple that isn’t too sweet and that holds up well to high temperatures. You don’t want them to become mushy or mealy after you sauté or bake them! Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, and Granny Smith are all great options.
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Sauté the ingredients.
Melt ghee in a cast-iron skillet, then toss in your onions, celery, mushrooms, apples, and cranberries, along with the parsley and seasonings. Give that a good stir, then sauté everything for 5-10 minutes, until the veggies and cranberries are very soft.
Add the rest.
Stir in the almond flour, then stir in 3 beaten eggs. Make sure everything is mixed really well – you don’t want clumps of almond flour or anything like that.
Bake the Stuffing.
30 to 45 minutes in the oven are all that stand between you and the best paleo stuffing you will ever eat! Once the stuffing is baked-through and browned on top, with slightly crisp edges, you’re all set.
If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, any oven-safe skillet will work! No oven-safe skillet? Use a regular skillet on the stovetop, then after stirring in the eggs, transfer everything to baking dish for the oven steps.
What I Love About This Recipe
- This paleo stuffing tastes surprisingly like “real” stuffing, despite not containing, y’know… any bread or breadcrumbs or cornbread. It is loaded with savory veggies and sweet cranberries, though.
- It’s the perfect side dish for an air fryer chicken or a roast turkey, so it’s great for Thanksgiving feasts and weeknight dinners alike. It’s also really easy to make – the oven handles the most time-consuming part!
- Another reason to love paleo stuffing? It’s super versatile. Feel free to swap out or add whatever you like or have on hand. The paleo sausage from our Whole30 zuppa toscana would be delicious browned and mixed in to this stuffing!
Recipe Variations
- A Little Something Sweet: No compatible dried cranberries handy? Replace them with chopped dates. You’re also welcome to just add ¼ cup of chopped dates to the stuffing along with the cranberries if you want!
- No-Fungi Zone: If mushrooms aren’t your thing, no problem. Leave them out entirely and add an extra 1 cup of diced celery!
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The Best Paleo Stuffing (Gluten Free, Grain Free)
Equipment
- Oven
- cast-iron skillet or other oven-safe skillet
- stovetop
- Large wooden spoon or silicone spatula
- 9×9 baking dish optional, if not using cast-iron or oven-safe skillet
- small mixing bowl
- whisk
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee or avocado oil, or refined coconut oil
- 3 cups diced white onion
- 2 cups diced celery
- 1 cup diced mushrooms button, cremini, or wild mushrooms
- 1 cup diced apples Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or Granny Smith apples
- ¼ cup dried cranberries or ¼ cup chopped dates
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 4 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper more or less to taste
- 2 cups super-fine blanched almond flour
- 3 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- Place large cast-iron skillet on stovetop over medium heat. When skillet is warm, add 2 tablespoons ghee. Let ghee melt completely, swirling and tilting skillet as needed to distribute oil across skillet.
- When ghee has melted, add 3 cups diced white onion, 2 cups diced celery, 1 cup diced mushrooms, 1 cup diced apples, ¼ cup dried cranberries, ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, 4 teaspoons poultry seasoning, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper to skillet. Stir to incorporate.
- Sauté ingredients until onion, celery, mushrooms, apples, and cranberries are very soft, approximately 6 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once ingredients have softened, remove skillet from heat. Add 2 cups super-fine blanched almond flour to skillet and stir until ingredients are well incorporated.
- Crack 3 large eggs into small bowl and whisk well until eggs are fully combined and mixture is no longer streaky.
- Add whisked eggs to skillet and stir until all ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Optional: If not using cast-iron or other oven-safe skillet, lightly grease 9×9 baking dish with avocado oil, refined coconut oil, or ghee. Transfer mixture to lightly-greased 9×9 baking dish and spread mixture out evenly across baking dish.
- Once ingredients are fully incorporated, spread mixture evenly across skillet. Place cast-iron skillet (or baking dish) in preheated oven. Bake stuffing 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, check doneness of stuffing. Continue baking stuffing as needed, checking doneness often, until stuffing is baked-through and browned on top.
- When stuffing is fully baked, carefully remove skillet (or baking dish) from oven. Set stuffing aside to rest 5 minutes, then serve warm.
Video
- Poultry Seasoning: This is typically a blend of black or white pepper, thyme, sage, marjoram, nutmeg, and rosemary. If you don’t have or can’t find poultry seasoning, you can replace it with a similar combination of dried herbs and spices, or with your favorite fresh herbs.
- Make-Ahead Option: Prepare the stuffing as written above, then let the prepared stuffing cool completely. Cover the stuffing tightly with food-safe plastic wrap and refrigerate no more than 24 hours. Reheat the stuffing in the oven, adding paleo broth for moisture if needed.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Other Holiday Recipes You’ll Love
- Whole30 Green Bean Casserole
- Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms
- Instant Pot Whole30 Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Rosemary (Paleo, No Sugar)
- Perfect Whole30 Turkey Breast and Gravy
- Paleo Peppermint Hot Chocolate
- Whole30 Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs
- Paleo Pumpkin Pie
- Apple Cider Vinaigrette
- Whole30 Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans
- Paleo Pecan Pie
- Vegan Mushroom Gravy
- Whole30 Crockpot Mashed Potatoes
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Thank you for this recipe! It was wonderful. Made it the night before and re-heated for Thanksgiving. It’s a keeper.
Excellent recipe!! I substituted raisins for cranberries and also added chopped carrots. Everyone was raving that this was great stuffing! Thank you for the inspiration!
How long would you bake this if I wanted to bake in individual muffin tins?
Is there a location(site) I can find that original recipe for the stuffing as pictured on first image, from last year? I do not recall it having parsley. I loved that recipe. I understand, I can remove the mushrooms and cranberries, then add dates. What else was in the original recipe(included or excluded)from this one. I gave a five start because im sure it’s still good. Thank you.
This is the best gluten free stuffing recipe! I’m a stuffing diva and I love this. My daughter is super picky and she love it too! Thank you….
That is great to hear! I’m a stuffing diva too and now I’m glad there’s a name for it – ha!
I just made this and it was off the hook! The bean casserole is bomb as well.
I’m sooo glad you liked it!
We have nut allergies. Can I use oat flour instead?
Well, the good news is, everyone LOVED this stuffing. The bad news is, a few hours before thanksgiving dinner, I found out that this recipe is NOT whole30 compliant, so I was unable to have any. I was told by an admin, because there is so much almond flour used in this recipe, it considered a “baked good”, which is not allowed while following whole30. ?
Oh wow! It certainly does not taste like a baked good, and you could definitely reduce the almond flour 🙂 An admin in the Whole30 forums? I’m glad everyone else liked it, but bummed that you didn’t try any! I promise it does not taste like “fake bread” or anything like that. The almond flour is simply there for texture
Do you think you could add crumbled sausage to this recipe?
Absolutely! I’d brown it first, remove it when crumbled, then continue on with the recipe. Stir the sausage in when you stir in the almond flour and bake! It sounds a lot like my very favorite family stuffing recipe 🙂
I’m loving this recipe, it sounds amazing but I’m allergic to almonds. What would be a good substitute for almond flour?
Can you have cashew flour? That’d be a great substitute
Could aarowroot flour also work? It’s the “flour” I purchased when starting my whole30 journey and I’m not sure if most of these “flours” are interchangeable? Thanks!
They aren’t really. Nut flours are fairly interchangeable, at least in this context, but arrowroot is much more like cornstarch. I’d highly recommend using almond flour here. It’s very easy to find!
Would coconut flour work? I can’t do any kind of almond/cashew flours…
You know, something like 3/4 cup coconut flour would probably work. You might have to add a bit more to get the texture right (and absorb enough liquid) but it might work!
Tapioca, coconut or cassaave flour.
What are your thoughts on preparing this ahead of time? Would it work to cook it all the night before and heat up? Or just do the veggies + apple and add in the eggs and almond flour just before cooking? Wasn’t sure if mixing all before would be too soggy? Thanks!
I know this is a bit late, but I would think this would work fine to prep ahead of time! There’s no bread to mush or anything like that, and it’s always great as leftovers