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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?
Tag @40aprons on Instagram and be sure to leave a review on the blog post!
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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I must confess, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I wanted to make a stuffing that was more traditional to my family’s stuffing and I don’t like mushrooms, so I left out the aforementioned mushrooms as well as the apples and craisins. Instead, I added about the same amount of frozen cauliflower cut into half-bite sized pieces. Everything else was the same. I’m not going to say this is exactly like stuffing, but this was a very pleasant surprise! I’m a big stuffing snob as my mom always makes excellent homemade stuffing. This year I figured out I can’t do grains so I thought my days of stuffing were over, but this really scratched the stuffing itch!!! Really very good! I plan to make some again with the craisins and apples with cauliflower. I think it’ll taste really good with pork chops! Thank you so so much for this recipe!!!
We’re so glad it was a hit! Thanks so much for sharing, Amy!
Wondering if I can throw this into the cavity of the turkey and cook together? Has anyone done it?
It should work fine, it just won’t be as crispy as the original recipe. Be sure to let us know if you try it!