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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!
No beating around the bush: this is the best paleo stuffing recipe.
I’m a fool for stuffing. Like, if you didn’t include stuffing on your Thanksgiving table, I’d just walk out without a word, dramatically tipping my chair over for effect. I’m really into it. Apparently.
The problem with being mostly paleo is that um, bread isn’t allowed? It’s kind of one of those main tenants of eating primal foods that… yeah, no white bread. No whole wheat bread. No cornbread. No bread. And normally it doesn’t bother me, which is also a little weird? But stuffing… different story.
What Makes This Recipe So Good
- It tastes surprisingly like “real” stuffing but is made with all healthy ingredients, like veggies and eggs.
- This healthy stuffing recipe is perfect with a roast chicken or turkey, making it a great side dish for both weeknight dinners and Thanksgiving.
- The ingredients are super versatile: you can swap out what you like and have.
Chef’s Tips
- Make sure you sauté your veggies long enough for them to be really softened. This helps everything meld together beautifully in this healthy paleo stuffing recipe, just like a traditional dressing!
- Use the dried herbs you prefer or make your own poultry seasoning.
- If you’re strictly paleo, make sure you get dried cranberries that are sweetened with juice, not sugar.
- This healthy stuffing recipe reheats well, so you can make it ahead.
- You can make this entire paleo stuffing recipe in a large oven-proof skillet, or you can bake it in a casserole dish.
Try These Recipe Variations
- Use chopped dates in place of the dried cranberries, or add 1/4 cup chopped dates to the whole thing!
- Increase the amount of celery by 1 cup and leave out the mushrooms, if you don’t like fungi.
Other Recipes You’ll Love
- Whole30 Green Bean Casserole
- Perfect Whole30 Turkey Breast and Gravy
- Whole30 Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs
- Whole30 Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans
- Whole30 Crockpot Mashed Potatoes
Best Paleo Stuffing (Gluten-Free, Grain-Free)
Equipment
- Cast iron skillet (or other oven safe skillet)
- 9×9 baking dish (if not using oven-safe skillet)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee or avocado oil or refined coconut oil
- 3 cups onion diced
- 2 cups celery diced
- 1 cup mushrooms diced
- 1 cup apple cored and diced
- ¼ cup dried cranberries or dates, chopped
- ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley chopped
- 4 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3 large eggs whisked
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit. Heat ghee or oil in a large cast-iron or oven-safe skillet over medium heat.
- Add onion, celery, apple, mushrooms, cranberries or dates, parsley, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Sauté until ingredients are very soft, about 7 minutes.
- Remove skillet from heat. Keep ingredients in oven-safe skillet, or, alternately, transfer ingredients to 9×9" baking dish.
- Stir almond flour in to other ingredients until well mixed. Add the whisked eggs and stir well. Place skillet (or baking dish) in preheated oven and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until stuffing is browned on top. Serve warm.
Video
- If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, grease a medium-size baking dish before sautéing ingredients (a 9×9″ works well). After eggs have been added and the mixture is well-stirred, transfer mixture to baking dish. Continue baking as directed.
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.
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I haven’t made this yet but plan to do so for Christmas. Can you make this ahead of time and freeze it?
Hi Rachelle! Although we haven’t tried cooking this recipe and freezing it ahead of time, we definitely think it could work!
Was super surprised how delicious & properly textural this was (I guess I was worried it would be mush?). Even with a few mods needed due to ingredients onhand, it was amazing. Added extra celery instead of mushrooms, herbs de provenc + chopped fresh sage instead of poultry seasoning, 1 cup fresh cranberries (instead of 1/4c dried) and a teeensy bit more almond flour for more crunch. I didn’t have any fresh parsley and it was still so good. I used a rectangular ceramic cake dish instead of square to have more crunchy surface area. I’m on the second round of making this (within a week – yum!). Thanks for saving my favorite Thanksgiving meal, Cheryl!
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
My partner and I love this recipe! We initially tried it last year when we were doing a November Whole30, but cook it all throughout the year as a yummy GF side item. I like to add in carrot and I’ll use use equal parts carrot/celery/onion for those veggies and dates instead of cranberries. This recipe is so versatile you could really use any veggie you want. The veggie prep always takes longer than I’d like, but I cook the dish from start to finish in my cast iron skillet and it is so easy! My only regret is not writing this review sooner.
Thanks for the awesome review!
Tried this out on Turkey Day.
This is a home run Recipe for low carb people who like stuffing. Guilt free too!
Glad you liked it!
I was an avid stuffing- and all-around-bread-lover my entire life. Then I discovered processed foods and gluten were the cause of my health problems. Thank goodness for this recipe!!! It is DELICIOUS and super easy to make. I’ve been Paleo for 3 years now and make this every holiday…and a few times in between. I don’t like mushrooms so I double the celery, and this Thanksgiving I added chicken apple sausage on a whim and it was great. Highly recommend this awesome and healthy recipe!
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hi! Can i make this in a 9×13 baking dish?
Sure!
Such a great recipe! 👍 Even the people who are skeptics of grain-free baking loved it!
I left out the mushrooms and the parsley and it was still so good! A very forgiving recipe!
Thanks for the awesome review!
I never comment on recipes (literally never), but this one brought tears to my eyes. Stuffing used to be my favorite dish but now I am unable to eat most grains. I had tried paleo stuffing before that required baking a loaf of paleo bread… it did not turn out well and was very dry. This recipe was incredibly fast and easy to prepare. Chopping the veggies only took 10 minutes or so. As suggested in the notes above, I used the extra cup of celery because I do not like mushrooms. I used dates, because I did not have any plain dried cranberries. For “poultry seasoning” I used the Costco No Salt Seasoning blend. After the sauté period, I already started nibbling and was really impressed with the flavor. Once I stirred in the whisked eggs, however, I realized OMG this is where the magic happens. The almond flour/eggs added at the end is what makes it seem bread-like. I made this ahead of time because we spend Thanksgiving camping in our RV… I tried to save half to freeze for Christmas, but I will probably be eating it instead! I also tried a few bites with fresh made cranberry sauce and it is TO DIE FOR. Indiscernible from traditional stuffing. THANK YOU for giving me back my favorite dish!
Thanks for the awesome review. We are so glad you found this recipe! 🙂
Do you have any substitutes for the eggs? I want to make this this year, but I have an egg allergy and can’t use eggs. Thanks!
You could always try some flax eggs! Just mix some ground flax meal with water and let it sit for about 5-8 minutes.
My mother always would use mayonnaise the scoop egg size spoonful… I’m sure they make a mayonnaise substitute with no eggs..I still do it today… hope it helps… Dixie
Has anybody tried to freeze this to make ahead?
This looks delicious!! Would I be able to add chicken broth for flavor? If so how much?
If adding chicken broth, we would only add a little bit since the almond flour is super dense. 🙂