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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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This looks amazing and I can’t wait to make it. I think I may add oysters and leave out the cranberries. Thank you for providing a great recipe to work from!
Yum! Would love to know how it turns out.
Is it possible to replace the celery with carrots or something? I might be the only person who absolutely hates celery…
You can absolutely substitute the celery for another veggie, or just leave it out!
Hi Cheryl,
I’m thinking about making this recipe for Thanksgiving since my husband has Celiac Disease. I just have a couple of questions: what kind of almond flour did you use . . . does it have to be super fine? and which kind of apple works best in this recipe? Thank you! Susy 🙂
Hi Susy! So, I just use whichever is available at the store I’m at. We like to recommend leaning toward the mid- or high-tier brands with a finer flour just because it is such a crucial ingredient. However, the good thing about stuffing is that you’re not going to taste it with all of the other delicious ingredients in there. It’s more of a binding agent. And as far as the type of apple, that’s completely up to you and depends on your taste! Honey crisp, pink lady, or even granny smith work beautifully. We do recommend apples that aren’t very mushy so they holdup well in the baking process. Hope this helps and that y’all enjoy!
I’m definitely using your recipe this year! Can I use convection to roast it or would it be best not to?
So glad to hear that! We haven’t tested baking this in a convection oven, so we recommend sticking with the standard baking method.
I absolutely love this stuffing, but I’m trying to figure out if I can make it work for Thanksgiving with my sister who has a tree nut allergy. Have you made it with a substitute for almond flour? If so, would you recommend it?
We haven’t tried this recipe with an AIP-friendly flour, but it should work just as well as the almond flour! Maybe cassava flour or arrowroot flour? If you try a nut-free alternative, we’d love to hear how it turns out!
Any way to replace the eggs with something else?
You could make a flax seed egg substitute! https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/flaxseed-meal-egg-replacer/
Excited to try this. Would this work without the dates and cranberries?
Sure! It just won’t be as sweet, but it should still be delicious!
If I omit the fruit, would I need to add more of the other ingredients?
Not necessarily, but it wouldn’t hurt!
I like the looks of this recipe. I am wondering, however if this would work cooked in bird???
We haven’t tried that method, but definitely let us know how it works out!
I added pecans 🙂
This turned out great! Would it be possible to make these into muffins? How long do you suggest to bake, or any modifications?
We’d start off by cooking them in the oven for about 20 minutes, then just checking every 5 minutes or so afterwards until done!