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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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I can imagine this is fabulous, I’m definitely trying it this year. Do you think it could work inside the turkey? I’m a sucker for stuffing that’s cooked in the turkey….i know, today people aren’t as into it. Has anyone tried it?
That should work fine, it just won’t be as crispy! Let us know if you try it, Yvette!
I really want to make this for myself ahead of thanksgiving, I am traveling and stuffing is my weakness! Could I cook the day before then re heat it in a microwave ? I don’t want to tie up my hosts oven:)
Hi Leah! You can definitely make this ahead of time. Reheating it in the microwave will most likely make it a little mushy/gummy (you’ll lose that bit of crunch). I’d recommend reheating in the oven and adding a little broth or water so it doesn’t dry out, but I totally get you not wanting to tie up the hosts! If it’s just for you and you don’t mind a little change in texture from the microwave, then I say go for it!
I’ve made this the last two years for thanksgiving and it’s a hit! What is your recommendation for baking dish size upon doubling and even tripling the recipe for bigger parties? Thanks!
That’s great! So glad it’s a hit, Amanda! A 9×13 would get you about 1.5 yield. For tripling I would recommend a 12×20 size pan! Thanks so much for the review!
I’ve made this the last two years for thanksgiving and it’s a hit! What is your recommendation for baking dish size upon doubling and even tripling the recipe for bigger parties? Thanks!
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but do you think I could substitute almond flour for rice flour or a gf flour blend?
We didn’t test this recipe with those alternatives so we can’t say how they might turn out! Let us know if you try them, though!
This stuff is THE BEST stuffing I’ve made since I gave up gluten.
I added sausage and Brazil nuts because I love sausage stuffing. I used fresh herbs because they jumped into my cart at Trader Joe’s.
Actually this is the best stuffing ever. Period. Hands down.
Thank you so much, Emily!! So, so happy you enjoy this stuffing so much!
I love this recipe! I’ve been making it for holidays for a couple of years now, and whenever I find myself missing the dressing of my childhood. I’m not really good at estimating how much of the produce to buy, especially when I’m scaling up for a crowd. So when I made it yesterday, I decided to weigh the ingredients after chopping and measuring. I was pleasantly surprised to find that for each item, 1 cup = ~ 125 grams. (These were approximations, obviously, with a recipe like this there’s elbow room.)
3 cups diced onion ~ 375 grams
2 cups diced celery ~ 250 grams
1 cup diced mushroom ~ 125 grams (aboutn 1/2 of an 8 oz package of fresh mushrooms)
1 cup diced apple ~ 125 grams (about 1 very large apple or 1.5 ‘lunchbox’ apple)
1/4 cup chopped cranberries ~ 30 grams
Thanks for a great recipe!
Wow! Just wow! I added sausage and left out the crans and apples, i was afraid of it making it too sweet but next time I’ll try the original. This was so good. Im doing s round of whole 30 and I was craving carbs. This hit the spot.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing!
Can I use gluten free flour instead of almond flour?
We haven’t tested it with gluten-free flour so we can’t say for sure how it would turn out, especially because every GF flour can behave differently. If you try it, please let us know how it goes!
Easy, tasty, & nutritious! What’s not to love.
Glad you enjoyed it!