This mouth-watering sausage meat stuffing recipe is the perfect side dish for your Christmas dinner, as well as a great complement to classic roast chicken and beef.
It's also incredibly easy to make, requiring just a few key ingredients.
The recipe features store-bought sausage meat, dried sage and onion stuffing mix, grated apple, and nutmeg, resulting in a sausagemeat stuffing that's bursting with flavour and moisture.
The grated apple adds a lovely tang that perfectly balances the savoury sausage meat.
To elevate the flavour even more, I've swapped out traditional breadcrumbs for a packet of store-bought Paxo sage and onion stuffing mix.
👩🍳 Have an air fryer? Try my easy air fryer stuffing balls too!
Jump to:
✔️ Why should you try it?
- With stuffing mix, making sausage meat stuffing has never been easier. Simply mix the stuffing mix with sausage meat, grated apple, and nutmeg, and you're ready to go!
- Dried stuffing mix is made with a blend of sage and onion, which adds a delicious savoury flavour to the dish. It's the perfect complement to the meaty sausage.
- The combination of stuffing mix and sausage meat results in a stuffing that's moist and tender, with just the right amount of texture.
- Sausage meat stuffing is not only the perfect side dish for Christmas dinner, but it also goes well with classic roast chicken and beef. It's a versatile recipe that you can enjoy all year round.
🥘 Ingredients
Sausage Meat - you'll need 450g of pork sausage meat. If you prefer, you can squeeze sausage meat from store-bought sausages.
Sage and Onion Stuffing Mix - I use supermarket own brand or Paxo dried stuffing mixes. You could also try different flavours of dry stuffing mix. At Christmas, you'll often find ones containing dried cranberries and chestnuts.
Apple - a large Bramley apple but Granny Smith apples would also work well. There is no need to peel the apple first.
Egg - helps bind the stuffing together.
Nutmeg - I always grate whole nutmeg for the best flavour. Use ground nutmeg if that is all you have though.
Butter - dotted over the top of the stuffing for colour and moistness.
Black Pepper - for seasoning.
🔪 How to make sausage meat stuffing
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: In a large bowl mix together the sausage meat, dried stuffing mix, grated apple, egg, nutmeg and black pepper with a wooden spoon. If you like your stuffing really smooth, you could blitz all of the ingredients in a food processor!
Two: Press the stuffing into a lightly greased medium size oven-proof baking dish and dot the top with butter.
Three: Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until golden.
🍴 Serving suggestions
I love stuffing with any roast dinner, but especially chicken, and turkey at Christmas!
At Christmas, I usually serve the stuffing in a baking dish alongside roast turkey, polenta roast potatoes, slow cooker red cabbage, honey roasted carrots and parsnips, pan-fried Brussels sprouts, bread sauce, and devils on horseback.
I absolutely love using cold stuffing in sandwiches with cold sliced turkey and cranberry sauce! It's one of my all-time favourite ways to enjoy leftover stuffing and turkey.
📖 Variations
- Give the stuffing a festive flavour boost with the addition of dried cranberries, crumbled chestnuts, and clementine zest. You could also add chopped fresh herbs such as sage or parsley.
- Instead of baking the stuffing in one big dish, you could roll it into stuffing balls. You would need to reduce the cooking time by about 15 minutes. Did you know you can also cook stuffing balls in your air fryer?
- The recipe serves 8 as part of a roast dinner, but it can easily be doubled to feed a crowd at Christmas!
- I find that the stuffing is lovely and moist due to the egg, grated apple and butter. However, feel free to add 200ml of boiling water to the stuffing if you like your stuffing very soft.
- The sausage meat stuffing also makes a fantastic filling for puff pastry sausage rolls!
- Try my apricot stuffing recipe instead!
🥡 Storage
Make Ahead - The stuffing can be made up to the point of baking and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. It's a great make-ahead recipe for Christmas!
Store - Leftover stuffing can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container. It's delicious in sandwiches with cold meats and cranberry sauce. You can also reheat it in the microwave.
Freeze - The sausage meat stuffing is also freezer friendly. You can either freeze the stuffing baked or unbaked. If freezing unbaked, defrost in the fridge overnight, add the butter on top, and then cook as directed.
❓ FAQs
Yes, sausage meat stuffing can be reheated in the microwave until piping hot.
Eggs help bind the stuffing mixture together and create a soft textured stuffing.
Bake uncovered but if the top is beginning to brown too much, lightly cover with a layer of foil.
Yes, you can make sausage meat stuffing in advance. Simply prepare the stuffing mixture, cover it with cling film, and store it in the fridge until ready to use. When you're ready to cook, remove the stuffing from the fridge and let it come to room temperature before baking.
Yes, you can add other ingredients to sausage meat stuffing, such as dried cranberries, chopped nuts, or herbs like rosemary or thyme. Be creative and experiment with different flavours to find your favourite combination!
😋 Delicious sides for roast dinner
- Air fryer roast potatoes
- Boulangere potatoes
- Roasted swede
- Cauliflower cheese
- Air fryer asparagus
- Creamed Cabbage
More festive recipes to try!
Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter to stay up to date with what's cooking in the Effortless Foodie kitchen! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too!
Recipe
Easy Sausage Meat Stuffing
Equipment
- Cheese Grater
- Mixing Bowl
- Oven Proof Baking Dish
Ingredients
- 450 g Sausage Meat
- 1 Bramley Apple grated coarsely
- 1 Egg
- 170 g Sage and Onion Stuffing Mix
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg grated
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- 30 g Unsalted Butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C (180 °fan/ 400 °F/ Gas 6) and lightly butter a medium baking dish (a 20cm square dish or equivalent).
- In a large bowl mix together the sausage meat, grated apple, egg, sage and onion stuffing mix, nutmeg, and black pepper until combined.450 g Sausage Meat, 1 Bramley Apple, 1 Egg, 170 g Sage and Onion Stuffing Mix, ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- Press the mixture into the prepared baking dish and dot the top with pieces of butter.30 g Unsalted Butter
- Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. If it's browning too much on top, cover with foil for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking.
Notes
- Give the stuffing a festive flavour boost with the addition of dried cranberries and clementine zest.
- Instead of baking the stuffing in one big dish, you could roll it into balls. You would need to reduce the cooking time by about 15 minutes.
- The recipe I give here serves 8 as part of a roast dinner, but it can easily be doubled to feed a crowd at Christmas!
- I find that the stuffing is lovely and moist due to the egg, grated apple and butter. However, feel free to add 200ml of boiling water to the stuffing if you like your stuffing very soft.
- The sausage meat stuffing also makes a fantastic filling for sausage rolls!
Katherine
Got to love a classic festive stuffing! It's a must on our Christmas table.
Claudia Lamascolo
Sausage is the meat of choice here all the time, never tried it in a stuffing, sounds terrific!
Jacqueline Meldrum
I can see a lot of people enjoying this for Christmas. I'll have to try a veggie version. Nice idea Beth.
Gina
Love how the pinch of nutmeg brings out the flavors in this stuffing!
Natalie
I'm going to save this and make it for Christmas. Sounds delicious. Love the added nutmeg.
A G B
Question: when you say "170g stuffing mix", I presume you mean it to be already made up (ie: water already added)? Otherwise I can't see how the mix would get moist with only egg and a bit of apple in there....
Beth Sachs
No it's 170g of dry stuffing mix from a packet. It works, promise!