If your family is from California or anywhere out West, you probably know the box. Mrs. Cubbison’s has been showing up next to the cranberry sauce for longer than most of us have been cooking, and honestly? It deserves the spot.
The seasoning’s already in the bag. Your part is the butter (yes, the whole stick), onion and celery cooked down nice and slow, and broth that’s actually warm when it hits the bread. Cut corners there and it tastes like a box. Don’t, and people go back for seconds without ever asking.
Below: the oven method most of our grandmothers used, then what to do when it comes out soggy, how to get ahead on Thanksgiving week, and the USDA’s take on cooking it inside the bird.
Who Was Mrs. Cubbison, Anyway?
A real woman, as it turns out, and kind of a pioneer. Sophie Huchting grew up on a lima bean ranch in San Marcos (that’s San Diego County), finished a home economics degree at Cal Poly in 1912 when women were still a small minority there, married Harry Cubbison, and in 1916 the couple scraped together a $300 loan for a whole-wheat bakery.
They moved into Melba toast in 1925. Melba toast breaks. A lot. Around 1948 Sophie started seasoning those broken bits and selling them as “Toasted Dressing,” and that’s the stuffing still sold under her name today. The full story is on the brand’s own about page and on Wikipedia.
Knowing it started life as toast explains a lot, actually. Those cubes are bone dry, which is why they can soak up two and a half cups of broth and still not turn to paste.
What You Need
The card further down has the exact numbers. In plain English you’re grabbing the bag of herb cubes, one stick of unsalted butter, an onion, a few ribs of celery (leaves too, they’re the best bit) and roughly 2½ cups of warm broth, chicken or turkey. Pepper, sure. Poultry seasoning? Only if your people love sage.
Hold off on salt. The cubes are seasoned and most boxed broth is already salty, so taste the wet mix before it goes in the pan. Usually it needs nothing.
How to Make It
Oven on, 350°F. Grease your 9×13.
Butter goes in a wide skillet, medium heat, onion and celery after it. Now be patient. Eight minutes, ten even, poking at it occasionally, until the onion’s gone glassy and sweet. Rushing this is where most boxed stuffing goes wrong, because half-raw onion stays crunchy and sharp and there’s no fixing it later.
Biggest bowl you own, cubes in. Scrape every bit of that butter in there. Pepper. Then broth, a ladle’s worth, fold, another ladle, fold again. Every cube should feel damp. No puddle at the bottom though. Some bags want 2 cups, some want every drop of the 2½.
Spread it into the dish loosely. Please don’t pack it down. Foil on, 30 minutes in the oven, then foil off for another 10 to 15 so the top goes golden and the corners get crunchy.
Five minutes on the counter after it comes out. It scoops cleaner, and the top won’t tear.
Print Recipe
Mrs. Cubbison’s Stuffing (Classic Oven-Baked)
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Skillet or frying pan
- Baking dish (9×13 inch recommended)
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Aluminum foil
Ingredients
- 1 package Mrs. Cubbison’s Seasoned Stuffing (10–12 oz / 280–340 g box)
- ½ cup unsalted butter (113 g / 1 stick)
- 1 cup chopped onion (about 150 g, 1 medium onion)
- 1 cup chopped celery (about 100 g, 2–3 ribs)
- 2½ cups warm chicken broth (600 ml), or turkey broth
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning optional
- Salt to taste
- Optional add-ins cooked sausage, diced apples, nuts or fresh herbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a 9×13-inch (23×33 cm) baking dish.
- Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
- Sauté onion and celery for 8–10 minutes, until soft and sweet.
- Place the seasoned bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.
- Pour the butter and vegetable mixture over the bread and toss gently.
- Add pepper, poultry seasoning (if using), and salt. Mix lightly.
- Gradually add warm chicken broth until bread is moist but not soggy.
- Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish.
- Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake an additional 10–15 minutes until top is golden and crisp.
- Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
- Moisture control is key: Avoid oversaturating the bread cubes.
- Customizations: Add sausage, apples, nuts, mushrooms, or extra herbs for a personal twist.
- Cooking inside poultry: Ensure stuffing reaches 165°F (74°C) if baked inside a turkey.
- Make-ahead: Prepare the stuffing a day ahead and refrigerate; bake when ready.
- Leftovers: Store in an airtight container for 3–4 days in the fridge or freeze up to 2 months.
Nutrition
Soggy, Dry or Pale? Fix It Before It Bakes
| Problem | Why it happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Soggy, heavy middle | Too much broth, or packed down | Start with 2 cups broth, spread it loosely, bake uncovered the last 15 minutes |
| Dry, hard cubes | Not enough liquid, or never covered | Drizzle ¼ cup warm broth over the top, keep foil on for the first 30 minutes |
| Pale top | Foil left on the whole time | Uncover for the last 10 to 15 minutes, dot with a little butter |
| Too salty | Seasoned cubes plus full-sodium broth | Use low-sodium broth, salt only after tasting |
Team crispy corners? Grab a wider, shallower pan. More surface, more crust, fewer arguments at the table.
Making It Ahead for Thanksgiving
Oven space on Thanksgiving is a nightmare, so plan around it. The USDA is pretty clear on the safe way to do this.
Do the onion and celery the night before. Cook them in the butter like normal, cool the pan, stick it in the fridge. Don’t open the cubes yet.
On the day, warm the vegetables and broth back up, mix everything, and bake it straight away. What you shouldn’t do is mix the wet and dry stuff the night before and leave it sitting raw in the fridge.
Or just bake the whole thing Wednesday. Totally fine. Chill it quickly, then Thursday it goes back in at 350°F, covered, with a little broth over the top, until a thermometer in the center says 165°F.
Can You Cook It Inside the Turkey?
Sure, people have done it forever. Our vote is still the baking dish, where it cooks evenly and you get that crust. If your family won’t hear of it, the USDA rules are short: stuff right before roasting, keep it loose (roughly ¾ cup per pound of bird), oven at 325°F or higher, and stick a thermometer in the middle of the stuffing itself. 165°F there, no matter what the breast meat says. Rest the bird 20 minutes, then scoop.
And you’ll want gravy. This lump-free turkey gravy goes with both.
Things You Can Stir In
Sausage is the add-in people ask about most. Half a pound is enough to taste it, a pound if it’s the main event, and plain pork or Italian both work. Get it browned and crumbly first and pour off the grease, and then since it’s brought its own fat to the party, pull the butter back to 6 tablespoons.
A diced Granny Smith cooked with the celery is lovely, especially with a handful of dried cranberries thrown in at the bowl stage. Mushroom people, brown about 8 ounces hard (until they squeak against the pan) before the onion goes anywhere near it. Toasted pecans should go in right before baking or they go soft. And a tablespoon of fresh chopped sage does more than you’d think to make a boxed stuffing taste homemade.
Got half a bag left over? Use it on top of this slow cooker chicken stuffing casserole, or in a weeknight pork chop stuffing bake.
What to Serve With It
Turkey, obviously. Roast chicken’s great with it. Easter ham, also yes. Put something green on the table (green bean casserole, roasted sprouts, whatever your family fights over) and don’t skip the cranberry sauce, it’s there to cut the butter.
Leftovers
Into the fridge within 2 hours. Shallow container. Finish it in 3 or 4 days. Reheat covered with a spoon of broth so it doesn’t dry out, or freeze it for a couple of months.
FAQs
So how many does one box feed?
Ten-ish people, if there are other sides. It fills a 9×13. Feeding a big family crowd of 16 or 20, make two batches in two pans. One deep pan just steams and you lose the crust.
Water instead of broth, is that okay?
Sure. It’ll still taste seasoned. Broth just makes it richer, and vegetable broth works if you’ve got vegetarians at the table.
Can I make it in a slow cooker?
Yes. Mix it the same way, put it in a buttered slow cooker, and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours until the middle is hot. You give up the crispy top. You get your oven back. Fair trade on Thanksgiving.
Stuffing or dressing, what’s the difference?
Officially, stuffing is cooked inside the bird and dressing is cooked in a pan. Unofficially, it depends on where your grandma was from. Funny enough, Mrs. Cubbison called hers “Toasted Dressing” when it first came out in 1948.
Made it this year? Leave some stars on the recipe card and tell us what you added. Sausage? Apple? Straight from the box?
ooh tasty
merci
emm