Enjoy a healthy holiday season this year with crunchy keto cornbread stuffing!
This keto stuffing recipe is made from gluten-free keto cornbread and you can enjoy a large scoop of stuffing for only 3.4g net carbs!
BONUS: Get your FREE keto Thanksgiving and keto Christmas meal plans with over 70 of the best keto holiday recipes, your whole family will love.
It's the perfect low-carb side dish for chicken, turkey, and of course, Thanksgiving, that the whole family will love. Plus you get to stick to your keto diet at your Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas holiday meal this year.
Jump to:
- Is stuffing keto?
- What is low-carb cornbread stuffing?
- How many carbs are in stuffing?
- What's stuffing vs dressing?
- Low-carb stuffing ingredients
- How to make keto stuffing/dressing
- How to dry keto cornbread pieces
- Instructions
- 10 Stuffing variations
- Can I make stuffing in advance?
- Can I use low-carb stuffing in a turkey?
- Keto Thanksgiving Side dishes
- Keto Thanksgiving desserts
- Recipe FAQ
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
The perfect Southern keto cornbread stuffing that is soft, delicious, and the perfect Thanksgiving comfort food. It's the perfect low-carb side dish, but to reduce carbs even further, help yourself to a half serving for only 1.6g net carbs!
Is stuffing keto?
Traditional bread stuffing is not keto. It is usually made with bread that is high in starch (carbs) and often accompanies other high-carb side dishes at a holiday meal.
This recipe is keto because it is made with keto cornbread which is extremely low in carbs. However, if you prefer traditional pork and sage stuffing (with almost zero carbs), you can make my pork sausage stuffing recipe.
What is low-carb cornbread stuffing?
The delicious basic low-carb cornbread stuffing recipe is made with keto cornbread, chicken or turkey broth (or vegetable broth), thickener, green onions, celery, poultry seasoning, and butter in a large bowl.
You can make this recipe exactly how you like it with 10 flavor variations and customizations to your stuffing to suit your personal preference.
You can even make it ahead of time before the big holiday meal.
How many carbs are in stuffing?
This is the perfect Thanksgiving side dish for your low-carb diet.
Traditional cornbread stuffing: 29.6g net carbs, 5.1g protein, 21.3g fat, 335 calories.
Low-carb stuffing recipe: 3.4g net carbs, 5.2g protein, 22.7g fat, 251 calories.
Nutritional values from cronometer.com
What's stuffing vs dressing?
If you use low-carb cornbread stuffing to stuff a turkey cavity, it is called "stuffing".
If you serve your crunchy crumbled cornbread stuffing as a side dish, then it is called "dressing".
The keto cornbread stuffing is best served as a dressing and the pork sausage is served as stuffing. This pork recipe has instructions to stuff a turkey cavity and its skin, and to serve as mini meatballs as a side dish.
If you prefer pork stuffing, you can also try my pork and sage sausage stuffing recipe.
The difference between stuffing and dressing has caused many debates. The truth is there isn't much difference between dressing and stuffing besides geography.
In Southern America, this dish is usually referred to as dressing.
In Northern and Western America is it referred to as stuffing.
And in some places, this dish is called stuffing when it is served inside of a bird and dressing when it is baked in a dish.
Either way, it is essentially the same dish.
Low-carb stuffing ingredients
These are the main ingredients you need, and below are 10 flavor variations to make it taste exactly how you like it.
See the recipe card below for quantities, instructions, and full nutritional information.
- Keto cornbread - cubed cornbread
- Green onions chopped
- Celery stalks - chopped
- Salted butter - or you can use unsalted butter then add seasoning to your taste
- Chicken stock - you can use chicken or turkey broth, bone broth, or vegetable broth.
- Xanthan gum - or thickener of choice
- Ground poultry seasoning - or chicken seasoning
- Fresh parsley - finely chopped
How to make keto stuffing/dressing
Dried bread is so delicious to make a stuffing recipe. Drying your bread several days ahead of time allows each dried bread piece to soak up the flavors and chicken stock.
Cornbread is my favorite type of stuffing, but if you prefer a different bread for stuffing you can try my lockdown loaf, almond flour bread, or coconut flour bread.
For this recipe, I will be using my Keto Cornbread. However, you can use any keto or low-carb bread that you like. The bread does not have to be homemade, but it does need to be low-carb and keto-friendly, of course.
How to dry keto cornbread pieces
Drying your keto cornbread, or other bread is the first step and most important part of making stuffing. If you do not dry the bread your stuffing will turn into soft and soggy cornbread stuffing.
To dry your cornbread ahead, break the bread into bite-sized pieces (small cubes) and spread it out on a large baking sheet or cookie tray. Either oil the baking tray with olive oil, cooking spray, or use baking parchment paper. This helps to stop the bread from sticking to the tray.
You want the bread to be nicely spread out so that each piece is able to get nice and crisp.
Next, bake the keto cornbread pieces in an oven temperature of 180C/350F for 20-25 minutes. You will know your bread is done when the pieces are crispy and lightly browned.
You will need to let the bread pieces cool completely before using them to make the keto cornbread stuffing.
If you want your bread to be even dryer you can cover the dried bread with a towel and let it sit on the counter overnight. The towel lets the air get to the bread but still protects the bread from dust and dirt.
Instructions
When the dried cornbread has cooled you can then make the keto cornbread dressing. Start by melting the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and saute the chopped celery until it starts to turn translucent.
Then add the seasoning, green onions, and xanthan gum. I used green onions because they have lower net carbs than bulb onions which is a root vegetable (and so higher in carbs).
Read more: Carbs in vegetables.
Next, pour the half cup chicken broth into the pan and let it simmer until the chicken broth starts to thicken in a thin gravy. Add the dried cubed cornbread pieces and fresh parsley to the skillet and gently toss the stuffing to coat the bread with the gravy.
Finally, transfer the cornbread stuffing to an oven-safe baking pan and cover with foil. The stuffing will need to cook covered in the hot oven at 180C/350F for 30-35 minutes before fluffing, garnishing, and serving your stuffing.
10 Stuffing variations
There are many tasty variations you can use to make the dressing mixture taste even better than your traditional stuffing recipe.
Be sure to keep track of what you add and how much so that you can calculate the net and total carbs for your stuffing based on what you add.
- Cooked sausage, or Italian sausage without the casing
- Fresh herbs such as thyme, fresh or dried rosemary, fresh parsley, ground sage, garlic powder
- Diced jalapenos or green chilies
- Eggs (hard-boiled or cooked into the stuffing)
- Cooked and chopped bacon
- Spices like paprika, cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper
- Vegetables such as quartered mushrooms
- Chicken seasoning, poultry seasoning, or sea salt and pepper
- Cornbread extract can be added to plain low-carb bread and keto bread to make them taste like traditional stuffing if you run out of time to make keto cornbread recipe
- Crumbled pork rinds for extra crunch, salt, pork flavor, and it will thicken the stuffing mix too.
All of these variations can either be mixed into the low-carb stuffing (low-carb cornbread dressing) before baking in a large mixing bowl or sprinkled on top. Some people like to use eggs as a binder to keep the stuffing together.
If you want to use eggs as a binder you will skip making gravy and saute the onion and celery, and seasoning in the butter leaving the xanthan gum out.
Mix the vegetables in with the dried bread.
Next, combine the eggs and chicken broth together in a bowl and pour the egg mixture over the stuffing in a baking pan. Toss the stuffing well and then cover and bake.
Your keto cornbread stuffing may need to be baked for longer if you are using raw eggs in your stuffing.
Can I make stuffing in advance?
There are a few steps when it comes to making homemade keto cornbread stuffing from scratch so it might be too time-consuming to make on the day you need it.
To make things easier, you can make the cubed cornbread and dry it 1-2 days in advance.
The dried bread can sit on the counter covered with a towel for a few days until you are ready to use it. Just be sure you do not place it in a sealed airtight container or it will retain moisture and likely go moldy.
Can I use low-carb stuffing in a turkey?
Yes, you can! Simply fill the turkey with your warm stuffing and cook as you normally would. You want to be sure that the stuffing is not cold when you fill your turkey or chicken or it will affect the internal temperature of your bird while it is cooking.
If you choose to stuff your turkey with the stuffing be sure to check the internal temperature of the stuffing before removing the bird from the oven. You will want your stuffing to reach an internal temperature of 74C/165F.
Keto Thanksgiving Side dishes
A family Thanksgiving always has to have delicious side dishes. Learn how to avoid high-carb bread, sweet potato, and mashed potatoes by making your own yummy keto Thanksgiving recipes.
Each of the keto recipes is family-friendly and made with simple easy-to-find ingredients at your local grocery store, and they taste like the real thing.
The most popular low-carb and keto side dishes are pork and sage sausage stuffing, creamed Brussels sprouts, baked cheesy asparagus, and Brussels sprouts with bacon.
Keto Thanksgiving desserts
Sweet delicious Thanksgiving desserts are what everyone looks forward to at the end of their family celebration.
Always offer to make a sugar-free dessert or a low-carb keto dessert or sugar-free diabetic cakes so you can stay on track with your low-carb diet or keto diet.
You can still enjoy traditional holiday desserts with low-carb Thanksgiving recipes such as chocolate pumpkin pie, chocolate pudding cake, Instant Pot lime cheesecake, keto lemon meringue pie, or New York baked keto cheesecake with chocolate ganche.
Recipe FAQ
No, keto cornbread does not contain actual corn or cornmeal. It is made with coconut flour cornbread. You'll still have all the traditional flavors of bread stuffing, herbs, chicken broth, celery, and melted butter, but without the carbs.
Yes, absolutely! You can make this keto cornbread stuffing exactly how your family will love it. Add pecans, macadamias, crispy bacon, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and cooked pork and sage sausage.
Traditionally stuffing refers to a recipe that is used to stuff a turkey (or poultry). Dressing usually refers to when it is served as a side dish. But the terms are used interchangeably.
Once you add the chicken stock, it will be quite damp, but if it's too wet, then you will need to add more dried cornbread. As you are baking your stuffing, remove it from the oven before it is too dry, or keep cooking if it is too wet.
Yes, either add raw crumbled pork Italian herb sausage meat (without casing) mixed in with the low-carb cornbread on your baking tray. Or mix cooked pork sausage in after baking. Alternatively, you can make my pork and sage stuffing recipe.
You need to use keto cornbread. It can be made or bought, but it must be keto bread to stay in line with your keto diet.
It's both. There is often heated debate amongst family so let me know in the comments below what you would call this.
If you don't want to make keto cornbread, you can use keto-friendly bread such as almond flour bread or low-carb coconut flour bread with some cornbread extract.
Fry gently in a hot skillet, or place into a small casserole dish or baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 180C/350F for 15 minutes.
📖 Recipe
Please rate this recipe.
Low-Carb and Keto Stuffing Recipe (Cornbread)
Recipe Video
Calculate ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 Keto Cornbread
- ½ cup green onions chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup chicken stock or broth can sub turkey or vegetable broth
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum or thickener of choice
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground poultry seasoning
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
Instructions
Dried Cornbread Pieces
- Preheat your oven to 350F/180C. Break your keto cornbread into bite-sized pieces then spread the pieces over a cookie sheet.
- Dry the cornbread pieces uncovered in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the keto cornbread is golden brown and stale. Remove the cornbread pieces from the oven and let it completely cool on the counter before using it to make stuffing.
Making Stuffing
- Melt the butter in a large skillet on high heat. When the butter is melted add your chopped celery. Saute the celery for 2-3 minutes or until the celery starts to look translucent.
- Next mix in the chopped green onions, poultry seasoning, and xanthan gum into the skillet. Once it is mixed together pour in your broth. Reduce the heat to medium high. Continue to stir the contents of your pan while the broth thickens into a light gravy.
- Once the gravy has thickened add the dried cornbread pieces and parsley to the skillet. Carefully toss the cornbread pieces in the skillet until each piece is coated with the gravy.
- Transfer your stuffing into a baking pan and cover with foil. Bake the stuffing at 350F/180C for 30-35 minutes. When the stuffing is done baking let the stuffing cool for several minutes before fluffing your stuffing, garnishing, and serving. Enjoy!
5-INGREDIENTS COOKBOOK
.
YOUR HOLIDAY PANTRY & GIFT GUIDES
.
Approximate nutrition information is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. For the most accurate nutritional data, use the actual ingredients and brands you used in your preferred nutrition calculator.
Cindy
This is perfect timing, I am trying (?) to plan ahead for an entire keto Thanksgiving meal for my entire family and I was stumped as to which stuffing to use (my family LIVES for their stuffing). This looks perfect an so easy to make. Happy Thanks Libby xxx
karen
this great. thank you.
Another idea for the bread is a flax loaf. Unless used as a thickener, or well hidden, flax anything makes me gag! but flax is so cheap.
So I tried it for croutons which are seasoned and fried. perfect. then i used it for stuffing. Same result and a bit like using heavier bread. Soaks up everything