Air Fryer Stuffing

This Air Fryer Stuffing is the perfect holiday side dish! Packed with carrots, leeks, and celery, it will impress all your dinner guests!

Recipe Overview

The sides are the best part of the holidays for me, and this Air Fryer Stuffing is one I’m always making for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

This rich, hearty side dish is packed with veggies and the must-have for stuffing: bread.

In this recipe, I use a mixture of dried bread and soft bread in my stuffing to help give it both a crunchy and chewy texture throughout.

The bread is surrounded by sautéed carrots, leeks, and celery, for the ultimate fall flavor in a baking dish!

Need more holiday side dishes for your upcoming holiday spreads? Try these: Air Fryer Creamed Corn Casserole, Air Fryer Green Bean Casserole and Air Fryer Sweet Potato Casserole.

How to Make Air Fryer Stuffing

1. In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Once your butter is melted, add your diced celery. Next, add your diced leeks — or white onions, if you’re out of leeks! Then, add your diced carrots. Sauté the veggies until they’ve softened.
2. Once they’re softened, add your spices: Poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. 
3. Finally, add the vegetable broth to moisten the bread slightly — but not soggy — and taste the mixture.
4. If the flavors are right, pour your bread mixture into an oiled oven-safe baking dish.
5. Air Fry at 325F/170C for 22-24 minutes or until your stuffing is golden brown.
6. Enjoy!

How to make this ahead of time

Holiday dishes are the best when they can be made, at least partially, in advance and then cooked on the big day!

For this recipe, you could definitely sauté your veggies the day before and mix them with your soft bread pieces.

I’d wait to add the dried bread pieces and vegetable broth until cooking time because the liquid could make the bread overly soft and break down in the fridge.

No one wants gummy stuffing!

You can also just sauté the vegetables the night before and mix them into your bread the next day for the freshest partially make-ahead stuffing!

What Bread is Best for Stuffing?

For this recipe, you can use just about any bread you have — white, wheat, gluten-free, multi-grain, you name it!

The key here is to make sure you dice up half of the bread the day or two in advance so it gets that hard, crusty feeling on the outside. 

Leave the bread in a bowl on your counter, and it should be ready to use after about a day!

A large loaf of sandwich bread should give you around 9 cups, so that would be more than enough for this recipe.

I use half-dry bread and half-soft bread, so I dice the other half right before cooking. Want to do it all ahead of time?

Dice up your bread and leave half out to dry and half in an airtight container to keep moist!