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You haven’t had stuffing until you’ve tried Seafood Stuffing! This stuffing is full of flavor and color with a mixture of tender shrimp, bell peppers and onions, fresh herbs, and seasonings. It’s buttery, loaded with flavor, and unbelievably good!
While you may be more familiar with traditional bread stuffing to serve as part of your Thanksgiving dinner, this seafood stuffing may be a welcome change with succulent shrimp, a rich shrimp stock, bread cubes to soak up the flavorful stock, and some savoriness from the Cajun seasoning. Customize the stuffing by using other types of seafood or protein, such as scallops, oysters, crab, or chicken if you prefer.
This seafood stuffing is wonderful to serve alongside other Thanksgiving favorites like my Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble, Roasted Cajun Turkey, and Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
If you’re looking for another stuffing recipe, you must try my Cornbread Dressing!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This seafood stuffing recipe combines sweet and buttery shrimp with cubed bread and seasoning for a delicious side dish for your Christmas or Thanksgiving table or even a dish to take to a potluck. It’s rich, comforting and totally unforgettable!
You won’t believe how easy it is considering how fancy it tastes.
- Easy to Adapt: This seafood stuffing calls for shrimp but if you enjoy other types of seafood, feel free to replace it with scallops, oysters, lobster meat, or crab meat, or a combination of several types of seafood. You could even replace the seafood with chicken if you aren’t in love with the taste of shellfish but appreciate Cajun flavors.
- Unique Flavors: This easy stuffing recipe is a uniquely flavored dish with cajun and old bay seasonings, fresh parsley and thyme, and a rich homemade seafood stock. This offers a different set of flavors rather than the usual bread stuffing filled with sage and poultry seasoning.
- Perfect for Parties: Are you looking for a dish that is perfect to bring to your next holiday gathering? This seafood stuffing will be sure to impress your friends and family, which can be scaled up to serve a larger group.
Turn any holiday meal into a feast with this incredible holiday staple with a seafood twist!
Stuffing Ingredients You Need
Note: The full list of ingredients with measurements is provided in the recipe card below.
- Jumbo Shrimp – Make sure to buy shrimp with the shells as you will need the shells for the stock and the shrimp for the stuffing. You can substitute some of all of the shrimp for other seafood like crab, scallops, lobster, clams, or oysters.
- Vegetables – I use onion, celery, and green bell pepper.
- Garlic – Fresh garlic pairs beautifully with shrimp and lends a wonderful garlicky taste to the stock that infuses into the bread cubes.
- Bay Leaves – It adds a subtle nuanced flavor that make this shrimp stuffing even better than it already is.
- Fresh herbs – For a wonderful earthy fresh herb flavor, you will need fresh thyme and fresh parsley. You can substitute the fresh thyme with dried thyme, if needed.
- Unsalted Butter – The butter is important for adding flavor and a rich taste to the stuffing.
- Oil – You will need oil for sautéing the shrimp shells to create flavor. You can use olive oil or a neutral oil.
- Seasonings – I use a combination of Cajun seasoning, Old Bay seasoning, and Adobo seasoning to create a flavorful dish.
- French Bread – Crusty bread gets cubed up before being mixed with the other ingredients for this stuffing recipe.
- Eggs – Eggs help bind all of the ingredients together.
How to Make Seafood Stuffing
Seafood stuffing comes together relatively easily with a homemade shrimp stock and a few other ingredients.
- Make the shrimp stock: Heat the oil in a large pot set over medium heat. Add the shrimp shells and cook them until they are bright pink, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the onion, celery, and garlic, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the water, bay leaves, thyme, and salt. Simmer uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes. Strain and reserve 2 ½ cups of the stock for the stuffing.
- Sauté the aromatics: In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the onion, celery, and bell pepper, and cook until softened, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add the seasonings: Stir in the garlic, Cajun seasoning, Old Bay seasoning, adobo, parsley, and thyme, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Cook the shrimp: Add the shrimp and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Assemble the stuffing: In a large bowl, stir the bread cubes with the shrimp mixture. Stir in the eggs, salt, and reserved 2 ½ cups of stock. Mix until the bread is moistened but not soggy, adding more stock,1 tablespoon at a time, if needed.
- Bake: Preheat the the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8 x 11-inch baking dish with butter. Spread the stuffing mixture in the dish. Cover it with foil and bake it for 25 minutes.
- Remove the foil and allow it to bake uncovered until golden brown on top, about another 15 to 20 minutes.
- Rest and serve: Allow the stuffing to rest for 10 minutes before garnishing it with parsley.
Chef’s Kiss
If you find that your bread mixture is too dry, you can add more stock, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the bread is sufficiently moistened but not soggy.
Expert Tips
- Purchase Shrimp With the Shells: Be careful that you buy shrimp that still has the shells on them rather than pre-shelled shrimp, as you will need the shells to make the shrimp stock that moistens the stuffing.
- Add More Color: For even more color, you can feel free to add colored bell peppers to the stuffing such as red bell pepper or orange bell pepper.
- Use French Bread That is a Few Days Old: Using crusty bread that is at least a couple of days old will be the best for this recipe as it will be able to absorb lots of moisture without becoming soggy. Seafood stuffing is also a great way to give new life to bread that has dried out and may no longer be eaten otherwise.
- Do Not Overcook the Stuffing: Shrimp can be overcooked easily, so make sure not to overcook the stuffing, or the shrimp will be rubbery.
Recipe FAQs
Seafood stuffing commonly includes shrimp or other seafood, onion, celery, bell peppers, herbs, Cajun seasoning, and bread. The result is a dish that has a delicate seafood flavor and a slight spiciness with plenty of herbaceous notes.
Shrimp or crab are particularly good for seafood stuffing as they also include shells that you can use to make a homemade seafood stock.
One of the number one mistakes to make with stuffing is making it too soggy or too dry. Your results may be dependent on how dry the bread is that you start with, so once you add the initial 2 ½ cups of stock, simply stir in a little more stock at a time if you think the mixture is too dry. The bread cubes should be moist throughout without being soggy.
Crusty bread like French bread, dinner rolls, or Italian bread are all great in seafood stuffing. However, avoid overly soft bread such as sandwich bread or soft rolls.
Shrimp is particularly good with lots of herbs and spices, which is why this seafood stuffing contains Old Bay seasoning, Cajun seasoning, thyme, parsley, adobo, and plenty of garlic.
Seafood Stuffing
Ingredients
For the shrimp stock:
- 2 tablespoons oil
- Shells from 3 pounds jumbo shrimp (shrimp reserved for the stuffing below)
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 6 cups cold water
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For the stuffing:
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 cup finely chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 teaspoon adobo seasoning
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped (plus more for garnish)
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 3 pounds jumbo shrimp peeled, deveined, and chopped into small pieces, shells reserved for stock above(21/25)
- 16 ounces French bread cubed (about 8 to 9 cups)
- 2 1/2 cups shrimp stock (from above, strained)
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Make the shrimp stock:
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add shrimp shells and cook until pink about 5 minutes. Add the onion, celery and garlic. Cook until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in water, bay leaves, thyme, and salt. Simmer uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes. Strain and reserve 2 1/2 cups of the stock for the stuffing.
Cook the aromatics:
- In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper; cook until softened, 6–8 minutes. Stir in the garlic, Cajun seasoning, old bay, adobo, parsley, and thyme. Cook 1–2 minutes more.
- Add the chopped shrimp and cook the shrimp for 3 to 4 minutes, until opaque and cooked through.
Assemble and bake the stuffing:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the bread cubes with the sautéed vegetable-shrimp mixture. Stir in 2 ½ cups of stock, the beaten eggs, and salt. Mix until the bread is moistened but not soggy (add more stock, a tablespoon at a time, if needed).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8×11-inch baking dish. Spread mixture evenly in the baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake another 15–20 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Let the stuffing sit for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley.
Notes
- Purchase shrimp with the shells ON, as you need both the shells and the shrimp for this recipe.
- If you find that your stuffing mixture is too dry before going into the oven, you can add more stock, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the bread is sufficiently moistened but not soggy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This seafood stuffing looks delicious! I’ll be trying it this Thanksgiving for sure. Can’t wait to try your thanksgiving recipe😊