Cranberry Pecan Wild Rice Stuffing

Cranberry pecan wild rice stuffing is a delicious alternative to bread based stuffing. Chock full of all the flavors of the holidays, you’ll love this effortless side dish.

While I’m all about tradition come the holiday season, I do like to vary what I serve slightly from holiday to holiday.

If I don’t, I feel like we are eating the same big meal twice between the end of November for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas.

It’s too repetitive to not have a bit of variety, you know?

For one of the two holidays, I prefer to serve a wild rice stuffing instead of a bread based stuffing.

It offers a whole different flavor profile than bread based stuffing while still feeling classic and festive.

What is wild rice stuffing?

Wild rice stuffing is a fantastic alternative to bread heavy stuffing or dressing.

This cranberry pecan variety feels much lighter than bread based varieties since it doesn’t use any bread and has the fresh flavors of orange running through the blend of rice, cranberries and pecans.

Ingredients

Unlike some bread based varieties, this only needs a handful of ingredients.

To make it you’ll need:

• Wild rice- Look for a wild and long grain rice blend
• Chicken broth
• Orange juice
• Orange zest
• Spices- salt, pepper and cinnamon
• Dried cranberries
• Chopped pecans

How to Make

With so few ingredients and no chopping necessary, making this is almost effortless.

To make it, add all of the ingredients except the dried cranberries and the nuts to a 9×13 baking dish and stir it to combine.

Then cover the dish tightly with foil. Make sure the foil seals the dish to prevent steam from leaking out.

Once it’s well sealed, bake the dish at 350 for an hour and 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and carefully stir in the cranberries and pecans, fluffing the rice as you stir.

After you add the cranberries and pecans, recover the dish with foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Then, remove the rice from the oven and let it sit, covered for 10 more minutes.

Then fluff the rice and serve.

Fluff the rice using a fork, this is important.

Don’t be tempted to stir it with a spoon because this tends to bread the already soft rice apart, which can lead to mushy rice.

Can you stuff a turkey with it?

Yes, you can stuff a bird with it, but I’d recommend cooking the rice first.

The rice won’t cook well going into the bird dry. 

Storing Leftovers

Store leftovers in an air tight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Reheat in the microwave or in the oven.

You may need to add a bit more chicken broth to rehydrate the rice a bit prior to warming.

Tips and Tricks

• If you are using this to go with a turkey at Thanksgiving, you could substitute turkey stock for chicken stock. 
• For a vegetarian variety, substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
• You can get creative with the add ins. Dried cherries and apples would also taste delicious in this.

Other Stuffing Recipes You May Enjoy

This cranberry pecan wild rice stuffing has all the traditional flavors of the holiday season in a lighter, easy to make side dish.

You’ll love making and eating this stuffing.

Looking for other stuffing recipes? Try these:

• Sausage Apple & Sage Dressing
• Mid Atlantic Seafood Stuffing
• Crockpot Wild Rice Stuffing

If you want to try a more traditional stuffing recipe, then check out our recipe for an easy, savory bundt pan stuffing. Tastes delicious, and looks gorgeous on your holiday table!

If you’ve tried this CRANBERRY PECAN WILD RICE STUFFING, or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!

recipe adapted from Onion Rings & Things