We’re all about reducing food waste over here at Budget Bytes, so I want to make sure you’ve got plenty of options for enjoying your Thanksgiving leftovers later this week! These Leftover Stuffing Muffins have been a reader favorite since they were posted back in 2014, and since I made them again myself last week I decided to give the photos a little facelift. The recipe is the same as always, simple, delicious, and portable. ;) These tasty little savory muffins make a great grab-n-go breakfast!
What is a Stuffing Muffin?
Okay, these are basically like those little egg bites that you can get at Starbucks, but with leftover stuffing added into the mix. In addition to the eggs and stuffing, I also added leftover turkey and spinach. So it’s like little single-serving baked eggs with meat, vegetables, and stuffing. Super tasty, super portable, and the perfect make-ahead breakfast!
Choose Your Ingredients
These great little muffins are a super flexible way to combine your Thanksgiving leftovers into a “new” meal and avoid Thanksgiving burnout. The bulk of this recipe is leftover stuffing (dressing), but you can add a variety of other ingredients into the mix and make them your own. Here are some other ingredients that would taste awesome in these Leftover Stuffing Muffins:
- Chopped broccoli
- Chopped ham
- Roasted sweet potatoes or butternut squash
- Chopped green beans
- Mushrooms
- Corn
- Cheese (cheddar, brie, mozzarella, feta, goat)
Whatever you decide to add, make sure it’s chopped into small pieces!
Bake it as a Casserole
While I haven’t done this yet, you could definitely bake this as a breakfast casserole, just like a strata. This amount of ingredients would probably fit an an 8×8 or 9×9-inch casserole dish. You’ll need to bake it until the center reaches an internal temperature of 160ºF.
How Long Do They Last?
You’ll want to either freeze or eat these leftover stuffing muffins within a few days, assuming you made them the day after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, there’s no exact lifespan of dishes like this because the freshness and safety of leftovers can depend on so many different things, like how long the ingredients stayed at room temperature before they were refrigerated, the conditions within your refrigerator, and how quickly they were able to cool down once inside the refrigerator. When in doubt, play it safe!
Leftover Stuffing Muffins
Servings 12 muffinsIngredients
- 2 tsp butter (for greasing the muffin tin)
- 3 cups prepared stuffing or dressing
- 1 cup chopped turkey or ham
- 1/4 lb. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
- 6 large eggs
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp Freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a muffin tin with butter, oil, or non-stick spray. Thaw and squeeze the spinach dry.
- Add the stuffing, turkey, and spinach to a bowl, then stir gently to combine without breaking up the stuffing too much.
- Divide the stuffing mixture between all 12 wells of the muffin tin. Leave the stuffing loosely packed in the cups so that the egg mixture can fill in around the stuffing.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Divide the egg mixture among the 12 wells, starting with 2 Tbsp per muffin and then adding a little bit more until all of the egg mixture has been used. The egg will not fully cover the stuffing, it will puff up as it bakes.
- Bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy on the top. Allow the muffins to cool slightly, then run a knife around the edges to loosen and remove each muffin. Serve warm.
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Equipment
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Leftover Stuffing Muffins – Step by Step Photos
Start by preheating the oven to 375ºF. Grease a muffin tin with butter, oil, or non-stick spray.
First, mix together your solid ingredients. This is where you can get creative. I used 3 cups of leftover herb stuffing, 1 cup of chopped Thanksgiving turkey, and 1/4 lb. of frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed dry). Whatever you use, make sure it’s chopped into small pieces and all vegetables have been cooked down to remove most of their moisture.
Gently stir the ingredients together until combined. Try not to stir too vigorously because that moist stuffing can kind of turn into a paste if stirred too much, and you want this mixture to remain chunky.
Divide the stuffing mixture between the 12 wells of a muffin tin. Do not pack the stuffing down into the well, you want there to be some empty space to be filled in with the egg mixture.
Whisk together 6 eggs, 2 Tbsp of milk or cream, 1/4 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp freshly cracked pepper. Whisk until it’s really smooth to make it easier to pour into the muffin tins.
Divide the whisked egg mixture between all 12 wells of the muffin tin. To make sure you don’t run out of egg mixture, start by adding just 2 Tbsp to each well, then go back to add a little bit more to each until you’ve used all of the egg mixture. The egg will not fully cover the solid ingredients. The egg will puff up quite a bit as it bakes.
Bake the Leftover Stuffing Muffins in the preheated 375ºF oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and crispy on the edges. Let them cool slightly, then run a knife around the edges to help loosen and remove the muffins.
Allow them to cool to room temperature, then transfer to an air-tight container to store in the refrigerator or freezer. A quick zap in the microwave will make them hot and breakfast ready!
Thanks Beth! I LUV your blog. I made these last night and they are amazing. What a GREAT idea.
As organized as I am, in the morning I am always running late for some reason, and DO NOT have time to cook every morning before work. I usually make a nice breakfast on the weekends and stick to oatmeal during the week. I LUV oatmeal, but am tired of it every day. Last night, I made your egg burritos and your stuffin muffins, and froze them, so that I have options now for the next few weeks.
This is so flexible. I made 12 with ham and 12 with sausage. I also threw in some chopped onions I had in the freezer and fresh herbs that were 2 days to be tossed. I suppose you can use this recipe and add in whatever you have in your fridge that needs using up. I don’t understand when I read the statistics about food waste in America. Nothing goes to waste in my house. And this is a perfect recipe for using up pretty much anything before it needs tossing.
I wound up flash freezing them on a cookie sheet and putting them in a few plastic containers in the freezer. Is that what you do? And do you defrost them while you sleep, or do you microwave them straight from the freezer?? Also, how many of these do you eat for breakfast?
Thanks again for the terrific blog. I read it everyday! LUV it!
I think you can microwave them straight from the freezer because they’re so small (they will defrost/heat quickly). Some mornings I ate one, some I ate two, just depending on how hungry I was!
This recipe is great!
As to the poster who doesn’t understand how anyone has food waste… they should let my husband shop for them.
He is adept at bringing home day-old bread and at expiration milk/eggs. Lol, I can only cook so much for the two of us. Back in the day when we had three kids we didn’t have time to figure out how to cook all these odd ends and pieces. Thank goodness for the Internet, and blogs, not to mention a big freezer!
This is a great idea! I’ll definitely be trying this! My favorite way to use up leftovers is in a Thanksgiving Burrito! I put in a bunch of different leftovers like turkey, stuffing, corn, and cranberries in a tortilla and then dip them in gravy for a sauce! My favorite burrito place does this around the holidays!
It says to liberally grease pan, which I did, still stuck and ruined my bran new pan
Try using crisco.
Brilliant egg mcmuffin idea! we don’t have any turkey stuffing but the next time i have leftovers I’ll clean it up with this. :)
Thankyou sooooooo much! I’m one who is tasked with making the dressing for the entire family at thanksgiving. Even after giving away leftovers to my sisters’ families and parents I’m left with a ton of leftovers (all the recipes makes a huge amount. I’m the only one in my immediate family that will eat dressing, which isn’t great by itself, everyone always eats all the turkey and other sides. So it normally ends up in the trash. Makes me feel so wasteful. Just made these tonight and hid the fact I was using the dressing. I called them egg things. :) they all love them! Thankyou so much now I can use up the only leftovers no one wants.
Hahaha “egg things” :)
Man. Dressing is the only part of turkey dinner that I really love. Like, love so much that I just make it any time of the year. You can send me all your extras ;)
Stuffing I make made w day old corn bread (not corn
Bread cake) and is packed with a lot of veggies (corn, onion, celery, minced clams, mushrooms, garlic, saluted piñon nuts) and the none-stuffing lovers eat it up!
I double the recipe and make breakfast muffins such as these the next day.
I’m a newbie to your blog, and I LOVE it! I have made several of your recipes, and they are amazing. I appreciate that your price breakdown is realistic, your recipes use real food, and are really simple to follow! Thank you!!! And as for this post, I’m so sad that we don’t have any turkey day leftovers to make these! They sound delish!
Yum! Talk about simple to make and delicious! I’m such a huge fan of stuffing. I never thought of using it in a muffin to make for breakfast. Perfect for the breakfast-on-the-go. I ate it with an apple for a complete meal.
Love this idea! I think I’ll double it for future breakfast on the run! Your amazing! Thank you!
Man, I was about to throw that stuffing out. Great idea! I made cornbread stuffing this year with sausage in it so I just added a little cheese and they turned out awesome.
I only had stuffing left over so I pulled some Italian sausage from the freezer and cooked it up. I added parmesan and red bell peppers also. This was a great idea and so delicious too! Thank You!
Awesome idea! Stuffing is my favorite.
Ooh, I am glad somebody else makes these. :) You can mix the eggs in with the other ingredients so you can better see how much to fill the muffin cups. I also like to add onion and cheese to mine. (I make omelette cups all the time since they are so easy and filling.)
These were a great way to eat leftovers in a different way. I wish I had added some cheese and bell peppers to mine since my stuffings was a little bland.
I made stuffing with the honey wheat bread this year. I might try this, but it’s already so good on it’s own, I don’t think I want to fiddle with it.
Great idea! I’d try it but I have a lot less stuffing leftover to whip this up. That said, this morning for breakfast I whipped up some quick croquettes with them – about a cup of stuffing, third cup of shredded turkey, one egg, salt and pepper to make four small cakes. Fry up a couple eggs and put them on top for a benedict-inspired alternative for those of us with only a little stuffing left.