Sixteen Cups Is Twenty-One People
A 9x13 pan filled two inches deep holds about 16 cups of stuffing. At three-quarters of a cup a head, that pan feeds 21.
Nobody has 21 coming. That is why the stuffing is still in the fridge on Sunday, and why the number worth writing down is smaller than the pan.
Three-quarters of a cup of prepared stuffing per person. About 5 ounces, or 140 grams. In dry bread that is 1 cup of cubes, which is 2 slices.
How Much Stuffing Do You Need for 12 People?
Nine cups of finished stuffing, built from 12 cups of dry cubes and 540 g of bread, a little over a pound.
| Guests | Prepared, ¾ cup each | Dry cubes | Bread | Pan at 1½ inches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 4½ cups | 6 cups | 270 g | 8x8 |
| 8 | 6 cups | 8 cups | 360 g | 8x8, nearly full |
| 12 | 9 cups | 12 cups | 540 g | 9x13 |
| 16 | 12 cups | 16 cups | 720 g | 9x13, 2 in deep |
| 20 | 15 cups | 20 cups | 900 g | two 9x13 pans |
The middle column is the one to carry into the store. Cubed stuffing is sold by weight, never by volume, and 12 cups of half-inch cubes weighs 540 g, so a cup is 45 g and a pound is 10 cups. Two slices of sandwich bread make a cup. If the bag is printed in ounces, our pounds to grams converter has the full table.
From there the batch is arithmetic: 12 cups of cubes, 3 cups of broth, 1½ sticks of butter, and 2 cups of diced onion and celery bake down to about 9 cups. The bread loses its air, not its weight.
Why One Cup of Cubes Bakes Down to Three-Quarters of a Cup
A cup of dry cubes weighs 45 g. A cup of baked stuffing weighs about 190 g. The cubes are mostly air, and the air leaves the moment the broth goes in.
| Ingredient | Per person | For 12 |
|---|---|---|
| Dry bread cubes | 1 cup (45 g) | 12 cups (540 g) |
| Broth | ¼ cup (60 g) | 3 cups (720 g) |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14 g) | 12 tbsp (170 g) |
| Onion and celery, diced | 3 tbsp (25 g) | 2¼ cups (300 g) |
| Baked stuffing | ¾ cup (140 g) | 9 cups (1,700 g) |
The line scales evenly. Twenty guests means twenty cups of cubes and five cups of broth, and the salt goes up with the bread, not with the guest count: 1 teaspoon of fine salt per 12 cups of cubes, about 6 g on our conversion chart. Cut it to ½ teaspoon if the broth is canned, since a cup of commercial broth carries 500 to 800 mg of sodium.
Three-Quarters of a Cup Is a Side, Not a Serving
The 0.75 assumes the traditional spread, six or seven dishes crowded around the bird. Our Holiday Meal Planner defaults every one of those sides to on, which is where the number comes from and also when it holds.
- Four sides or fewer. Go to 1 cup per person, which is 1⅓ cups of cubes.
- Eight sides or more. Half a cup each is plenty, and the pan will stretch to 24 people.
- Kids under 12. Count them at 0.6 of an adult portion. Ten adults and four children come to 12.4, so 13 portions and 13 cups of cubes.
- The generous setting. It multiplies portions by 1.3. Twelve adults set to generous returns 12 cups of prepared stuffing, which needs 16 cups of cubes to build.
That last line is where hosts come up short. A calculator answers in cups of stuffing. The store sells bags of cubes. Twelve cups of cubes for a 12-person table gives 9 cups of stuffing, a quarter short of what the pan should hold.
The Pan, Measured by Depth
Pan capacity depends on how deep you fill it, so measure the depth first.
| Pan | At 1½ inches | Feeds | At 2 inches | Feeds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8x8 | 6½ cups | 8 | 9 cups | 12 |
| 9x9 | 8½ cups | 11 | 11 cups | 14 |
| 9x13 | 12 cups | 16 | 16 cups | 21 |
| 13x18 half sheet | 24 cups | 32 | 32 cups | 42 |
Stuffing wants 1½ to 2 inches, no more. Past 2½ inches the center steams itself soft while the top browns, and you get a soggy middle under a crisp lid. Two shallower pans beat one deep one, and they fit around the turkey. If the 9x13 is already holding the green bean casserole, the baking pan converter will size the substitute by area.
If Part of It Goes Inside the Bird
USDA does not recommend stuffing a whole turkey, because the stuffing heats slower than the meat around it and the cavity is easy to cross-contaminate. It has to clear 165°F on its own. Cook it in a pan for the most even result.
If you stuff anyway:
- Loosely, about ¾ cup per pound. Packed stuffing insulates itself.
- 165°F at the center of the stuffing, not just in the thigh. An instant-read thermometer is the only way to know.
- Mix wet and dry just before it goes in. Never stuff the bird the night before, and never stuff a bird headed for the fryer, the smoker, or the grill.
- Oven no lower than 325°F, and leave the stuffing in until it reaches temperature. Pulling it early can contaminate meat that was already cooked.
- No cooked stuffing inside raw poultry. Cook any sausage or giblets first.
The quantity rule and the cavity disagree. A 15-pound bird holds about 5 cups of stuffing spooned in loosely. Three-quarters of a cup per pound would be 11 cups. The surplus goes in a pan, and that is why almost every stuffed turkey is carved next to a second dish of dressing. The bird also needs 20 to 30 extra minutes, and the per-pound chart in our turkey roasting post already accounts for that.
The Bake, at 350°F
- Dry the cubes first. Twenty to 25 minutes at 250°F, or overnight on a sheet pan. Fresh cubes weigh about 55 g a cup against 45 g dried, so 12 cups of fresh bread is 660 g, a fifth more bread than the recipe assumes. Weigh fresh bread, measure dry bread.
- Covered, then not. A 9x13 with 9 cups goes in covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 20 to 25 more. The foil lets the center set before the top crisps.
- Bigger pan, longer clock. Sixteen cups want an extra 15 minutes covered.
- Made ahead. Bake covered for 30 minutes, cool uncovered for half an hour, refrigerate up to 2 days. Reheat covered at 350°F for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 10 to dry the top again.
- Leftovers. Three to four days in the fridge, reheated to 165°F.
FAQ
How much stuffing do I need for 20 people?
Twenty cups of dry cubes, which is 2 pounds of bread, and they bake into about 15 cups. Use two 9x13 pans at 1½ inches deep rather than one deep pan; the centers set faster. A 13x18 half sheet works at 1 inch deep.
Can I make stuffing ahead of time?
Bake it ahead, then reheat it. Mixing the wet and dry ingredients and holding the raw mixture overnight is the thing USDA warns against, and a stuffed bird has to go straight into the oven. Baked stuffing keeps two days covered in the refrigerator.
How do I know when stuffing is done?
165°F at the center with an instant-read thermometer, plus a browned top and edges that have pulled slightly from the pan. A 9x13 holding 9 cups takes 40 to 45 minutes at 350°F. If the top is dark at 25 minutes, lay foil over it and keep going until the center reads 165°F.
Try Our Free Tools
The Holiday Meal Planner turns your adult and child count into stuffing cups, turkey weight, sides, and dessert slices in one pass. The Recipe Servings Calculator scales a family stuffing recipe from 8 to 20 without the pencil work. The Baking Pan Converter swaps pan sizes by area when the 9x13 is spoken for.
Sources
Stuffing temperatures, the ¾-cup-per-pound guideline, the no-stuffing-ahead rule, the 325°F minimum, and the 3-to-4-day leftover window come from USDA FSIS “Turkey Basics: Stuffing” and the USDA’s own stuffing safety guidance. The 0.75-cup-per-person figure, the 0.6 child factor, and the 1.3 generous multiplier match the Holiday Meal Planner on this site.
One cup of dry cubes per person, 1½ inches deep in a 9x13, 165°F at the center. That is the whole calculation, and it holds from 6 guests to 24. The exception is a table set with four sides or fewer, where three-quarters of a cup becomes a full cup and the pan you thought was big enough runs short.