Thanksgiving Recipes + Cheat Sheet
This post is sponsored by ButcherBox. I also make a small commission on some of the things linked in this post.
For almost every kitchen tool I have in my kitchen (with the exception of our Cutco knives), you can go to this page or the “Tools I Used” section at the very bottom. For everything dining, go to my Dining Room page here.
Table Settings:
Shop the Table Settings:
Recipes:
The Turkey
We used a ButcherBox turkey. I’ve been using ButcherBox for about three years now and love them. I have an IGTV all about my experience with them.
They are having a great special! Check them out here.
The Brine:
You want to brine the bird for 24-48 hours. The brine is truly the most important part of roasting any bird. It keeps the moisture in and adds so much flavor. I always use Thomas Keller’s brine (it’s literally perfection), but Chris Marcum of Chris Loves Julia has a great brining tutorial here that you should definitely watch regardless of what brine recipe you use.
Thomas Keller might have a free tutorial on YouTube, but I took his MasterClass which is a paid subscription and includes a full tutorial as well.
The brine recipe I use is below. Since I keep the brine in the fridge rather than in an ice bucket like some do, I just boil it in the morning and leave the brine out to cool so that by about 2pm it’s cool enough to drop the bird in.
If your turkey isn’t completely defrosted by the time the brine comes around, that’s ok! The brine will speed up the defrosting process.
Brine Recipe:
- 5 lemons, halved
- 2 heads garlic, halved through the equator
- 20ish whole peppercorns
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1c kosher salt
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- Bouquet garni with parsley, thyme, and bay leaves
Drying:
After the bird is brined, drying it out makes the skin really taut and crispy. For drying, you need a well-circulated area of the fridge (basically just its own shelf that isn’t packed with other things).
The longer you dry it, the crispier the skin will get. But there is such thing as too crispy! It will get chewy and jerky-like if you dry it for too long. You can dry it up to 72 hours, but I personally think 24 hours is enough.
Make sure to truss it before you dry it. Chris and Thomas Keller both show you how to truss in their tutorials.
Roasting:
Chris also has a great recipe and tutorial here that is almost identical to what I like to do. I learned his little tin foil steaming trick from this tutorial. His carving tutorial is great, too!
The most important part is cooking it at a high temperature for the first 30 minutes to crisp the skin. Chris recommends to do this at 500, but if you have a bird under 15 lbs, do it at 450 or else it will cook too fast.
Another important part is the aromatics in both cavities. If you’re doing stuffing in the bird, make sure there is the same amount of herbs in your stuffing as you would put directly into the cavity.
Chris is an awesome cook and his tutorial is great, but I do have some things I like to do differently, which I outline below.
Other Tips:
- Add chicken stock and a mirepoix to the bottom of the pan beforehand (a flavor base made from diced vegetables cooked – usually carrot, onion and celery)
- Before putting it in initially, rub the entire turkey with a cold butter stick, a halved lemon and coarse kosher salt
- Do NOT use pepper – contrary to what most cooks say. I learned from Thomas Keller’s class that pepper burns badly when you put it on before cooking. It should only be added after cooking.
- After the first round in the oven, brush it with melted butter before putting it back in
- Cook at 400 after the first “browning round”
- From the second round on, go back in and baste it constantly with the chicken stock at bottom of pan. Continue to baste it every 5 or so minutes when it’s out of the oven to keep it moist.
- After the second round in the oven, baste it with the juices from the pan or from the cavity before putting it back in
- Bring it out at 160 degrees, then it will cook when it’s out of the oven. It needs to get to 170-175. You can leave it out until 30 min before eating, then bring it to temp at 350 in the oven.
Mashed Potatoes
I’ve been tweaking this recipe for years… the herbs and garlic make it so flavorful and they are always a hit. We even brought leftovers for a Friendsgiving the next day and they were a hit there as well!
I am still perfecting my gravy recipe, so I don’t have a good one for this yet.
Garlic & Herb Mashed Potatoes
Equipment
- Stock Pot
- Strainer
- Potato Masher
Ingredients
- 5 lb Russet Potatoes
- 1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
- 1 1/2 sticks salted butter
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp kosher salt
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme leaves removed from the stem
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves removed from stem and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley finely chopped
- white pepper to taste
- chopped chives to taste
- smoked salt, garlic salt, or truffle salt to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large stock pot of water to a medium boil and add the potatoes and garlic. Boil until you can pierce a paring knife through the potato with absolutely no resistance, but the potato won't fall apart. This will typically be about 30 minutes.
- While potatoes are cooking, saute the garlic in a saute pan on low heat with butter and a splash of cream. Don't let the garlic get any darker than golden…don't brown them, we just want to get the flavors to be released.
- Drain the potatoes and rinse with water to get any extra debris off.
- If you want to remove the skins, you'll do it in this step. You can easily remove them with a scrubby or thermal gloves. I advise against removing the skins, especially since we are only using half Russet potatoes (the Yukon Gold skins are very subtle in texture). But it's a personal preference
- Rice the potatoes with the garlic into a bowl. If you don't have a ricer, you can skip this step and mash them when they're back in the pot.
- Put the potatoes and garlic back into the stock pot and add the butter. Start mashing with the potato masher until every potato is opened.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together. If you didn't rice them before going into the pot, mash them until it's the texture you like. I like chunkier. If they are too thick and chunky, add chicken stock 1/4 cup at a time.
- Add salt and white pepper to taste.
- Add cold butter cubes to the top and sprinkle with special salt (smoked, garlic, or truffle are the best) and bake it in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes to build a crust on top. Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve.
Notes
- Pierce the potato with a fork. Although it helps the potatoes boil faster, it allows moisture to escape the potato and will dry it out.
- Add salt to the pot. This is great for other vegetables, but salt will also compromise the integrity of the potato.
- Peel the potatoes. Even if you plan on not keeping the skin, it’s much easier to peel them afterward because the skin just falls off with a scrubby or thermal gloves.
- Scrub the skins too much. Again, this compromises the integrity of the skin. Honestly, you don’t have to even rinse them. The dirt will fall off in the boiling process and you can run some water over them when you strain them.
Green Bean Casserole
I used Joanna Gaines’ green bean casserole recipe from this book. I’ve always done your average “canned green beans, cream of mushroom, French’s fried onions” casserole and after doing it from scratch fresh….I can’t go back.
Homemade fried onions are SO good. I would also suggest to fry the onions a few days before if you can, so you aren’t monopolizing a whole pan all day while the frying oil cools down. They can honestly be made weeks or months in advance.
Apple Pie
I SWEAR by this recipe by Bon Appetit. I’ve done it multiple times and it is the most decadent apple pie ever. Sometimes in the warmer months I want some more tart flavor, so I add some crab apples from our tree into the mix – you can add any green apple.
I also do a lattice top instead of a full pie crust in the recipe, and do a final egg wash on top. For the lattice, I slice the disc of dough with a pizza cutter in 1″ strips (usually 5 on one side and 6 on the other), lay one side of the strips down, and then start weaving in the other side. Then I press the strips into the crust and slice them off with a paring knife.
Here is the full pie recipe.
Pumpkin Cheesecake
I do a pumpkin cheesecake at least once a year and use a different recipe every time. I used this Chris Loves Julia recipe this year and I loved the way the pumpkin filling turned out.
Their crust uses ginger snaps and they put it in a springform pan, but I prefer a regular storebought graham cracker pie crust. You also don’t have to use ricotta. Ricotta makes it smoother and more subtle – so, up to you! Just double the cream cheese if you don’t use ricotta.
I also like doing a very small bottom layer of plain cheesecake to add a little more cheesey touch and make it a “double layer” cheesecake. If you’re making a cheesecake, you gotta go all out right?! For the plain cheesecake layer, just double the recipe for the first few steps before the pumpkin part, and pour half of it into the pie crust. Then add the pumpkin and other ingredients.
Butter Herb Rolls
I used this Chris Loves Julia recipe and did the dough the night before. I wouldn’t change one thing about it! I’m NOT a baker and this was a very easy-to-follow recipe that everyone loved.
Cranberry Sauce
Homemade cranberry sauce is divine, especially with apples in it.
I used this recipe this year but without the oranges. I’m not a fan of orange in cranberry sauce. I also used dried cranberries instead of fresh.
Some more things I do to it, learned from my godmother’s fiancé who is a chef!
- Microwave a vanilla bean for 10 sec and throw it in while it simmers. Take it out before serving.
- Add Grand Marnier or bourbon, and up to 2 cups more of sugar
- Use 2 packs cranberries instead of one
- It’s best to use lots of water and let it thicken and reduce – this meshes all the flavors together perfectly
If the sauce isn’t “saucey” enough, you can add a can of storebought cranberry sauce at the very end.
Crock Pot Apple Cider
Honestly…if you don’t even like apple cider just do this to fill your home with the smells! It’s so good!
This is the recipe I used. You can go lighter on the sugar if you don’t like it too sweet. I would personally use half the sugar that the recipe suggests. And make sure to mix it in really well!
Gravy:
I am constantly working on this and it’s really an art. Here is what I have so far:
- Start with chicken stock
- Add butter, flour, and bay leaves. Start to make it a roux and get it good smelling
- Add juice from the turkey pan, strained right into the gravy pan
- Add a cup of white wine, finely chopped shallots, white pepper and salt
- Add a full spring of rosemary but take it out later
- If you didn’t add a mirepoix to the turkey pan (diced veggie flavor base), add a chicken or veggie base (like Better than Bouillon) to the gravy to get those flavors in it
Tools I Used:
The Schedule:
The key to not losing your mind is doing everything you can the day before, and give yourself about an hour extra buffer between the sides and dinner time – you can always keep them on the stove on low.
It’s also helpful to read through EVERY recipe first and write down the times things need to be taken out of the oven, etc. I do this for every dinner party we throw and it seems to move smoother that way.
It’s super important to keep the dishes washed and the prep space clean so you don’t have things piling up. You will also probably need to use some tools more than once. I just clean as I go, and also keep a canister of water on the counter to keep tools soaking in so I can reuse them without washing them.
Here is what I did for a 6:30 dinner:
Sunday:
Defrost your turkey.
Monday:
Brine the turkey.
Make cranberry sauce. It’s best when the flavors are all meshed together for a few days!
Fry onions for green bean casserole. You don’t want to do this the day of! It monopolizes an entire pan and burner and is very messy, something you don’t want. This can be done weeks or even months in advance, they keep well.
Tuesday:
Truss and dry the turkey.
Make the dough in advance for the pies and rolls. This can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Make the apple pie. If you didn’t start the dough the night before, it needs to chill for at least two hours, and then the apples will need to soak for at least an hour.
Wednesday:
Make the pumpkin cheesecake. Refrigerate overnight.
Set the table and get out all dinnerware.
Day of: (6:30 pm dinner)
10am: Take turkey out of the fridge to bring it to room temp
Noon: Start the turkey
12:30: Start the apple cider
1pm: Wash first round of dishes. Shower and get ready.
3pm: Start mashed potatoes (3 hrs)
3:30: Smoke the chicken (2-3 hrs)
4pm: Green bean casserole (90 mins)
4:30: Gravy (2 hrs)
4:45: Stuffing (45 mins)
Strain the cider
5pm: Remove turkey at the degree mentioned in the recipe and let it sit
Second round of dishes
5:30: Rolls
Remove chicken from smoker at 160 degrees
6pm: Carve turkey and chicken
Warm pies in the oven at 170 while eating dinner
