Turkey Recipes, Cooking Tips and Other Holiday Tips
How big of a turkey should you buy?
If you're not sure how big of a turkey to buy, use the Butterball turkey calculator. We tend to go large because we like the leftovers so much for turkey sandwiches, soup, turkey enchiladas, and more.
Get the facts from the USDA on how to thaw and cook turkeys.
Thanksgiving Make-Ahead Tips
Anyone hosting Thanksgiving is sure to be thinking about what they can do ahead of time. You can make some things weeks in advance and freeze. Others you can make a few days ahead and refrigerate.
A few weeks ahead: make-ahead dishes for your freezer
Here are a few other things you can make ahead and stash in your freezer if you have room. I find it very handy to keep a list of what's in the freezer and when it should be pulled out to make sure I don't leave something behind!
- Rolls (bake and freeze or just mix up the dough and bake on the big day)
- Cornbread (to use in stuffing) or make the whole stuffing and freeze it
- Sweet Potato Streusel
- Fruit pies (Custard pies tend to weep when frozen)
- Candied yams
- Caseroles like broccoli and cheese
- Collard greens
- Potatoes Romanoff, mashed potatoes with a bit extra
- Pie crusts (mix and freeze, then thaw, roll out and bake the day before)
- Cheesecake
A few days ahead
Roasted Root Vegetables: Select a few of your favorites from carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, onions and turnips and cut them into 1" cubes, then mix a bit of oil and herbs with them. Put them in a covered container or sealed bag and refrigerate. When the turkey comes out of the oven, turn the heat up and roast these while you make the gravy and carve the turkey.
Beet salad with yogurt sauce: Make this a few days before and just pull it out when you're setting the table.
Sweet Potato Streusel: I'm not a fan of the marshmallow and sweet potato side dish. It's just too sweet for me. You can make this a while ahead and freeze it or a day or two before and refrigerate it.
Macaroni and Cheese: If you serve this as a side dish you can make it a day or two ahead and reheat. If you have an extra crockpot, use one to keep this warm during dinner.
On Wednesday
Don't forget to set the table! If your Thanksgiving dinner will be in your formal dining room and you won't be needing that surface for a few days, set the table a day or two ahead. Definitely pull out your serving dishes. I like to use little sticky notes and note which dish will be used for which food to make sure I've got a place for everything.
Dessert first: Make your pies a day ahead. We often serve apple pie, cherry pie, and pumpkin pie. All of these can sit for a day in your refrigerator.
Mashed potatoes: Make them the day before Thanksgiving. Mash them with a bit of cream cheese or sour cream or even yogurt. See my recipes for Potatoes Romanoff, which can be frozen. Alternately, make them in the morning your normal way. Butter your crockpot and add the mashed potatoes. Leave covered on low until ready to serve. If you
Creamed onions. This is one of our family favorites. I haven't posted a whole recipe yet but it's basically a light cheese sauce on boiled and peeled boiling onions, those tiny little ones you only seem to find around the winter holidays. Make this the day before and refrigerate. Pull it out a half hour before the turkey is done to come to room temperature, then reheat.
Cranberry sauce - If you've got plenty of refrigerator space, this can be made ahead. However, if you don't, I wouldn't waste the space on this since it goes together so quickly and easily.
A few other side dishes to go with that turkey
Cranberries: Call us boring but we like the simple recipe on the bag of fresh cranberries, basically cooking them in a bit of sugar and water.
Greens and Beans: This is a delicious healthy side dish with spinach and white beans. It's great if you have a vegetarian or two at the table. And you could leave out the cheese for a vegan I believe. Some other good greens recipes are Greens Cooked in Chicken Bouillon and Greens Cooked with Salt Pork
Green Beans and Garlic: The old standby of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, Durkee onions and crushed Cheese-Its is good, but if you want a healthier alternative, try these easy green beans.
Beets: I have a few different beet recipes we like. First, you can just roast beets, then heat them up in a bit of butter. You can roast them wrapped in foil while the turkey is cooking, then let them cool off so you can handle them. Alternately if you want a cold beet dish you can make ahead, make this beet salad with yogurt sauce.
How to Cook a Turkey: Two Great Turkey Recipes
There are lots of different ways to roast a turkey. If you don't have time to cook a whole turkey, you can cut it up in parts like you would a chicken, of course. It will cook faster that way. But it doesn't have the presentation appeal of the whole bird.
You can always just follow the guidelines on the package your turkey comes in, paying attention to the weight. If it's frozen, make sure you allow ample time to thaw it in the refrigerator. Here are some turkey thawing and cooking instructions from the USDA.
I have two turkey recipes here, both of which produced a great turkey. The second one is more appropriate for a smaller bird as you need to turn it a few times.
You'll also want to make some gravy of course.
Thanksgiving dessert recipes
We always serve an assortment of pies.
- apple pie
- apple custard pie
- cherry pie
- pumpkin pie
Too Much Turkey? Leftover Recipes
I've collected my favorite recipes for using up the holiday recipes here on this article, Too Much Turkey? Leftover Recipes.
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