It’s that time of year again here in the United States, when we sit around a large table, stuff our faces and argue politics and religions. Remember, the people you piss off at Thanksgiving are people you won’t need to buy Christmas gifts for in December. ?
In anticipation of the big day, here are the links to all the Thanksgiving recipes and my still favorite way to roast a turkey. I prepped one last night, the hour-plus cooking time takes much of the stress out of turkey roasting. My Thanksgiving is going to be a bit different this year, so I wanted to make sure I had leftover turkey.
I’m also thinking this may be this year’s Christmas Eve party menu. We’ll see. And starting in December, I’ll be posting food gift recipes, just in time for your cookie platters and tins.
From 2015:
This is the only way I’ve been preparing turkey since my first attempt. The only thing I changed up from that first time I prepared it, I skip the metal rack and instead place the bird on a bed of carrots, celery and onion. With the shorter cooking time, the flavor needs the boost the roasting veggies add. The brown sugar not only helps brown the skin, it also adds a yummy, unexpected flavor.
Sometimes the scariest part of the Thanksgiving Dinner is the worry that the turkey will not turn out properly – undercooked, overcooked, dry, flavorless – and ruin the whole meal. I’ve cooked in bags, roasted, braised, fried, deboned – about everything but brine. I’m not a fan of brining. And still every year I worry.
This year I decided to try removing the backbone and flattening the bird, cooking it at a high temperature for a shorter cooking time. It was pretty foolproof, stress-free, and the bird turned out great.
BTW, my recommendation is to always get two smaller birds instead of one massive bird – you’ll have a much better outcome with shorter cooking times. Not to mention not having to worry about fitting a huge bird in the oven. We usually do an oven bird, then grill, smoke or fry another.
For this recipe, a good set of poultry shears makes quick work of removing the backbone. I prepped the bird yesterday, wrapped it up and refrigerated it. This gave me time to make a nice broth from the backbone, giblets and neck last night (see notes below) and make the cranberry sauce, because it’s always better the next day.
Roasted Spatchcock Turkey
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons Kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons dried sage
- 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
- 1 whole turkey (10-14 pounds)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
Rimmed baking sheet, rack
In a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle, crush together pepper, salt, sage and rosemary and add to brown sugar. Set aside.
With a sharp knife or scissors, remove the backbone of the turkey, flip over and press down on the breast bone to break and flatten. I wasn’t quite strong enough, so I turned the bird over, scored the bone, flipped it back and tried again, this time it broke easily. I then trimmed off the wing tips. See my notes below on what to do with the back and wing tips.
Place the bird flat, breast side up, on the rack in the baking sheet. Make a paste with spices and olive oil. Rub with spice mix and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Roast for 15 minutes, and then reduced temperature to 375 degrees F. Cook an additional hour or until the temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches 160 degrees. Remove from the oven, tent with foil and let rest for 15 minutes (during this time the bird temperature will reach 165 degrees and thighs should be 175 degrees).
Carve and serve.
NOTES: I took the back, wing tips, neck and giblets, covered them with water and simmered them for about an hour. I then used the broth for both the stuffing and gravy. I also cooked the stuffing in the oven, in a baking dish, uncovered, with the turkey after I have turned the oven down to 375. They finished up about the same time.
This is a great technique for wood grilling or smoking. I have grilled one on my wood pellet grill and it turned out great.
More Recipes: We have a bunch, a peck, a bushel, of Thanksgiving recipes, including my favorite Upside-Down Cranberry Cake (here), No-Boil Mashed Potatoes (here), and Non-Traditional Sides (here), click on this link for all the other recipes or search by name or ingredient in the search box at the bottom of the blog.
Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! – TaMara
Just an FYI (shameless plug) next year there will be another seasonal cookbook featuring holiday recipes. Summer to Fall Cookbook is still available with a lot of useful menus to get you through winter.
Now it’s your turn. What are your Thanksgiving plans? What food must absolutely be on the table for your Thanksgiving dinner? What is your least favorite? And of course, share some of your favorite, super-secret family recipes!
dmsilev
My mom’s secret stuffing recipe, inherited from my grandmother: ‘Buy a package of Pepperidge Farm.
debbie
@dmsilev:
Mine too. I think that’s why I hate bread stuffing.
dmsilev
We do, however, make everything else from scratch. For dessert, family tradition is that mom makes an apple pie (special apples have been sitting in the fridge with stern DO NOT EAT signs on the bag for a week or two now) and I do a chocolate cake. This year’s cake is this one from the NYT Cooking section:
I’d suggest, instead of the “make a sling out of parchment paper and lower the cake back into the pan” of step 6, to just use a springform pan and after inverting the cake out of the pan, put the rim back in place and use that as a mold for the ganache.
schrodingers_cat
I pickle cranberries with spices (mustard, cayenne, turmeric, kosher salt and oil)
dmsilev
@debbie: I don’t like stuffing either, which makes me not care one bit whether it’s store-bought or completely scratch-made.
debbie
@dmsilev:
I once made a wild rice stuffing with pecans and cherries. That was good, but it probably be better with Cornish game hens or duck.
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
It’s a recipe that’s been in three generations of your family (and presumably a fourth) so I have a great deal of respect for it.
Keith P
I learned the spatchcock method (splitting the turkey) from Cook’s magazine over 20 years ago (IIRC they called it “the high heat method”). Works great, as does brining. I’m probably doing chicken this year, since it’s just me. I’m trying to build up the energy to make stock for gravy tonight from some drums and thighs, but I dunno if I have the energy.
But all I really plan on making are stuffing, green bean casserole, roast bird, and a pumpkin pie. Nice and traditional.(I love all of that stuff…I’d even make deviled eggs and stuffed celery if I could put down more than a few)
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: It gets the job done and people are happy, so what more can you ask?
Barbara
My contributions this year are roasted Brussels sprouts with maple syrup and hazelnuts, crostada with pumpkin-walnut puree and apple-fennel topping, and chocolate cupcakes made with roasted beets.
Cacti
I’ve never been able to get on the spatchcocking bandwagon.
Whatever its virtues may be, I just don’t like having a bird that looks someone backed over it in the driveway.
NotMax
Only annual constant is the homemade cranberry sauce which must be made at least the day before, requiring using only the microwave oven. Other than that, links to several variations on Turkey Day dishes have had success with in the past and offered up here previously.
Special Sweet Potatoes
Maple-Bacon Brussels Sprouts
Pumpkin Parfait
Not about to deal with preparing an entire turkey for just one. This year’s special treat gonna be a smallish leg o’ lamb, probably – not fully decided yet – with a honey-Dijon-rosemary glaze (might even incorporate some port wine in the glaze as well).
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
Absolutely true.
Barbara
@dmsilev: I have been able to tolerate stuffing recently but I got what I now understand might have been food poisoning when I was a kid and I wouldn’t eat it for years and have never made it. Would happily have Thanksgiving without it entirely.
waratah
With just two of us we are going to make Glorious chicken. This is a recipe out of one of the electric company cookbooks. We will make sweet potato casserole
cranberry sauce and fresh vegetables. This will give us leftovers to feed my daughters friends that will stop by when they come in to shop the specials.
i did save your recipe to try the next time we do a whole turkey.
Honus
@dmsilev:
@dmsilev: my family has the same stuffing recipe!
Barbara
@Honus: There was a point when my mom began using store bought crust for pies. I felt like there had been a death in the family.
Honus
@dmsilev: pepperidge farm is really good after you add onion, celery, parsley, a little garlic, sage apple cider and a pound of good sausage.
Raven
We’re headed to the beach in the morning. The princess, the pups and I will have our annual little thanksgiving on the porch of the beach house and then it’s turkey gumbo for the weekend!
dmsilev
@Honus: You stole our secret! I’m going to immediately mount an investigation searching for leaks.
Honus
@Barbara: see #18 above about the celery, sausage, cider etc. I mean if you just stuff a turkey with dry bag of store stuffing of course you’re not gonna like it.
Juice Box
A handful of dried cranberries in regular grocery store stuffing is nice.
I’m considering the WaPo’s pumpkin pie recipe. It substitutes a can of dulce de leche for some of the evaporated milk and the sugar. It may be too much sugar though because I always roast a kabocha squash for the filling which is already pretty sweet. I need to look at the back of the can and do some ‘rithmetic.
Honus
@dmsilev: my aunt, who was a great cook, made the stuffing for years and we loved it. When my sister and I eventually asked her for the recipe she said “start with a bag of pepperidge farm”
it was like when I found out that thick creamy Italian hot chocolate was made with cornstarch.
Honus
I made a turkey a couple years ago that was really good. I think I poached it first, but I can’t remember.
oh yes, it was Ariane Daugin’s recipe. You poach it the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight and then roast it. It was the best ever.
Kattails
@Cacti: OK that made me LOL, because I kind of have the same reaction.
I like stuffing, the richer the better. Pepperidge Farm is OK as a base, the seasonings are not bad. Or use decent bread, cube it carefully, and toast it. It must have an egg, onions or shallots and apples sautéed in butter (since you won’t have goose fat on hand from cooking your Michaelmas goose), chestnuts, and sausage that has been crumbled and cooked. If you don’t have chestnuts, pecans are good. If using your own bread you need to get the thyme/sage balance right. Moisten with a good chicken stock. I’m lucky enough to own a separate freezer so there’s usually chicken stock around, which then can be enhanced with the neck, wing tips and giblets of the turkey.
My sister wants a chocolate cake so I’m thinking of Maida Heatter’s 86-proof cake. A bundt; uses half a cup of bourbon. Or MH’s Queen mother’s cake, which is flourless, uses almond meal, bittersweet chocolate, 6 eggs, butter, sugar. Hummm…. decisions….
Barbara
@Honus: I am just not a fan of stuffing, all concerns about food poisoning aside.
Barbara
@Kattails: Julia Child’s Reine de Saba cake is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten, and the chocolate icing is to die for. The cake is almost but not quite flourless.
oatler.
Garrison Keillor remarked that his Minnesota relatives would get stoned on food. Those potatoes.
ThresherK
@dmsilev: Well, now I have 101 chocolate cake recipes.
I don’t ever need another, but this looks too good to ignore.
Amir Khalid
@Honus:
Those recommended additions sound like a stuffing recipe by themselves.
Gin & Tonic
@Honus: If by “good sausage” you mean linguica, with a couple of dozen clams as well, then I’m on board.
Mike J
Cut the legs off the turkey the day before and confit them. You’ll have yummy confit and the rest of the bird will cook quicker.
dmsilev
@ThresherK: The test cake I did a few weeks ago got good reviews from my panel (my coworkers; I’m very popular at work this time of year…), though I would suggest dropping the amount of cocoa powder in the very last step; some people thought the topping was a bit dusty.
Honus
@Gin & Tonic: I’m from West Virginia where Good Sausage=Jimmy Dean. Or some mild loose Italian from Oliverios grocery in Clarksburg. You don’t want that stuffing too spicy or the old people wont like it, and you’ll hear about how you ruined thanksgiving for years.
as far as clams, my uncle stuffed a turkey with oyster dressing in about 1959. It wasn’t well received. Every year until she passed in 2000 my aunt would tell me “don’t put oysters in the stuffing. Jack did that one year and it just ruined it”
Honus
@Kattails: we’re of like mind on that stuffing. I don’t have goose but usually have some duck fat to add. Most of the immediate family (about 30 people most years) will also tolerate a few pecans or walnuts.
Warren Terra
I go very traditional (my family tradition): matzoh ball soup and roast chickens. I can make two 5-6 pound roast chickens, for the same amount of food as an 11 pound turkey, more easily, more deliciously, and with twice the drumsticks, and the drumsticks are of a manageable size. And unlike an annual turkey I’d fumble with, it’s a recipe I have used hundreds of times.
Also, my family’s roast chicken recipe uses the same vegetables as the soup, which makes shopping and some of the preparation easier
ETA: A Twitter version of the soup recipe: https://twitter.com/warren__terra/status/1197403461970616320 (and it’s annoying that html hyperlinks don’t work in comments now)
JaySinWA
@Cacti: I seem to recall a web page that showed a straightforward way to cut and reassemble a Spatchcocked turkey to look close to a roasted whole bird.
Sandia Blanca
Favorite stuffing (dressing) = bread cubes, onions, celery, pecans, good chicken or turkey stock, and tons of sage and thyme.
laura
So here’s my Grama Foley’s deviled eggs recipe.
They. Are. Killer.
Hard boil and peel a dozen eggs.
Separate the yolks from the whites and put the whites on your serving dish or other some such.
Splash a teaspoon of red wine vinegar on the yolks, add a lot of salt, a heaping teaspoon or more of mustard powder, cayenne pepper, scads of paprika, snipped bunch of chives, finely minced parsley and mayo and beat till very smooth and creamy – not too wet, not too dry. Taste for seasoning. It should be devilish!
Spoon into a zippy bag. Cut a small corner and pipe into the whites. Dust with parsley and paprika. Serve.
I’m doing the whole spread as usual, and all the preparations and bubbling pots and pans reminds me so much of my mother, my grandmothers and aunts. The kitchen is where I feel grounded in my family and the memories of being together and setting aside the tumult and hard times for a brief bit of time when everything is going to work out fine.
Sure Lurkalot
There are 4 members of my spouse’s family that live in proximity. Between them and the 2 of us, no one particularly cares for turkey. I’m usually the host and past meals have been lamb shanks, braised short ribs, stuffed pork roast, beef bourguignon. This year it’s cioppino. Beyond the cost, it’s ridiculously easy!
As for traditional, I have made the Jalapeño Cranberry Sauce recipe at Food.com for many occasions. I use a full tablespoon tequila and cook longer. Here’s the link. First try so ha ha.
https://www.food.com/recipe/jalapeno-cranberry-sauce-14258
opiejeanne
For those of you with Magat family members and crazy uncles, in case you haven’t seen this already, may I suggest this gravy recipe from Sunset Magazine:
https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/pantry/kiva-cannabis-gravy-thanksgiving
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev:
@Honus:
@Kattails:
Pepperidge Farm remembers
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne: And if we don’t?
Karla
@Juice Box: Healthy Green Kitchen has a pie recipe with red kuri squash (a sweeter winter squash, like kabocha) that worked well for me several years ago – I didn’t use the crust recipe, but used the filling recipe with the cream, eggs, and a reduced amount of sugar. http://www.healthygreenkitchen.com/red-kuri-squash-pie.html
BigJimSlade
There’s one problem with Thanksgiving (ok, more than one) – chicken is better than turkey. If you need more meat, cook more chicken.
BigJimSlade
Sir @Sure Lurkalot: I like your style.
ignatz
Homemade Chex Mix
Preheat the over to 225 degrees. Fill one of those oval aluminum foil turkey roasting pans with your preferred mixture. Mine has a can of Planter’s Heart Healthy nut mix, Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Cheerios, and pretzels.
In a small sauce pan add:
2 sticks margarine
2 sticks butter
1 tbsp + a little more Lawry’s seasoned salt
1 tbsp + a little more Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp cayenne powder or to taste
You can use all butter or all margarine if you want of course. This is based on my mom’s recipe and she used both, so I follow her lead.
Melt the butter, margarine and spices over low heat. Ladle the melted butter/margarine over the mix in the roasting pan, stopping every three ladles or so to stir the mix so that as much of the ingredients get coated as possible. Be sure not to leave any of the melted butter/margarine pooled at the bottom.
Put the roasting pan in the oven and roast for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
Let cool a bit and then transfer to freezer bags and place in the freezer until you’re ready to eat it. It will keep for awhile in the freezer, and I love it straight from the freezer when it’s still cold.
When I make it, I make two roasting pans worth of it, because otherwise I have a bunch of leftover cereal I don’t want.