It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving weekend is right around the corner, but here we are! If you are hosting this year, it is time to start making a firm menu and handing out assignments for those that want to contribute. Today we are rounding up 30 of our favorite recipes to help get your menu started. We love starting the afternoon off with a festive cocktail and lots of good appetizers. Our list includes everything from fried turkey to buttermilk biscuits, creamy brie mac and cheese to deep dish apple pie. There is something for everyone coming to your table in this roundup. We have also included the ever-important “day after” recipes for those of you looking to refresh some of your leftovers. Don’t miss the Thanksgiving Hangover Breakfast Sandwiches…. that is one of our favorite recipes in the list!
We love Thanksgiving leftovers as much as the next person, but we find that half the fun of eating all the leftovers is creating new recipes to “reinvent” what we have in the refrigerator. Last year, we cured our Thanksgiving hangovers with an epic leftover breakfast. Knowing that this year is going to be more low key than other years, we decided to go a more traditional route with these leftover turkey sandwiches. We love the mix of the cranberry sauce and barbecue- a combination that might sound a little funky but is the perfect blend of tangy and sweet. We added lots of arugula for a nice peppery freshness and onion for a little zip. The result is the perfect turkey sandwich, and a great way to use up your Thanksgiving leftovers!
One of our favorite way to reinvent and use up all of those Thanksgiving leftovers!
Ingredients
8 slices sourdough bread, toasted
1 lb leftover turkey, thinly sliced
1/3 cup leftover gravy
1/4 cup bbq sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup leftover cranberry sauce
4 thick sliced sharp cheddar cheese
1 heaping cup arugula
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
Directions
Heat the gravy, turkey, and 2 tbs water in a skillet over low heat, just until the turkey is heated through.
Mix the bbq sauce and mayonnaise together in a small bowl.
Assemble each sandwich by spreading the bbq mayo on one piece of sourdough and cranberry sauce on the other. Layer 1/4 lb turkey, a slice of cheddar, arugula, and red onion onto each sandwich. Serve immediately.
Thank you for following along with us for the last two weeks as introduced some of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Below is our full Thanksgiving Menu, including a timeline to help you be a rockstar host. The timeline starts this weekend. A lot of us will be hosting smaller gatherings this year, and many people will be hosting holiday gatherings for the first time. If you want to be relaxed and enjoy Thanksgiving this year, you must be organized and start prepping now. You will be so glad you did come Thursday! If you are still looking for more recipes to fill up your Thanksgiving Menu, checkout our Thanksgiving 2019 Menu. It is packed with loads of our favorite dishes including deep fried turkey with buttermilk gravy, our “best ever” mashed potatoes, and the love-it-or-hate-it green bean casserole. We have also included some table decorating ideas for a more low key celebration. We know that Thanksgiving is going to look different for everyone this year, but we hope your holiday is still filled with lots of good food, family, and friends (even if those family and friends are joining you virtually).
Plan out your full grocery list and do all of your food shopping.
Stock up on beer, wine, and cocktail ingredients.
Finalize your ideas for table linens and decorations. See our ideas below!
3 Days Before (Monday)
Make the sauces for the appetizer dipping platter if you are making them from scratch. Refrigerate until Thanksgiving Day, about 30 minutes before serving.
Cut the sourdough bread for the stuffing and let it sit out overnight to dry out.
Make the cinnamon honey butter for the cornbread muffins. Refrigerate until Thanksgiving Day; serve at room temperature.
Make your pie crust for the deep dish apple pie; refrigerate until the day before Thanksgiving.
1 Day Before (Wednesday)
Set your table. Designate tableware, serving dishes, barware, and dishware that you will need and make sure it is set aside and available for Thanksgiving Day.
Refrigerate any beer, champagne, or white wine.
Roast the vegetables for the appetizer platter. Cool completely and refrigerate overnight until 30 minutes before you are ready to serve appetizers.
Make the mac & brie to the point of baking. Set aside to cool and refrigerate overnight. Take out 30 minutes before cooking, top with the brie cheese and bake.
Peel and dice the sweet potatoes. Blanch them in hot water. Cool and refrigerate overnight.
Prepare the turkey breast up until it is ready to bake in the oven; refrigerate overnight. Take out 30 minutes before cooking so that it isn’t cold going into the oven.
Slice/shave the brussels sprouts for the brussels sprout salad. Cover with a damp paper towel and refrigerate overnight.
Prepare the dressing for the brussels sprout salad; refrigerate overnight.
Completely prepare and bake the apple pie. Let it rest for 30-40 minutes after baking before refrigerating overnight. Keep the pie in the springform pan; do not remove it until you are ready to serve.
Thanksgiving Day
Make the pumpkin cornbread muffins. You can cover them with foil and reheat in the oven just before serving.
Assemble the sweet potatoes and make the crumble.
Take the bacon wrapped turkey breast out of the refrigerator 2 hours before you want to eat dinner. Cook the turkey breast 90 minutes before you want to eat, so that there is plenty of time for it to rest and be sliced before serving.
Take the appetizer ingredients out 30 minutes before you want to serve appetizers. Assemble the ingredients on a platter and let sit at room temperature.
Assemble the brussels sprout salad. It can be dressed up to 30 minutes before dinnertime.
Table Decorating Ideas
We know that your Thanksgiving might be smaller this year, but that doesn’t mean that it should be any less celebratory and special. For our table this year, we have chosen to combine a bunch of different shades of whites and creams for a rustic chic look. We used ivory pillar candles from Crate & Barrel, various sizes of white pumpkins we found on Amazon, and bouquets of white roses that we divided into small arrangements across the table. If you don’t have small vases, short water glasses are a great substitute! We completed our look with rattan chargers from Pottery Barn, white dishes, napkins from Chilewich, and an assortment of gold napkin rings from Crate and Barrel. We particularly love the “grateful” napkin rings they are selling this year! The overall look is simple, elegant, and very easy to pull together.
Oh my, apple pie. While people can be hit and miss about their love of pumpkin desserts, we haven’t found anyone yet that dislikes apple pie. We always have some sort of apple dessert on the table at Thanksgiving, and this year we wanted to really take things up a notch and made a deep dish apple pie. To achieve this feat, we used a 10 inch springform pan and made a double batch of homemade crust to keep walls of our pie standing up tall. While the length of this recipe might seem overwhelming, you can make this recipe over the course of a few days and even buy pre-made crust to save you some time in the kitchen.
Our spin on classic apple pie, made mile high for your Thanksgiving celebrations.
Ingredients For The Crust
– 2 1/2 cups (315g) all purpose flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 cup cold, unsalted butter
– 1/2 cup ice water, plus more as needed
Ingredients For The Apple Filling
– 10 granny smith apples, peeled, stem removed, and thinly sliced
– 3/4 cup brown sugar
– 1/3 cup all purpose flour
– juice of 1 large lemon
– 2 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– pinch of salt
Ingredients For The Crumble Topping
– 2/3 cup oats
– 1/3 cup all purpose flour
– 2/3 cup brown sugar
– 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– pinch of salt
Directions
Make the pie crust. Cut the butter into pea-sized cubes. Put the butter on a small cookie sheet or into a bowl and put it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. You want that butter cold!
Combine the flour, salt, and butter in a large bowl. Use your hands or a pie cutter to break the butter cubes into the flour; by hand you do this by squishing the butter cubes into flat discs, letting the butter absorb any flour along the way. Add the ice cold water to the flour and mix until the dough is just combined. The dough should stick together and be clumpy; you might need to add another 1 tbs of water to get to the right consistency.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead the dough until it forms into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disc and wrap the ball in saran wrap. Put the dough into the refrigerator and chill for at least an hour, up to overnight.
While the dough is in the refrigerator, make the apple filling. Combine all of the filling ingredients (sliced apples – salt) in a large mixing bowl; toss everything well to combine. Let the apples sit for 30-40 minutes. After they have sat, drain most of the liquid from the bottom of the bowl. Taste an apple after draining and add any additional cinnamon or brown sugar to your taste. Set the apples aside.
Finally, make the crumble topping. Combine the crumble ingredients (oats – salt) in a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir well to combine so that the butter is coating all of the crumble ingredients. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Roll out the pie dough. Lightly flour a large surface to roll out the dough. The diameter of the dough will depend on how large your springform pan is. For a 10 inch pan, you will want to roll a circle that is approximately 18 inches in diameter; 10 inches to cover the bottom and 4 inches on all sides for the deep dish look.
Gently roll the dough onto your rolling pin and transfer it into the springform pan. Press the dough into the rounded corners of the pan so that you have a clear bottom of the pie with tall edges around the springform. You want the dough to go up the sides of the pan but not over the top, as it will be hard to remove the springform later to serve. You will have some extra dough. You can use the extra bits to fill in any gaps or patches if you get holes in the dough during the transfer into the pan.
Once the dough is in the pan and secure on all of the sides, add the apple filling. As gently as you can, pour the apples into the pan and use a spatula to ensure there are apples in even layers starting by the bottom of the crust. You can give the pan a little shake to help settle the apples.
Top the apples with the crumble topping, creating an even layer of topping all over the top of the pie. Bake the pie for 55-65 minutes- the crust will be brown and any juices from the apples will be bubbling.
Remove the pie from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes before slicing and serving. You can cover the springform in foil to keep it warm while it rests, and serve with ice cream, if desired.
You might question “needing” a bread item as you plan your Thanksgiving menu this year, particularly with all of the other side dishes that will likely grace your table. At Tuck & Tate, we think the more the merrier! We will gladly cook extra if it means there will be leftovers later on. Over the years we have served croissants and traditional Parker House rolls, but this year we wanted to try something different and do a pumpkin cornbread muffin. This is a great alternative for people who like cornbread but aren’t including it in their stuffing recipe. We love these muffins all throughout the fall because they can easily swing from sweet to savory depending on what we serve them with. For Thanksgiving we are serving them with whipped cinnamon honey butter, but the muffins are great with chili and the leftovers make amazing cornbread croutons for a kale caesar salad.
Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins with Cinnamon Honey Butter
The perfect sweet & savory muffin to accompany your Thanksgiving menu, your next barbecue, or chili on a cold night.
Ingredients For The Muffins
– 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
– 1 cup buttermilk
– 1/4 cup honey
– 1/4 cup + 2 tbs brown sugar
– 2 eggs
– 1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
– 3/4 cups all purpose flour
– 1 tbs baking powder
– 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 3/4 tsp salt
– 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 4 tbs butter, melted
Ingredients For The Cinnamon Honey Butter
– 1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
– 1/4 cup honey
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– sea salt to taste
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Whisk the pumpkin, buttermilk, honey, brown sugar, and 2 eggs together in a large mixing bowl until they are well combined.
In a second bowl, whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Gently mix to combine, being careful to not over mix, as the muffins will be tough if you do.
Add the melted butter to the cornbread mix and gently mix to combine.
Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. Use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour a just heaping 1/3 cup of batter into each of the 12 muffin cups. Bake the muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until the muffins are cooked through. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin.
While the muffins are in the oven, make the honey butter. Use a hand mixer to whip the butter, honey, and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl. Add a pinch of sea salt. Serve the muffins hot with the butter at room temperature.
(If you bake the muffins in advance, reheat them at 300 degrees, covered, in the oven for about 7-10 minutes before serving.)
We only started having mac and cheese on Thanksgiving a few years ago, when our dad was inspired by a Cajun macaroni recipe he saw online and insisted on bringing it for dinner. After its introduction on our Thanksgiving plates, we couldn’t imagine another Thanksgiving without one of our all time favorite side dishes. We have a few variations of mac and cheese on our blog (Hatch Chile and Cauliflower) but what we like about this recipe is just how simple and classic it is. We have aptly named this variation Mac & Brie for the big pieces of melty brie cheese that have snuck into this recipe. Cheesy? Creamy? Brie-filled? Yes, yes, and yes. Sounds like our version of a perfect Thanksgiving menu addition.
A decadent way to level up your side dish game on Thanksgiving and beyond.
Ingredients
1 lb elbow macaroni
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups whole milk
1 cup extra sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 circle of brie (8 oz), rind removed and cubed
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Bring a large pot of salty water to a boil. Cook the elbow macaroni a few minutes less than the directions on the macaroni indicate so that the pasta is al dente. Strain and set aside.
In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk continuously. The flour will form a paste. While continuously whisking, slowly pour in the milk, one cup at a time. Stir and heat for 3-5 minutes or until the milk starts to thicken.
Stir in the white cheddar and mozzarella until the cheese is fully melted and the milk and cheese form a thick sauce. Fold in the elbow macaroni and remove from the heat. Season to taste salt and pepper.
In a greased 8×12 baking dish, pour in the macaroni and cheese mixture in an even layer. Place the brie cheese cubes throughout the mac and cheese.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the brie is fully melted and the mac and cheese is bubbling. If the top of the cheese and pasta is starting to get too brown, cover with foil and continue to cook. Serve immediately.
In our family, the concept of “salad” on Thanksgiving is a bit controversial. Some (looking at you Nana) will say that salad is a waste of a dish and it’s all about the decadence. The rest of us feel like a good salad can mix things up and give us a little break from the decadence, which ultimately allows us to enjoy those dishes even more. When choosing a salad for our Thanksgiving Menu, we knew that we wanted it to be crunchy and citrusy to really contrast the hearty dishes like stuffing and mashed potatoes. We know that shaving brussels sprouts can be a pain, but we usually do this the day before and speed things up by using a mandolin or a food processor. Getting the sprouts shaved really thin helps break them down so that they are a bit easier to eat raw. We have kept this salad intentionally simple; just a few ingredients to brighten up an otherwise very decadent dinner menu.
Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
2 lbs whole Brussels sprouts, stem removed and shaved as thin as possible
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
3/4 cup toasted and chopped pecans
3 lemons, zest and juice
3 tbs honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Put the shaved sprouts into a colander and rinse really well with water, tossing to remove any excess dirt. Set aside to let drain.
Make the dressing by whisking the lemons, honey, garlic, and mustard together in a small bowl. Add the olive oil in a steady stream and whisk thoroughly to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Assemble the salad by combining the Brussels sprouts, pomegranate, pecans, and dressing in serving bowl. Toss to combine. The salad can sit for up to two hours before serving if you want to prepare it in advance.
Most people have some sort of a sweet potato dish on their Thanksgiving menu. Most of the dishes are sweet, and even marshmallow covered, but this year we wanted to test the boundaries and do something different. The name of this recipe gives away everything that is unique and amazing about this sweet potato dish. A dash of whiskey? Yes please. Cookie butter? Duh. Wait… cookie butter in sweet potatoes?! Yep, we did that. Our favorite Speculoos Cookie Butter from Trader Joe’s has made it into this year’s menu. Despite what you might think, we love this dish because it isn’t overly sweet. The whiskey helps to temper the sweetness of the cookie butter and makes the sweet potatoes a bit more savory. If you prefer your rendition of Thanksgiving sweet potatoes to be more on the sweet side, add another 1/4 cup of sugar to the glaze and top with marshmallows before putting them in the oven.
Whiskey Soaked Sweet Potatoes with Cookie Butter Crumble
Not your mama’s sweet potatoes! These whiskey infused sweet potatoes are topped with the ultimate cookie butter crumble making all of our side dish dreams come true.
Sweet Potato Ingredients
6 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 tbs butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup bourbon (we used Bulleit)
2 tsp salt
1 tbs pumpkin spice
Crumble Ingredients
4 tbs butter
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup cookie butter (or Speculoos)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large stock pot, bring water to a boil. Add the sweet potatoes and blanch for 6 minutes. Drain the sweet potatoes, rinse with cool water, and set aside. The potatoes should not be cooked through at this point.
In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over low heat for 6-10 minutes. You want the butter to start browning. Add the brown sugar and whisk until the brown sugar is dissolved, approximately 4 minutes. Add the whiskey and whisk continuously for 3 minutes. The mixture will begin to bubble and thicken.
Add the sweet potatoes, pumpkin spice and salt and stir until the sweet potatoes are thoroughly covered with the whiskey glaze.
Spray a medium baking dish with cooking spray. Pour the sweet potatoes and glaze into the baking dish so that there is an even layer. Set aside.
Make the crumble. In a small sauce pan, with the heat on medium, add the butter until melted. Stir in the ground almonds and sauté for 5 minutes until the almonds are toasted. Add the cookie butter and stir until the cookie butter is melted through. Pour the crumble mixture over the top of the sweet potatoes and spread evenly.
Bake the sweet potatoes in the oven for 30 minutes and serve immediately. If the cookie butter crumble is starting to brown, cover with foil and continue cooking until the sweet potatoes are tender and cooked through.
Stuffing is one of the most versatile side dishes if you are looking to mix things up a bit for your Thanksgiving dinner menu. Nana likes to make a very traditional stuffing; she cooks the stuffing in the turkey so that the stuffing can soak up the juices while it cooks. Our dad goes the non-traditional route and likes to mix up the flavor profile; he likes to incorporate sausage and vegetables for an extra hearty side dish. For Tuck & Tate’s Thanksgiving Menu, we wanted something in between so that we could have the best of both worlds. We chose to make this stuffing in a casserole dish and have incorporated caramelized onions, spinach, and mushrooms to sneak in extra veggies. We topped the stuffing with crumbled feta cheese for a little bit of salty decadence. It’s all about balance, right?!
A traditionally seasoned stuffing that sneaks in onions, spinach and mushrooms for extra vegetables!
Ingredients
1 loaf of sourdough bread, cut into cubes and ideally left out overnight so it is hard and crusty
4 tbs butter
2 yellow onions, sliced
2 tbs olive oil
16 oz sliced mushrooms (we used a mixed variety of cremini and portobello but use whatever you like best)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp garlic powder
10 oz fresh spinach leaves
32 oz chicken stock
1 egg
4 oz feta cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Filling Directions
In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the onions and cook for 40 minutes, stirring frequently. The onions will begin to brown and caramelize during this time. It is important that you don’t adjust the heat and that the onions cook low and slow.
When the onions have caramelized, turn the heat up to medium and add the olive oil, mushrooms, salt, pepper, garam masala and garlic powder. Sauté for 5 minutes.
Add the spinach and sauté until all of the spinach is wilted. Depending on the size of you pan, you may need to do this in batches. Remove the mix from heat and set aside.
*If you are preparing the filling in advance, you can stop now. Cool the mixture and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Assembly and Baking Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken stock, egg, salt and pepper.
Spray a 8×12 baking dish with cooking spray. Add a layer of bread cubes, followed by a layer of the filling mixture and topped with the remaining bread cubes. Pour the liquid mixture evenly over the entire baking dish.
Sprinkle the top with feta and bake for 40 minutes. Serve hot out of the oven!
We know that Thanksgiving is going to look different this year, and for the most part that means that our guest lists will be much smaller than previous Thanksgiving celebrations. For the past few years we have had so many people come to Thanksgiving that we make a traditional roasted turkey and our famous deep fried turkey. To mix things up this year we decided to try out roasting a turkey breast. Turkey breast is traditionally dry, so we are really doing things up and wrapping it in bacon! The result is an ultra savory turkey breast, with a crispy bacon crust that we cannot get enough of. This half turkey breast serves 4-6 people depending on the size of the rest of your dinner menu. It is a snazzy main course if you have just a handful of people at the table this year, but would also be a great addition to a whole turkey if you need a little something extra. We love this recipe because it takes just over 2 hours to make from prep to serving, compared to a whole turkey that can take 2-3 times longer to make. While the turkey breast is resting we heat the other side dishes, so that everything is warm and ready to go by dinnertime.
A delicious alternative to a traditional Thanksgiving turkey!
Ingredients
1/2 turkey breast, skin and rib bone removed
4 tbs butter, room temperature
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh thyme, minced
2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
zest of one lemon
12 oz thick cut, applewood smoked bacon
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Make the compound butter. Whip the butter, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and lemon zest with a hand mixer until it is well combined. Set aside.
Lay the bacon in a single layer on a clean cutting board, make sure the bacon is touching and there is very little space between the pieces. If the bacon has a thicker end and a thinner end, flip every other piece of bacon so that the width of bacon is even on both sides. Use a rolling pin to roll the bacon, thinning it out to make a layer that will easily surround your turkey breast. You want it at least 1/3 longer than it started.
Season the turkey breast very well on all sides with salt and pepper. Use your hands to coat the turkey breast on all sides with the garlic and herb butter.
Lay the turkey breast top side down on the center of the bacon. Criss cross and overlap the bacon, using toothpicks to help secure it in place, so that you have a full coating around the turkey breast and that as little of the turkey is showing as possible. Don’t worry about how ugly the toothpicks look, you will remove them in plenty of time before serving. What matters most is that you have thoroughly secured the bacon around the turkey.
Lay the turkey breast skin side down (toothpicks up) in a Pyrex baking sheet and bake the turkey for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, flip the turkey breast and cook an additional 30-40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 160-165 degrees at the thickest part of the turkey. If the bacon isn’t crispy and brown when the turkey has finished cooking, remove the toothpicks and broil the turkey breast on high heat until the bacon is the color and crispiness you desire.
Remove the turkey breast from the oven and gently tent with foil. Let the turkey rest for about 20 minutes before removing any remaining toothpicks, slicing, and serving. Any drippings from the turkey can be used to make a traditional gravy, if desired.
TUCK & TATE 