Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Fresh Ham With Maple-Balsamic Glaze
Think beyond pink. Here is a recipe for a fresh ham — uncured, unsmoked, straight from the butcher — roasted slowly in the oven beneath a shower of salt and pepper, glazed with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, and finished with a mixture of toasted pecans and candied ginger. It makes for a holiday centerpiece of some distinction, and marvelous sandwiches afterward. Those with access to good pork, free-ranging and fed well, with lots of fat, do not have to brine the meat before cooking. But if you’re picking up a supermarket ham, it is a good bet to do so.
Basic Chicken Stock
The difference between a good soup and a great soup is the stock, and if you've never made your own, you're really missing out. This recipe from the legendary Jacques Pépin takes a few hours, but very little effort, and you'll never go back to those cardboard cartons of over-salted stock again. It also freezes beautifully.
Lemony Cranberry Relish
Cranberry relish using a whole orange is a classic, but here, a whole lemon — pith and all — acts as the bitter, acerbic edge that your Thanksgiving plate needs. Try to find a thin-skinned lemon, which will prevent the relish from skewing too bitter. (Give it a squeeze before buying. Thin-skinned lemons will yield slightly under pressure, whereas thick-skinned lemons will feel hard.) This confetti of a condiment looks beautiful as well, almost like stained glass, with its jeweled, ruby gleam. Definitely make this the night before Thanksgiving to get it out of the way, then store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
Pernil
Perhaps the best known and most coveted dish from Puerto Rico, pernil is a positively sumptuous preparation for pork shoulder. It’s marinated (ideally overnight) in garlic, citrus and herbs, then slow-roasted on high heat to achieve a crisp chicharrón, or skin. Traditionally, it’s prepared for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but for those of us in the diaspora, it’s made for most special occasions. Shoulder is also a relatively inexpensive cut of meat, and it yields a lot of servings, leading to exciting leftovers. This recipe is deeply indebted to the chef Maricel Presilla and her recipe in “Gran Cocina Latina,” her cookbook published in 2012. Her method is a foolproof way to get that chicharrón as well as tender meat that falls off the bone. It’s blessed by her brilliance. (Watch the video of Von Diaz making pernil here.)
Garlicky Beef Tenderloin With Orange Horseradish Sauce
The allure of beef tenderloin pulls hard. When properly cooked until the surface is seared to a glistening mahogany and the center is tender and running with beefy juices, it is one of the most regal, festive and delectable things a cook can serve. As a finishing touch, serve the meat with a pungent, creamy horseradish sauce that is shockingly easy to prepare.
Stuffed Mushrooms
These fun stuffed mushrooms turn humble mushrooms into rich, savory bites with the flavors of escargots, the classic French delicacy of snails cooked in garlic butter. Here, fragrant and buttery bread crumbs infused with garlic, shallots and parsley fill mushroom caps. The roasted cremini mushrooms emerge from the oven juicy, with a garlicky topping that’s golden and crispy. Make use of your trimmings: The mushroom stems can be frozen for later use in vegetable or chicken stock.
Turkey Potpie
No one knows when people started making pies, but they were common in medieval Middle Eastern and European cooking. “The Oxford Companion to Food” speculates that the English word may come from the word “magpie,” because magpies collect random items in the way a pie often houses varied ingredients. It’s appropriate, then, that this pie is here to accommodate your Thanksgiving leftovers: turkey, of course, but also leftover roasted squash or sautéed mushrooms in place of peas, chop up half a rutabaga instead of carrot and celery, or a stray leek or shallot instead of onion. Any fresh soft herbs can go in the biscuit topping. For an even simpler version, use canned biscuits arranged on top of the filling as the crust, or defrosted puff pastry with a vent cut in the middle. For a more assertive flavor, use the larger amount of mustard.
Cornbread Dressing
This crisp, rich and buttery dressing is excellent as a side dish for dinner on Thanksgiving and as leftovers the next day. Aromatics and a mix of fresh and dried herbs give it a deep savoriness. The sausage brings a flavor of its own, but you can leave it out for a vegetarian-friendly alternative. The accompanying cornbread recipe yields a result firm enough to soak up the stock and buttermilk without it turning to a pudding, but you can also use store-bought cornbread or a boxed mix. If you do, just crumble the baked cornbread and spread it out on a sheet pan in an even layer to dry for at least 4 hours and up to 12 hours before mixing it with the rest of the dressing ingredients.
Giblet Gravy
While the turkey is in the oven, get some rest — and make the gravy. Giblet gravy requires the cook to use the neck, gizzard and heart of the bird to make deeply flavored stock, which is then combined with the pan drippings, a bit of flour and wine or brandy. Finally, the cooked neck, gizzard and heart are finely chopped and added to the rich, savory gravy, to make for a more interesting texture.
Ina Garten’s Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
This is a classic Kentucky Derby Pie in half the time. I tested this recipe with both homemade pie crust and store-bought pie crust and amazingly, the store-bought was better. The homemade pie crust was too rich for the filling. Be sure you buy a regular pie crust, not a shallow one, so the filling doesn’t overflow.
Cranberry-Orange Jelly
This is the cranberry sauce for cooks who secretly (or not so secretly) like the kind that comes in a can, a quivering ruby mass with an unexpected dash of orange and spice. Guests can scoop it out of a pretty glass bowl, but it’s more fun to unmold it onto a cake plate and serve it in slices. Make sure the water your use to unmold your jelly is quite hot, not just warm. The idea is to melt the outer jelly layer just enough so that the whole mold can slip right out.
Easy Cornbread-Brown Butter Stuffing
For many people, Thanksgiving is one big excuse to eat lots of stuffing. This one is particularly easy to make. Prepare cornbread using any recipe you'd like, then let it sit out until it gets a little stale. Crumble it into large pieces and then sauté with aromatics in deeply browned butter. Be sure to really let the butter brown: that's where much of the flavor is. Drizzle any remaining brown butter over the top of the stuffing once you've transferred it to the baking dish — that will make the top nice and crispy.
Stuffed Onions
These elegant onions are stuffed with beautiful saffron-tinged basmati rice. The fluffy rice is infused with fragrant spices and studded with toasted nuts and dried fruit for a vibrant and textured jeweled look. The onion layers and rice can be prepared a day ahead and kept refrigerated. These festive onions are a great accompaniment to any large protein roast (fish, chicken, steak) and make for a stunning vegetarian main dish. Use any mix of preferred chopped dried fruit; apricots, dates and currants are all nice alternatives.
Root Beer Ham
Despite its regal countenance, a glazed holiday ham is surprisingly easy to cook — though “cook” is misleading here, as most supermarket hams already come fully cooked and just need to be heated through in the oven. Here, a bone-in half ham (try not to get the spiral-sliced kind, which can dry out easily) gently bakes in an aromatic pool of shallots, bay leaves and root beer, a variation on the Southern classic made with cola. The root beer braising liquid is reduced with brown sugar and Dijon into a sticky glaze that lacquers the scored ham with caramelized luster. Save the braising liquid and serve alongside to spoon onto slices for even more flavor and juiciness.
Stuffed Standing Rib Roast
A juicy, beautifully pink rib roast is one of the most impressive dishes imaginable for a holiday spread. (It's also one of the most expensive. Invest in a digital, oven-safe thermometer and there will be no reason to worry you're overcooking it.) This recipe elevates the classic by adding a stuffing of spinach, sausage and mushrooms that is most appropriate for use with the lean beef of grass-fed steers.
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce should be sweet but not cloying, and tart without causing pucker and anguish. It should have a jelly-like quality, but should owe more to the appearance of jam. The key element to making cranberry sauce is to understand that cranberries are high in pectin, a carbohydrate that exists in many fruits and which is released by the berries when they are heated and the cells of the fruit break down. In the presence of sugar, the pectin molecules bond to one another, forming a kind of gel. The longer you cook a cranberry sauce, the more pectin is released and liquid is evaporated, and the stiffer the result will be. Science! Sometimes it's helpful. So is spice. Some like a clove or two added to their cranberry sauce. (I am not one of them.) Others, a whisper of ginger and a small handful of nuts, for texture. Of this, I approve.
Brown Sugar Layer Cake With Cranberry Buttercream
An easy cranberry jam lends its naturally pink hue and pleasantly tart flavor to this stunning cake. It's also tucked between the layers of a fluffy brown sugar buttermilk cake for an extra hit of cranberry and gorgeous color. You'll have enough jam for the buttercream and cake filling, plus some extra for your morning toast or oatmeal. This recipe might seem like a lot of steps, but you can also make and store the jam in the refrigerator up to about a week in advance. For best results and the fluffiest cake, make sure all of the cake ingredients are at room temperature before forging ahead.
Turkey Gravy
Here is a simple, elegant pan gravy that lends itself well to cooking in the very pan in which you've roasted your turkey. It calls for whisking flour with the fat in the bottom of the pan to create a light roux (no lumps!), then hitting it with stock and wine, salt and pepper. Some may wish to add cream, or other spices. Decant the gravy into a warmed boat or beaker, rather than into a cold one, and serve immediately.
Roast Turkey With Orange and Sage
The butter, massaged under the bird's skin, does a lot to help keep the breast meat moist, and the juice and wine in the pan below the bird create a deliciously steamy environment for the roasting. The combination leads to an interesting outcome: a bird that crisps up nicely not at the beginning of cooking, but at the end. The sweet-savory drippings make for excellent gravy.
Vegan Mushroom Make-Ahead Gravy
This excellent vegan gravy features caramelized mushrooms and a little soy sauce for depth of flavor, making it good enough to serve to your meat-eating guests, too. Just be sure to use a good-quality vegetable stock, preferably one you’ve made yourself. You can simmer the gravy up to five days ahead and store it in the fridge. Reheat just before serving.
Thanksgiving Dressing
This classic Thanksgiving dressing, made with bread, celery, onions, apples, chestnuts, thyme and sage, is relatively simple to execute. It would do well at almost any time of the year as an accompaniment to roast chicken or pork. The copious use of turkey broth, or a good chicken broth, is crucial to help meld the flavors together. Also necessary is an understanding that the cooking should last long enough to crisp the exterior without burning it, while not going on so long as to dry out the dish. When in doubt, add a splash more broth.
Turkey BBQ Sandwiches With Pickles and Slaw
Most turkey sandwiches are best made with slices of white meat stacked neatly between two slices of bread. Not this one. With a saucy, spicy filling piled onto a hamburger bun, it’s perfect for dark meat and any scraps you may have leftover from the carcass. The cabbage slaw adds crispness and tang to the soft turkey, and bread-and-butter pickles give the sandwich a touch of sweetness. If you don’t have leftover turkey in your refrigerator, this recipe works just as well with the meat torn off a rotisserie chicken.
Mashed Potato Casserole
This casserole may upset some mashed potato purists, but take heart: one bite and they'll be won over. The genius of this recipe, besides its utter deliciousness, is that it can be made the day before, or even two. Cook the potatoes, assemble the casserole, wrap tightly and store it in the refrigerator. When dinnertime comes, dust it with the cheese, butter and bread crumbs and bake the whole thing off. (And for everything you need to know to make perfect potatoes, visit our potato guide.)
Beef Wellington
In this British classic, tender beef fillet is blanketed with browned mushrooms and shallots, then wrapped in layers of prosciutto and buttery puff pastry before being baked until golden and flaky on the outside, juicy and rare within. Worthy of the most elegant, blow-out meal, save this one for Christmas, New Year’s Eve or your next big birthday. One thing to note: You really do need a full pound of puff pastry here to cover all the meat, so if your package weighs less (some brands weigh 12 ounces), you’ll need to supplement with another package.