Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Make-Ahead Roast Turkey
Roasting a spatchcocked turkey in a very hot oven, then reheating at a more moderate temperature is the key to success in this make-ahead recipe. The spatchcocked turkey fares far better than a whole bird when reheated. Its flat shape reheats evenly so the breast doesn’t dry out, and it’s easier to fit into both your oven and fridge. And since you reheat at a convenient 350 degrees, you might be able to reheat or bake other dishes in the oven at the same time. Note that it does take about as long to reheat the bird as it does to roast it in the first place (at 450 degrees), which is something to consider if you have flexibility on Thanksgiving Day.
Orange Cranberry Loaf
Orange and cranberry are a wintery match made in heaven. This loaf has a good amount of orange zest, which releases its essential oils when ground together with the sugar to give the cake a lot of flavor and a beautiful orange hue. A little orange juice, swirled together with yogurt, ensures a super moist crumb. The plump cranberries burst in the oven and dot the loaf with welcome pockets of tartness. When they are in season, fresh cranberries are perfect here, but frozen will work just as well. Do not thaw them before swirling them into the batter but do note that frozen cranberries will increase the overall bake time a bit. Freeze the baked loaf, well-wrapped, for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature to serve.
Brown-Butter Mashed Potatoes
The simple act of browning butter takes this holiday mainstay from simple to superb in a matter of minutes. Russet potatoes are the perfect blank canvas for the toasty, nutty notes of the brown butter, which is lifted to a starring role as it permeates the potatoes and pools on top. Mashed potato purists may say that using a ricer or food mill is the only way to achieve a creamy texture, but a hand mixer or potato masher works just as well, as long as you don’t overmix and your potatoes stay hot. Make sure to create divots for the pools of brown butter that sit atop the dish, which make each spoonful feel extra luxe.
Green Bean Casserole
In the original 1955 green bean casserole recipe, the home economist Dorcas Reilly called for canned cream of mushroom soup. It is, to be clear, delicious. But almost as easy is a quick homemade sauce zhuzhed up with celery salt and nutmeg, pantry spices that make food taste good. Plus, without the mushrooms, the green beans here can fully shine. This casserole should be spoonable — and who has the extra time on Thanksgiving to hand-trim all those green beans? In November especially, it makes sense to take advantage of frozen cut green beans. In this recipe, half of the beans are simmered in broth to bring out their hyper savory flavors and the rest are baked into the casserole to maintain their color and structure. Don’t hesitate to use the store-bought French-fried onions in a can. They cannot be improved.
Turkey Soup
This simple, comforting soup is an easy way to use up leftover Thanksgiving turkey. If you’re feeling up to it, make your own homemade turkey stock, or use store-bought for a quick dinner and a respite after a marathon of holiday cooking. If you happen to have leftover gravy, add a bit at the very end of cooking for a silky richness and deeper flavor. Like many soups, this one freezes well, though you might need to add a splash of broth or water when reheating, as the pasta will continue to absorb the broth as it sits (see Tip).
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake With Coffee Frosting
Tieghan Gerard, who runs the wildly popular Half Baked Harvest blog, posts a new recipe nearly every day, all year round, but her favorite season is (of course) fall, when she brings out the pumpkin-shaped pots, pumpkin-scented candles and toasted pumpkin seeds. Even if you don’t identify with the P.S.L. set, separating the pumpkin spice (cake) from the latte (frosting) makes this a delicious snack cake. Pumpkin purée makes it very moist, so test to be sure the batter is baked all the way through.
No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
This no-bake cheesecake has a lot going for it: a buttery, lightly spiced cookie crust, fluffy pumpkin filling and a lofty spiced topping. Another draw: If you decide to make this for Thanksgiving, it won’t need any precious oven space — and can be prepared up to four days in advance. Feel free to substitute about 2 tablespoons of your favorite pumpkin spice blend for the spices in the cheesecake. The topping is optional, and you can also serve it on the side, instead of crowning the cheesecake. If you can’t find Biscoff cookies, use crunchy gingersnap cookie crumbs instead.
Braised Green Beans and Potatoes
In this simple but powerful recipe, fresh green beans are the alpha and the omega, the bean and the broth. You know a recipe is going to be good when it calls for both onion powder and garlic powder in addition to fresh onion and fresh garlic. The muskier dried versions of these alliums aren’t redundant; they lend fortification to the savory structure that only onion and garlic can build. The potatoes, simmered until soft and fuzzy at the edges, make this holiday side dish — served, please, with a slotted spoon, as part of a buffet plate — feel more like a complete meal when enjoyed later, as leftovers. The ham hock (or smoked turkey leg) isn’t just an afterthought, said Scotty Scott, this recipe’s author and the author of “Fix Me a Plate.” Picked off the bone and chunked into a bowl with the green beans and their rich broth, the meat is a reminder of the soft but important boundary between special and ordinary.
Pumpkin Pie Bars
Pumpkin pie bars boast the same creamy, spiced pumpkin filling as a classic pumpkin pie but in slightly different proportions. A traditional pumpkin pie has about 3 inches of filling and a mere quarter inch of pastry, but a pie bar offers a more even ratio of base to filling. This recipe starts with gingersnap cookie crumbs mixed with a bit of flour, butter and sugar to transform the bottom into something more akin to a soft cake. Topped with the perfect amount of sweet pumpkin filling, these bars are a lighter, more casual version of the classic. For a little extra flavor, add ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger to the cream before whipping.
Scalloped Potatoes
Scalloped potatoes are a classic comfort food side dish, simple enough for a family dinner and festive enough for a spot on the holiday table. Consisting of thinly sliced potatoes that are layered and baked in a cream sauce, they are a cousin of French Dauphinoise potatoes — the notable difference being the absence of cheese in the former. Dress these up with a handful of chopped herbs or serve as-is, browned and bubbling on top, alongside prime rib or roasted chicken.
Roasted Cauliflower With Crispy Parmesan
The key to well-roasted cauliflower, with frizzled edges and sweet and tender middles, is to cook it at a high heat on a rack near the heat source, mostly on one side. You could stop there or, toward the end of cooking, shower it with grated Parmesan to crisp and add a salty boost. Follow the instructions in Step 1 to cut the cauliflower through the stem to create lots of flat sides, which yields more surface area for browning and cheese — in other words, more of the good stuff.
Sautéed Mushrooms with Thyme
And the award for “easiest drool-worthy side dish” goes to…Sautéed Mushrooms with Thyme!
Evergreen Spritz
The perfect evergreen, single-serving citrus spritz recipe to get you through the holidays and beyond. Simply scale up to make a large batch; enjoy!
Thanksgiving Stuffing
This deeply savory, buttery sage stuffing builds layers of flavor with each step. First, whole sage leaves fry in melted butter for a pretty garnish that offers pleasurable crispy bits. The butter ends up browned, nutty and infused with the herb’s woodsy aroma, and helps chopped sage, fennel seeds, poultry seasoning and cayenne bloom for a fragrant blend that tastes like sausage. Milk in place of watery boxed stock means there’s a base of richness that only dairy can provide. The combination of white bread and cornbread results in a classic but amped-up Thanksgiving stuffing with textural integrity and a hint of sweetness to boot.
Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
It’s not just that mashed potatoes can be made ahead; they actually end up creamier and fluffier when prepared in advance. When mashed potatoes chill, their starches firm up, and when reheated gently, they relax into a mash with an even silkier texture. But you can’t save potatoes that start out gluey. Shearing cooked spuds with any blade — food processor, blender or hand mixer — releases enormous amounts of starch and turns the mash into spackle. Here, you break up the potatoes by hand or with a stand mixer’s paddle attachment for an airy smoothness. If you have a ricer or food mill, you can use that instead.
Pecan Linzer Bars
These bars have the nutty and jammy vibes of a classic Linzer torte, the Austrian dessert of almond or hazelnut shortbread layered with preserves. The buttery dough bakes up tender, but it can be difficult to roll out. Here, we’re using the same components in a simplified way: pressing in the crust, crumbling over the topping and baking in a brownie pan before cutting into bars. You can use any nut and preserve combination, but the traditional filling of raspberry jam or red currant jelly offers a nice hit of acidity to contrast the sweet cookie crust.
Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Simple enough for weeknights but special enough for holidays, this mix of roasted root vegetables and fruits showcases all the sweetness fall produce has to offer. Because each ingredient roasts differently, you’ll also get various textures, from jammy apples to crisp-tender carrots. Honey accentuates the sweetness, but there’s plenty of room for personal flair. For warmth, roast with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, cardamom or ginger. For crunch, add chopped nuts to the pan in the last few minutes of roasting. For a little zip, add lemon or orange zest with the red-pepper flakes. Eat alongside turkey, lamb or pork, or serve over sautéed greens or salad greens.
Easy Mustard Greens
Mustard greens are a delectable option for the simplest weeknight meal or the grandest holiday table. Though they’re from the same plant family as collard greens, mustard greens are more peppery and the cooked leaves are more tender. (They also cook down a lot more, so it takes a lot of mustard greens to make a decent serving amount!) This recipe is generous with the liquid, because as it cooks it becomes something just as delicious as the greens themselves: pot likker. Smoked meats are often used for their flavor, but a small amount of liquid smoke keeps this recipe meat-free. Be sure to serve your greens in a bowl, so you can slurp up the resulting pot likker afterward.
Butternut Squash Soup
With a combination of squash, onion, garlic and a little spice, this soup is as simple as it gets. Roasting the squash helps concentrate its natural flavors and is a step that can be done a day or two ahead. A splash of rice vinegar adds a tangy sparkle and, if you want a touch more sweetness, you can stir in some brown sugar or honey. Taste your soup before adding any — you may find your squash’s natural sugars offer just the right amount of sweetness for you.
Silky Creamed Corn
The original creamed corn likely did not have any cream at all: Native Americans scraped the cobs of their milky, starchy juices and simmered them with kernels until everything was thick and creamy. This recipe — which works with any frozen, canned or fresh corn — builds a similar silkiness by blending some of the cooked corn. Half-and-half adds richness, but not so much that it mutes the sweetness of the corn like heavy cream can. There’s no one way to flavor creamed corn; you can add herbs, cheese and peppers to make maque choux, or add nothing at all.
Spicy Peanut and Pumpkin Soup
This recipe is a promise of warmth on those cool autumn nights. Habanero chiles and peanuts both feature heavily in Nigerian cuisine, and this soup is an adaptation of a long-simmered stew common to much of West Africa. Don’t be afraid of a chile with seeds: The fragrant oils from these peppers are worth every bite. The peanut butter and coconut milk mellow the warmth of the chile to a gentle, lingering heat, but you can also take the chile out before the soup is puréed. An optional spoon of honey to the soup will round out the flavors, and a dollop of crème fraîche or yogurt will further temper the heat. Serve with a baguette or sourdough bread for dipping.
Air-Fryer Cheesecake
This recipe for an air-fryer cheesecake shows the potential of the appliance and the creativity of people, who seem willing to try making anything in the machine. Four months after Rebecca Abbott bought her first air fryer, she was stunned when she made a perfect cheesecake in it — no cracks or dips. She created this recipe, along with Jennifer West, for their blog, Air Frying Foodie. (The two included a cookies and cream version in their cookbook, “Air Fryer Beginner Recipes.”) This cheesecake is done in a fraction of the time it would take to bake one and looks beautiful, especially with cherry pie filling on top.
Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese
This macaroni and cheese recipe, inspired by Stouffer’s, delivers the best of all worlds: creamy, saucy comfort, with a consistency that’s slightly more set than a stovetop version, thanks to a final bake in the oven. It stays voluptuous and molten as a result of a higher ratio of sauce to noodles, which are cooked completely so they don’t soak up as much liquid. The Velveeta is necessary here, as it has sodium citrate, which prevents the sauce from separating in the oven. Elbow macaroni works fine, but cavatappi is an especially fun shape to eat with its telephone-cord bounciness.
Classic Apple Pie
In this very classic, cinnamon-scented pie, the apples are sautéed in butter before they’re piled in the crust, ensuring that they’re tender but not mushy. Use firm, crisp apples here, preferably all one kind so the slices cook evenly. Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Ginger Gold and Granny Smith apples are good options. (Honeycrisps will give you the sweetest pie, while Granny Smiths the most tart.) If using a glass or ceramic pie pan, consider parbaking the bottom crust. Glass doesn’t conduct heat as well as metal, so the crust may not cook through if you don’t parbake.