Kenji’s green bean casserole.
Edit: I see prana beat me to it.
I mean, this is elite, but it also seems like much more of a spring dish than Thanksgiving to me.
I think Kenji’s green bean casserole it is. Looks like a bit of a pain in the ass so I’ll prep everything the day before.
That’s all of Kenji’s stuff in a nutshell. However, he seldom disappoints.
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I don’t think in terms of specific dishes. I tend to pick out which ingredients I want to use (heavily influenced by what’s on sale), then figure which recipe.
The two traditional options are green bean casserole and roasted Brussels sprouts.
You can certainly do green beans in non-casserole form. If I were to cook green beans, it’d probably be a stir-fry with hoisin or oyster sauce. I also like roasting green beans and asparagus together, often with mushrooms, and a ton of options for seasoning.
I like including Brussels sprouts in a roasted vegetable medley, usually with butternut squash and parsnips, with options for potatoes, onions, carrots, and other stuff. The people who don’t like Brussels sprouts can easily pick them out.
If you want to feel fancy, Brussels sprouts with pancetta is a common way to cook them. Less fancy would be to use regular bacon.
My theory for Thanksgiving is that–since gravy is used with turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing/dressing–it is preferable if the other food on the plate can handle being “contaminated” with gravy. I think your basic peas cooked from frozen fit this bill and you can just prepare them just as the bag says or be a bit more elaborate. This works out well when you just need something easy to make to fill out the need for green on the table.
I think spinach or kale, whether creamed, gratin, or salad, are also common choices.
this sounds perfect
I wonder why he doesn’t add soy sauce or sherry to the mushrooms while cooking them separately.
Whats everyone cooking for Thanksgiving this year? Having a hard time deciding the main. It’s just my wife and I. We did crab legs last year and a prime rib the year before. Thought about doing a rack of lamb or just grabbing a beef tenderloin for an easy cook.
Turkey. I’m contemplating deep frying it, but I’m lazy, so I probably won’t.
Still getting together a gameplan as I have volunteered to cook for my mom this year. Going mostly chalk for my old man with one non traditional.
Turkey (gonna brine this year for the first time)
Stuffing
Broccoli casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Pastelon de Papas aka Dominican Shepherd’s Pie
1 dessert undecided
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Can’t go wrong with lasagna. Tastes better on day two. Freezes pretty well.
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Thanksgiving will be at my folks’ place this year, and I haven’t been asked to do any meal planning or to bring anything, so that’s nice. I’ll be intimately involved in making whatever they decide to make, obv. We were thinking like you about doing a rack of lamb if we had a small Friendsgiving before then, but it’s looking like that won’t be happening.
Unless they’re Wookie-level chefs this is a huge leak on their part.
I’ve been training them up on technique, and it’s not like I’m the most creative at recipes. If I were to speculate as to what will happen, I’d bet my dad will do the turkey on his green egg that he’ll handle excellently with both dry brining and temperature control, I’ll handle both mashed potatoes and gravy almost entirely, stuffing will be pretty traditional and not my job, and mom will have some sort of oddball side dish that will be the annual change of pace.
I worry the stuffing isn’t getting enough attention. I’d want to be in charge of that+gravy, and leave the potatoes+player to be named, to mom.
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Never had thanksgiving dinner. Any specific dish im missing out?
I also think stuffing and gravy are the key players
Good stuffing is fantastic and makes the whole meal.
Everything else is fine, even if expertly done. But I could take it or leave it.
I know it makes me a bit of a freak, but mashed potatoes always tend to make me happier than any stuffing. That said, I do agree with Melkerson that if you want to point to something that’s truly special about Thanksgiving, stuffing and gravy are really it. Turkey is delicious when expertly prepared, but that’s true of any meat, and turkey is still basically the worst. It’s just big and inexpensive. Mashed potatoes, and to a lesser extent sweet potatoes, are good any time of year and in lots of contexts. Stuffing, though, is Thanksgiving.
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Cranberry sauce really ties the meal together.
Rarely mentioned but a necessity.
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Send the nut stuffing recipes, please. It’s something I’ve been struggling with since I moved out of my mother’s house 3 decades ago.
It’s always just ‘okay’. I’d like something spectacular though.
ETA: And gravy. I’m smoking a turkey so won’t really have any drippings to use.