A thread for Thanksgiving food ideas and recipes

Like some of ya'll I have multipule thanksgivings coming up- one with friends, one with family, and one with coworkers at a minimum. I'm drawing blanks on what I should make, so I thought to get a thread together so we can all share ideas for what to make our loved ones!

To start, I can attest that the Boston Market recipies for their Sweet Potato Casserole are all worth it, and my stepbrother will bring his again this year.

This has people raving every time it gets made

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/rosemary-focaccia-stuffing-with-pancetta-3364165

Here's a Thanksgiving breakfast idea... something to start the day off right. I think my friend got the idea off of some YouTube show from 10 or so years ago where they'd make obscene food. This one was on the less obscene side of things. Bacon and Jalapeño Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast Dumplings.

Ingredients:

Untoasted Texas Toast
1 brick of cream cheese
1 or 2 jalapeños
All the bacon you want
Just a ton of eggs
Milk
Cinnamon
Butter or oil for frying
Vanilla extract
Maple Syrup
Whisky (optional)
Powdered sugar (definitely not optional)

Directions:

1. With great precision and utmost care, cut off the crust from the Texas toast and set aside.
2. Carefully cook the bacon and break it up into small bits.
3. Dice up the jalapeño. Go on, dice those things!
4. While daydreaming of your favorite track day, mix the bacon and jalapeño into the cream cheese and put the mixture into a bowl.
5. Tepidly take a dab of the cream cheese mix and plop it right onto a piece of untoasted Texas Toast. Not too much, now!
6. Actually, add a little more. That looks like it's not enough. .... yeah, that's better.
7. With great triumph, take a second piece of untoasted Texas Toast and cover the mixture-topped piece of untoasted Texas Toast and pinch the ends together. Set these aside on a plate for now.
8. Mindlessly mix your favorite egg batter for French Toast. My way is to mix eggs, a little milk, a bunch of cinnamon, and a bit of Vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk it.
9. Courageously heat up a deep skillet and, I don't know... melt just an absolute ton of butter into it. Or, use some sort of oil. Like peanut oil! You can use this later to fry your turkey. You'll want to cover half of each dumpling at least. 
10. Quietly mix a little bit of whiskey into a bottle of your favorite maple syrup while you're waiting for the oil to get hot. If you'd like. Or don't. That's your business.
11. Now, take a moment to capture what you're about to do in your memory. This is a big moment. Mental photograph time. You can thank me later.
12. With great humility, dip your pressed-together dumplings into the egg batter and lower them into the oily goodness.
13. Once they start to brown on one side, flip them over in the oil. Remember: GREAT HUMILITY!
14. Casually remove the now browned dumplings from the oil and place onto a plate on top of a paper towel. Dust them with powdered sugar, drizzle on some syrup, and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving around here without a Karo Pecan Pie.

Last Sunday, I did my inventory of the deep freeze, and discovered we had some smoked turkey leftovers from last thanksgiving.

Wanting to use it up, I made these last night in a cast iron skillet and used my pellet smoker to melt / meld everything together, and it was fire.

https://www.thefoodblog.net/leftover-turkey-nachos/#recipe

I used a small can of diced jalapenos and quesadilla and white cheddar cheese (what I had handy) and then a light drizzle of Trader Joes Garlic Pepper Hot Sauce and Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce.

Was a definite win.

Not much help with Thanksgiving dinner, but a few days later ........

Turkey Corn Chowdah

¾ - 1 pound leftover turkey meat, diced

2 cups low sodium Chicken Broth

2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

½ pound potatoes, diced

15 oz. frozen corn

¼ cup onion, diced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 small-medium Carrot,chopped

1 clove Garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Thyme or Oregano

½ tsp black pepper

1 Tblsp oil

 Saute onion, carrot and celery in oil until al dente’.  Add all remaining ingredients except the Whipping Cream.  Bring to almost a boil and reduce heat to medium for 20 - 30 minutes, then to low for an hour or so.

Add some soup mixture to the Cream in a separate bowl to slowly raise its temperature.  Now add the Cream to the pot.

 Simmer another 20 minutes and season to taste.

Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, real gravy from drippings, cranberry sauce made from cranberries. That's all you need. All the rest is just fooling around, although I will acknowledge green bean casserole as an American staple as well.

Unfortunately, I'm the only one in my US family that likes turkey. So I miss out.

Just putting my whole mess of Turkey Day together but thought I'd offer a simply yet swanky aoppetizer.  Bonus is it can be pre-prepped easily ahead of time and everyone thinks it's fancy.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in the swine of your choice or simply use no meat for your Veggie friends.

https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/goat-cheese-stuffed-bacon-wrapped-dates/

They are dumb easy to make - just need a few ingrediants Goat Cheese (little plastic wrapped log) any dried dates or figs work.  Open the dates/figs up with a butter knife and lop a corner off the goat cheese bag after it's come to room temp.  Fill the the dates/figs with the goat cheese package like it's a piping bag.  The rest is up to you.  

Instead of the typical mashed potatoes we are thinking of making this awesome looking au grating potatoes in a skillet we saw.But other than that, the usual stuff.

Turkey, ALL THE GRAVY, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, better half is making a pie, I know I'm missing one of two things. 

Oh and my buddy that's coming down is BOH Manager at a Texas Roadhouse, so he is bringing rolls and butter. 

Season your food well and leave the pork alone lol

I'm a fan of GobbleGobble.com for the main course.  Takes away all the hassle and headache.  And it's better than mom's.

Try Frank's Red Hot Chicken dip as a nice side alternative

• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup Frank's RedHot® Original Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles

directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into shallow 1-quart baking dish.
2. BAKE 20 minutes or until mixture is heated through; stir.  Sprinkle with green onions and additional blue cheese, if desired, and serve with chips, crackers and/or cut up veggies. Makes 32 (2-tablespoon) Servings.

I've been using a Sous Vide to cook the turkey breast for a couple of years and like this recipe:

https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-turkey-breast-crispy-skin-recipe-thanksgiving

Sous Vide is to fuel injection and coil over plug as an oven is to carbs and points. 

Question for the cooks. I've thought about slow cooking the turkey breast to make it easier. I know it's lean, so I'd have to add some fat and/or keep the cook time short so it doesn't dry out. I also thought about a bone in breast to keep it from drying out. Has anyone slow cooked a turkey breast?

Im the only cook and it'll just be my wife, son and his fiancée, so the ease of slow cooking seems like a decent idea. 
 

-Rob

In reply to rob_lewis :

You could always wrap it to retain what moisture tries to escape.

In reply to rob_lewis :

I haven't slow cooked one, but from what I've read there's a point where it can be too slow for poultry, but I'm no sure where that is. 

I was amazed at how quickly the turkey cooked when we spatchcocked it. If the goal is to not spend all day checking and basting a turkey then spatchcocking could be an option. 

The stuffed turkey breast in this recipe looked good on TV, but I've never tried it:

GMA stuffed turkey breast

What no deviled eggs mentioned yet?

I'm cheating this year and probably going to see how the hard boiled eggs turn out from the local warehouse store. Just a few dollars more and not having to cook and peel(destroy) them.

Probably do a spicy with mayo and non spicy without mayo.

A quick side dish that I threw together a few years ago that was a hit and have done it every year since.  If you're cooking in an oven with a roasting rack/pan:

• Slather the bottom with lots of butter, maybe some olive oil
• Slice up some new potatoes and lay them in the bottom.  
• Add whatever spices you like and some salt
• Maybe some more butter and olive oil
• Add another layer of taters
• Repeat based on how many people you're serving

The juices from the turkey (or any meat you're cooking) will drip onto the taters and add flavor while they slow cook in the oven.  It was literally a "hey, I wonder if this'll work" idea, so I don't have measurements or anything.  The only advice is don't slice the potatoes too thin as they'll cook and dry out too quick and end up like a brown chip.

-Rob

In reply to confuZion3 :

Cool recipe but as a general rule, Whiskey is never optional.

Not just in recipes in life

Ranger50 said:

What no deviled eggs mentioned yet?

I'm cheating this year and probably going to see how the hard boiled eggs turn out from the local warehouse store. Just a few dollars more and not having to cook and peel(destroy) them.

Probably do a spicy with mayo and non spicy without mayo.

I mentioned them. I asked the better half specifcally to make ALL the deviled eggs. My friend that's coming down we could probably just eat like a dozen each and not worry about the other stuff. 

I'm tired of the family arguing politics after dinner, so indica and tryptophan should put a stop to that, at least as it pertains to parties who have the garlic mashed potatoes. 

Our daughter in law makes Latkes at Thanksgiving,  they're wonderful for scooping up the home made apple sauce.  It's a lot of labor getting all the starch out of the potatoes and celery root but worth it. root.

It was maybe 2 years ago that myself and 2 others all brought air fried brussel sprouts, with some bacon and basalmic vinegar they're a crowd pleaser. Twice baked potatoes have gone well. The only time I've done a turkey I smoked it and came out great. Helped a buddy deep fry one and we managed to do it without catching anything on fire and came out well.

We don't do stuffing; instead, my family has always done dressing patties, or, as my sister-in-law calls them, stuffin' muffins.

Chop 4-6 ribs of celery and one large sweet onion, then stew with turkey neck and giblets in just enough water to cover until tender. Remove, cool, and finally chop the giblets and neck meat. Add 1/2 stick of butter, 1 T sage, and plenty of shakes of celery salt to vegetables and their broth, along with one loaf of bread, torn into pieces. Add back giblets and then add 1 C to 1-1/2 C of drippings from bird until stuffing is nice and moist, but not wet. Form into 12 patties on 2 cookie sheets and bake at 350 for one hour or until tops are browned and edges are crispy. Alternatively, bake in greased muffin tins if you like less chewy edges.

These are the perfect vehicle for gravy, which--to my mind at least--is how one describes the best Thanksgiving dishes. They are also easy to make vegetarian or vegan while still delivering all the Thanksgiving flavors. I usually mix cheap white bread with crustier stuff, but it's hard to hurt the recipe.

Margie

In reply to rob_lewis :

Oh! Missed this. Yeah, used to drop a turkey breast into the slow cooker all the time when the kids were young so there was hot food waiting when we got home. Comes out fine.

Margie

We do a pretty standard menu for Thanksgiving, but like making these "egg rolls" with the leftovers. We make them in the air fryer rather than deep frying and they come out fine.