The holidays can be a stressful time of year. Planning an intricate, homemade meal on top of people’s schedules, guests’ living situations, and travel plans have a lot of people opting for store bought convenience items. While there is nothing wrong with store bought items, for those who prefer homemade, I would like to share what I think is the best Holiday plan of action to reduce stress and mess while optimizing your time.

The Turkey Plan

I will get a lot of hate for this, but I’m prepared to. The days of roasting a giant turkey in your oven on Thanksgiving Day should be over. I believe the best way to cook a turkey on Thanksgiving Day is to break the bird down days before and use the bones and/or wings to make stock for use in your holiday items.

When I host a large Thanksgiving party, I have always purchased two turkeys. I’d break one down and make stock from it and roast the other on Thanksgiving, mainly for nostalgic purposes since one bird turns out far superior to the other. However, this clogs the oven for likely 4 hours and keeps you from being able to heat any other side dishes. There are videos on YouTube about how to break down chickens, which can be easily translated for turkeys.

Season the breasts, legs, and thighs with your choice of seasonings (I use salt & pepper only). Sear all three in a large pan over high heat for roughly 2 minutes. Turn the heat down, add butter, thyme sprigs, crushed garlic cloves, and chopped shallot and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Then top the breasts, thighs, and legs with the shallot/garlic/herb mixture and baste with the browning butter for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from the heat, take the bird out of the pan and place on roasting sheet, cook in 350° oven until an internal temperature of 165° is reached. Remove from oven and let rest for 3-5 minutes, slice and serve.

Our Holiday Plan Menu

I am going to write a plan and shopping list for only the recipes on this page. Making all these recipes will result in a basic yet fulfilling Thanksgiving Day menu. These recipes are green bean casserole, traditional stuffing, cornbread stuffing (for those who are gluten free), sweet potato casserole, and gravy. I will include mashed potatoes on the shopping list, but there will not be a recipe posted.

Shopping Timeline

I am going to plan according to my local grocery store Kroger. You might need to do a touch of research to see if your store does things on a different timeline.  Kroger releases its new ad on Wednesdays.

I want to have my turkey thawing for at least 4 days before I want to use it. I want my stock done a day or two before I plan on starting to prep. Exact days can change based on what you have going on or work schedule etc. Meaning just because I say stock should be done on Friday, doesn’t mean it needs to be done Friday. If you have a different work schedule and have more time on Thursday, do it Thursday. All right, enough setting the stage. On Wednesday the 15th, I will go to Kroger and purchase the following:

  • Turkey (1-1 ½ lbs. Per Person)
  • Celery, 1 Head
  • Carrots, 2# Bag
  • Yellow Onion, 3# Bag
  • Thyme 1 oz. x 2
  • Rosemary 1 oz.
  • Sage 1 oz.
  • Parsley, 2 Bunches
  • 3 lbs. of Butter
  • (4) 32oz Cans of Chicken Broth
  • Pack of French Bread (21 oz.)
  • Fine Ground Cornmeal 24 oz.
  • Baking Powder 8.1 oz.
  • Baking Soda 16 oz.
  • Plain Yogurt 32 oz.
  • Jumbo Eggs, 1 Dozen
  • Honey 12 oz.
  • Smoked Sausage 14 oz.
  • Dried Mushrooms (any variety or size, we will use 5 grams)
  • White Wine 750 ml.
  • Flour, 2#
  • Worcestershire Sauce, 15 oz. (You can use off brand, but I recommend Lea & Perrins)
  • Hot Sauce 5 oz.
  • Shallots, 2 ea.
  • Garlic Head, 2 ea.
  • Button Mushrooms 16 oz.
  • Green Beans 24 oz.
  • Bacon 16 oz.
  • Heavy Whipping Cream 2 qt.
  • Cheesecloth (Unless you have a fine mesh strainer)
  • Russet Potatoes 5 lbs. (Idaho)
  • Sweet Potatoes 3 lbs.
  • Sugar 2 lb. bag
  • Cinnamon 1.75oz
  • Nutmeg (Smallest container you can find)
  • Kosher salt 3 lb. box
  • Pecans, chopped 4 oz
  • Brown Sugar 2 lb. bag

Sunday 11/18

Our turkey should be thawed by Saturday (unless you bought an unusually large one). Sunday morning, I will start my turkey stock. First, I will chop 1 bunch of parsley, 1 oz. of thyme, half oz. of sage, and half oz. of sage. Mix all these herbs together and put in an airtight container in your refrigerator.  You can use this herb mixture in the stuffing,

Finely chop 3 cups of onion, 3 cups of celery, 2 cups of carrot and put 1.5 cups of celery and onions along with 1 cup of carrot in two separate containers (we’re making the vegetable sets for two kinds of stuffing). Place the mirepoix in airtight containers and place in your refrigerator for later. Set one onion aside for later also.

Now place turkey bones. Remaining onions, carrots, celery, herbs, chicken stock, and 1 gallon of water into the largest pot you have. Bring this to a simmer for 5 hours skimming all impurities from the top every 20-30 minutes. After 5 hours, remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve. It helps to do this part in stages, strain through a large colander to remove the large items then strain through a colander lined with cheesecloth. Place back on heat and cook until 1 gallon of stock remains.

Now is a good time to make our cornbread recipe also. Once completed and cooled, remove from baking dish and cube into 1-inch cubes and set inside your cold oven to dry while keeping it away from pests.  Now is a good time to do the same with your French bread also. I like to put a note on my oven to keep anyone from turning it on without checking inside it as not many people open their oven before preheating it.

Tuesday 11/21

Tuesday night I will blanch my green beans, assemble my sweet potato casserole, and I will make my gravy. Allow your gravy and green beans to cool to room temperature before putting them away in the fridge. This way we don’t put too much stress on our refrigerator and unnecessarily heat up every other ingredient inside.

Wednesday 11/22

I will have everything made by Wednesday night except the turkey and baking my casseroles. I will have the stuffing(s) assembled, I will mix the blanched green beans with the casserole mix, and I will have the potatoes cut and peeled for my mashed potatoes.

Thanksgiving Day 11/23

All I need to do today is roughly an hour before I want to eat, put all my casseroles in the oven (follow the specific timing for each recipe), start my mashed potatoes on the stove, sear and roast my turkey, and heat my gravy.  Getting all the heavy lifting out the way the days before can foster a much more relaxing holiday.