Planning ahead and prepping—in other words, thinking like a professional cook—is the key to getting the entire Thanksgiving meal on the table at the same time without committing either seppuku or homicide.
The trick is to spread out any tasks that take lots of time, use lots of oven or stove space, or make a big mess so you don’t run out of time, space, or energy at the last minute. Choosing dishes that reheat well, or that taste good at room temperature, is crucial to making your big holiday dinner go smoothly.
For the best results, start your timeline at the moment of serving dinner and work backwards in time. Here’s a sample day-by-day outline (I tried to include every classic Thanksgiving dish I could think of!) to help you plan ahead. Feel free to share any of your own tips below!
Make pie or tart dough and freeze
If using a frozen turkey, defrost it so you can season or brine on Tuesday. Beware that it can take a day or two for a large turkey to defrost!
Make turkey or chicken stock and freeze for gravy
Season or brine turkey
Buy bread to use for stuffing, or make cornbread for stuffing
Wash herbs, greens and lettuces and make vinaigrette
Roast pumpkin for pie if using fresh squash
Measure out ingredients for pecan pie filling, pumpkin pie filling, etc.
Tear croutons for stuffing and dry out in oven
Trim and top green beans
Make soup, if planning to serve
Peel potatoes and keep whole in water
Peel onions and carrots that you might use in any dishes, such as creamed corn, creamed spinach, stuffing, etc.
Make any caramel sauces or things like that that you might need to garnish desserts
If you’re insane enough to want to make homemade ice cream, get it in the freezer by tonight.
If you are using fresh chestnuts, get them boiled and peeled.
Early morning
Pull turkey out of fridge to come up to room temp
Blind bake pie doughs
Brown sausage or bacon for stuffing
Prep vegetables—trim and halve Brussels sprouts, peel squash, peel any root vegetables, clean and trim cauliflower or broccoli, etc.
Roast vegetables that might need roasting—these do well at room temperature!
Cook off onions or any mirepoix
Make creamed spinach—this reheats well.
Do anything like seeding pomegranates, peeling persimmons, toasting nuts, or making vinaigrette that might be necessary for the salad
Heading into the afternoon and dinner time
Roast the turkey
Make the gravy with turkey drippings
Bake off tarts and pies
Make mashed potatoes and keep warm in double boiler
Assemble and bake stuffing/dressing
Right before dinner
Reheat dishes that need to be reheated, like soups, creamed spinach, or gravy
Toss the salad greens
Before dessert
Whip cream
Portion pies
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