Host a Stress Free Thanksgiving

My oldest turned 15 this year and I realized that’s about how many Thanksgivings I have hosted by now. For many years I worked along side my dad who was a chef. In the beginning he would do mostly all of the cooking and I would do the table setting and decor. Though we would always work together on the menu planning and shopping. Over the last several years my dad was starting to fade, having had a stroke and then beginning to go into heart failure. So year by year I took on a little more of the cooking and my dad a little less. It was only two years ago that he did eventually pass away, leaving me to fend for myself on Thanksgiving. I must add here that my mom has always been steadfastly in the background as well and continues to support me with her cleaning and pumpkin pie baking. She also does the green bean casserole. Thanks mom.

A hand holding a stainless steel peeler over a kitchen sink. — The only peeler you will ever use once you try it.

The thing about Thanksgiving is there are so many dishes to choose from. Some Italian families like to cook a pasta side dish on this holiday. Others, macaroni and cheese. I like to stick to the traditional American dishes that are simple and have a short ingredient list. Save the extravagant dishes for Christmas or New Year’s if you are up for it. What my family does and has always done going back to when I was a little girl is the same five dishes. They are primarily carbohydrates, but this is the one day a year that we plan such a high carb meal so let’s just move on from that topic. The dishes are as follows: roasted turkey, stuffing, masked potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans. For a little extra flair I started making Gordon Ramsay’s cranberry sauce a few years ago and really love it. My mom still insists on bringing the can of OceanSpray jellied cranberry sauce too, and that’s ok. Then just two years ago I started making my great grandmother’s Christmas jello salad and we all love it so much it has also become a new (old) staple.

Now to the stress free part! That is why you clicked on this article I’m sure so here we go. First, in order to get through this day with zero stress you must make the majority of the dishes before Thanksgiving day. Second, you must stick to the schedule of what dishes you are making ahead of time and save only one or two dishes to prepare on the day of. I promise if you do this you will never do Thanksgiving any other way. Ever. So here is the schedule I follow:

Monday – cranberry sauce and jello salad.

Tuesday – sweet potatoes and stuffing.

Wednesday – roast the turkey.

Thursday – mashed potatoes (you really can’t make ahead) and gravy.

Starting the cranberry sauce three days ahead on the Monday before Thanksgiving actually gives it time to rest and develop its flavors. If you aren’t into making a cranberry sauce from scratch they I would try and see if one of your families favorite dishes could be made ahead on this day. If there is nothing you can really think of then maybe focus on a special decor project or table scape. I really get a kick out of making the jello salad and recommend trying it out if you have never had it before. It’s a nice palate cleanser since it’s made with pineapple and lime juice. I have made the mistake in the past of using this day to clean my house. Trust me, your family is going to end up messing it all up again by Thursday and you will end up cleaning all over again. So don’t waste your time. That’s the beauty of only having to cook two dishes on Thanksgiving day – you will have time for that last minute pick up.

A mason jar of homemade cranberry sauce with a gold lid.

A sweet potato casserole is simple and easy to make ahead. I like to roast my sweet potatoes in the oven for maximum flavor and then peel, add my ingredients, beat with a hand mixer until smooth and add to a baking dish. Pro tip – use a nice glass Pyrex baking dish that you can not only serve out of but that comes with a lid for storage after. This means you have saved yourself from washing multiple large dishes. You’re welcome. Sweet potatoes have a high moisture content and just keep really well for a few days in the fridge. I even went so far as to add my pecan and mini marshmallow topping this year and they didn’t get mushy and still browed really well when it was time to reheat in the oven.

A baking sheet of roasted whole sweet potatoes. — Peeling roasted sweet potatoes is a labor of love but worth it for the flavor.

Stuffing is a great choice to make ahead of time as it’s meant to soak up any juices and become moist and mushy. I don’t like to get too fancy when it comes to stuffing. I just chop one onion and about half a head of celery per bag of stuffing. My family likes the crushed kind which is so easy to make when you do the stovetop method. After it’s all mixed up just transfer it to your glass baking dish (one with a lid for easy storage after, remember?) Stuffing is made with like a stick of butter per bag so it browns up nicely in the oven. Just watch closely during the reheating process so that you don’t burn or dry it out. You can add some chicken stock if it’s looking a little dry. If you are doing stuffing from scratch all of this still applies and you can easily make the homemade version ahead of time as well.

A glass baking dish of stuffing with a plastic lid sitting on top. — Use an oven safe casserole dish with a storage lid to cook, serve and store leftovers in and save time washing dishes later.

So now we’ve made it to Wednesday, the day you are going to roast your turkey. This is by far the most stressful part of Thanksgiving!!! I can remember so many years when we would wake up early in the morning Thanksgiving day so stressed because if we didn’t get the bird in the oven by 9am – we were late! My family liked to eat around 3pm and we used to roast a huge bird that would take hours and hours. Now I am going to let you in on a secret that most chefs know when it comes to getting a moist turkey – you have to rest your bird after cooking for the same amount of time it took to cook it. So if it took three hours to roast, you would let it rest another three hours. Resting simply means the meat is able to soak back up all of its juices that escaped during the cooking process – becoming moist and flavorful. There is simply not enough hours in the day to do this on Thanksgiving day unless you were to wake up at the crack of dawn. Trust me – roast your turkey the day before. It’s even easier to carve the next day when it’s cold and can be arranged beautifully in a roasting pan. Simply cover with about inch of chicken stock and warm in the oven, covered in foil. If your bird was slightly undercooked you now have the opportunity to cook it a little more. You are welcome.

A mans hand pouring a box of chicken stock over a glass pyrex dish filled with roasted carved turkey. — Here is my husband getting the sliced pre-cooked turkey in the oven on Thanksgiving day.

An oven door open with four casserole dishes inside being heated up. — Multiple pre-made dishes fit in the oven all at once making it possible to heat and serve Thanksgiving dinner in no time.

We are now on Thanksgiving day and all that’s left is to make mashed potatoes and gravy. What a relief! I love doing my mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot and utilizing the keep warm setting after. Your oven will have several items heating up at once but your glass casserole dishes shouldn’t be too large to fit three or four in at a time. What a wonderful gift to give your family on this holiday – a mom who is calm and relaxed and not stressed.