Thanksgiving Recap: All of Your Thanksgiving Questions Answered (Patreon)

A few weeks ago, we solicited questions from our Super Frienji and Cookbook Club-tier members. We answered all of those questions in a live stream. Here are those answers. May they help you bring more joy to your kitchen.

If you'd like the opportunity to submit your own questions to get answered in future AKAs and livestreams, make sure to join the club!

Planning the Week Before Thanksgiving

Q: What do you like to cook in the days leading up to Thanksgiving? Any easy, veggie-forward meals when you’re already doing a lot of prep?

A: The week before Thanksgiving, I try to keep weeknight dinners really simple and fairly light. I’m already thinking about a big, rich meal with lots of sides, so I don’t want to eat like that all week too.

It’s squash season, so that’s an easy starting point. Roasted squash in pretty much any form works: tossed into salads, with pasta, or just on its own with olive oil and herbs. In the Thanksgiving recipe collection I sent out, there’s a roasted squash and kale salad that’s great not only for the holiday table, but also as a make-ahead lunch: you can prep a big batch, keep the dressing separate, and eat it over a few days.

With kids, I also lean heavily on pasta and noodles. They’re predictable hits, and you can tuck a lot of vegetables into them. One dish I like is a stir-fried butternut squash pasta situation—sort of halfway between a sauté and a pasta sauce. Or you can go even more low-effort and make a big baked pasta or casserole. Those reheat well and require very little mental energy.

So my rule of thumb:

Cook simple, familiar food.

Lean into seasonal vegetables (especially squash and greens).

Batch-cook when you can.

Save the culinary heroics for the big day.

Make-Ahead & Travel-Friendly Thanksgiving Dishes

Q: What dishes travel well for a long drive and can be served at room temperature or rewarmed in the microwave?

A: Think of dishes that are sturdy, don’t rely on being piping hot, and don’t suffer much from reheating. A few categories:

Bread-based things: Biscuits, dinner rolls, or a simple loaf of bread travel beautifully. One fun option is my pull-apart stuffing knots: you take pizza dough (homemade or store-bought), cut it into small pieces, tie them into knots, toss with oil and “stuffing-ish” flavors (sage, herbs, etc.), pack them into a cast iron pan or baking dish, and bake. You end up with a pull-apart bread that tastes like stuffing—great as an appetizer or side and totally fine at room temp.

Mashed potatoes (yes, really):Normally I don’t love making mashed potatoes way ahead, because potatoes change texture as the starch gelatinizes then retrogrades when they cool. They can get stiff and gluey. But if you do make them ahead, the microwave is actually one of the best ways to reheat them. Reheat in short bursts, stirring between each one, and be ready to add extra dairy—milk, cream, or sour cream—to loosen them up as they warm.

Mashed sweet potatoes:My slow-roasted sweet potatoes mashed with brown butter and maple syrup are incredibly forgiving. Because sweet potatoes have a different starch structure and a naturally creamy texture, they reheat very well and can also be served warm or just slightly above room temperature.

Salads:Salads are underappreciated as ideal travel dishes. You can prep everything ahead, store the dressing separately, and toss right before serving. In my family, we make a salad with frisée, escarole, arugula, pomegranate seeds, toasted nuts (walnuts or pecans), blue cheese, and sautéed apples or pears. The cooked apples need to be cooled completely before you toss them into the salad, which actually makes them perfect for make-ahead.

If you’re traveling 4–5 hours, I’d volunteer to bring bread, a salad, or a mashed vegetable dish—things that don’t live or die by perfect timing.

Appetizers That Can Sit Out

Q: Any ideas for snacks or appetizers that can hang out on the counter for a while without going bad?

A: A well-constructed cheese board or charcuterie plate is hard to beat. It’s low-effort, looks impressive, and everyone can graze as they arrive.

A couple of guidelines:

Get variety in texture:

One very soft cheese (a double-cream brie or camembert).

One firm or hard cheese (aged cheddar, pecorino, a tome).

One “middle” cheese (a semi-soft washed rind, or a goat cheese, or a blue).

Get variety in milk types:

Cow, sheep, and goat if you can. Each brings a different flavor profile.

Support players matter:

Something sweet and sticky: fig jam, honey, a fruit preserve, or this red onion jam.

Crunchy, tart fruits: apples, pears, maybe quince.I usually skip berries, especially in winter—they're out of season and don’t play as nicely with cheese flavor-wise.

Something rich and boozy: I like candied prunes or figs simmered in a brandy simple syrup. Just combine a half cup of brandy or cognac with a half cup of sugar, bring it to a simmer, then add dried prunes or figs and let them simmer, stirring occasionally, until the syrup is thick and sticky. They keep forever in the fridge and are fantastic with cheese.

And let the cheese warm up. Cheese is best at room temperature. Take it out of the fridge at least an hour before people will eat it. If you’re worried about pets or bugs, loosely cover the board with overturned bowls or a light cover—just don’t seal it back in the cold.

Stuffing: Make-Ahead & Freezing

Q: Can your stuffing recipe be frozen and baked from frozen?

A: I’ve never personally frozen my classic sage and sausage stuffing, but based on the ingredients, it should freeze just fine.

If you want to freeze it:

Assemble the stuffing completely and pack it into your casserole dish.

Let it cool if anything was warm, then cover well and freeze.

For best results, thaw overnight in the fridge before baking.

If you do bake straight from frozen:

Expect it to take longer.

Lower the oven temp a bit compared to the fresh-baked version.

Watch the top—if it’s browning too quickly before the center is hot, tent it loosely with foil.

Everything in there—bread, sausage, vegetables, stock—freezes and reheats well, so the main concern is just even heating.

Cooking for a Small Thanksgiving

Q: We’re only three people but want “all the sides.” How do we do that efficiently and without insane leftovers?

A: The nice thing about most Thanksgiving sides is they scale pretty easily. If a recipe calls for 5 pounds of potatoes, you can cut it to 2 or 2½ pounds. Use smaller pans or small cast iron skillets so the dishes don’t look sad and shallow on the table.

A couple strategic moves:

Consider cooking turkey parts instead of a whole bird.If you’re only feeding a few people, a roasted turkey breast on a bed of stuffing, or braised turkey legs in red wine, is far more manageable than an entire turkey.

Spread your cooking across different heat sources:Think like a restaurant kitchen. You have a stove, main oven, possibly a toaster oven, and a microwave. Don’t design a menu where everything needs the main oven in the last hour.

And honestly: leftovers are not a problem as long as you like leftover turkey. I’ve roasted six birds in a season before—my kids eventually beg me for “no more turkey,” but it’s still one of the best parts of the holiday for me. Here's a collection of some of my Thanksgiving leftovers recipes.

Tools & Techniques: Cleavers, Shears, and Steels

Q: Do you recommend a cleaver for breaking down the turkey frame? Any favorites?

A: I do. A cleaver makes short work of turkey backs, necks, and joints.

The one I use is a Chinese-style Shibazi cleaver, around 8–9 inches long. It’s heavy enough to power through joints, inexpensive, and holds an edge well. It’ll go through a turkey carcass—or an unwary finger—pretty easily, so respect it.

Q: What kitchen shears do you recommend for spatchcocking a turkey?

A: I use OXO poultry shears. For chickens, they’re usually plenty. For bigger turkeys, there’s often one stubborn spot where the backbone meets the ribs and wing joints. You can:

Cut as far as you can with shears from both ends.

Then switch to a cleaver for that final thick section, if needed.

A combination of shears + cleaver gives you safety and precision where you want it, and brute force where you need it.

Q: How long should a spatchcocked turkey rest after roasting?

A: At least 15–20 minutes, and up to an hour or two if you’re using the re-crisping trick.

Because spatchcocked birds are usually roasted hot—often 450–475°F—you get a large temperature gradient between the exterior and the center, and more carryover cooking. Resting lets that gradient even out and makes carving much easier (and safer for your fingertips).

If you want a long rest to juggle sides, you can:

Roast the turkey until done.

Let it rest 30–90 minutes.

Crank the oven to 500–550°F (convection if you have it).

Pop the turkey back in for 10–15 minutes to re-crisp the skin without significantly overcooking the meat.

Q: Does a pizza stone work as well as a baking steel under the turkey?

A: Both help, but they’re not identical.

Steel is denser and more conductive, so it stores more energy and transfers it faster to the roasting pan.

Stone has decent heat capacity but lower conductivity and is more fragile.

For our purposes—boosting heat to the legs so they cook faster—either one is better than nothing. If you have both, use the steel. But whichever you have, preheat it and it will help the dark meat cook more efficiently without overcooking the breast. Here's the recipe for my pizza steel-roasted tukey.

Stuffing Inside the Turkey

Q: Can I use your latest roasting method if I want to stuff the turkey?

A: You can, but you’re signing up for a trade-off.

Stuffing inside the bird needs to be brought to food-safe temperatures (you’re aiming for a pasteurizing range, typically above ~140°F and ideally up near 160°F). Because it sits in the cavity—the very center of the turkey—heat has to travel farther to reach it, which makes it harder not to overcook the breast.

If someone in your family insists on stuffing inside the bird:

Preheat with the baking steel as usual.

Set your oven a bit lower than my unstuffed method—more like 300–325°F.

Put your thermometer probe into the stuffing, not just the meat.

Accept that the breast is probably going to be more cooked than ideal.

You’ll get the flavor/nostalgia of stuffing in the bird, but the engineering is working against perfect white meat.

Turkey Gravy Fundamentals

Q: What are your go-to tips for the best turkey-dripping gravy?

A: My ideal gravy is deeply turkey-flavored, silky from a roux, and boosted with pan drippings. Here’s how I think about it:

Start with stock.Use homemade chicken stock if you have it; boxed is fine if you don’t. You’ll reinforce it with turkey so it becomes effectively “turkey stock.”

Roast or brown turkey parts and aromatics.Use the backbone (if you spatchcocked) and the neck, chopped into pieces. Brown them with onions, carrots, and celery in a pan or wok. Let them sit undisturbed so they develop deep, brown fond before stirring.

Simmer into a rich broth.Add your stock, deglaze the pan, and throw in thyme, sage, bay leaves, and some black peppercorns. Let this gently simmer while your turkey roasts.

Make a roux.In a separate saucepan, cook butter and flour together until the raw flour smell is gone. Whisk in your strained turkey-chicken broth gradually until smooth and thickened.

Finish with pan drippings.When the turkey is done, set the roasting pan over heat, add a splash of stock, water, or white wine, and scrape up all the browned bits. Strain that into your gravy.

Secret weapon: soy sauce.My Japanese grandmother always added a splash of soy sauce to gravy. It doesn’t make it taste like soy sauce, it just amplifies the savory, brown notes and umami.

That’s the gravy I make every year.

Alternatives to Turkey & Vegan Centerpieces

Q: What’s the best meat substitute for turkey for people who just don’t like turkey—but aren’t vegetarian?

A: A few great alternatives:

City ham (spiral-cut, brined ham): Very forgiving, already seasoned, hard to dry out.

Prime rib or a rib roast: Classic holiday centerpiece, especially if you’re hosting fewer people.

Leg of lamb: A beautiful roast that feels special but not fussy.

Pick the meat you’re actually excited to eat.

Q: What’s a good vegetarian or vegan main for Thanksgiving?

A: I like dishes that feel like a true centerpiece, not just “the side we gave a promotion.”

Some ideas:

Squash or pumpkin lasagna: Layers of roasted squash, béchamel, cheese, and pasta. Hearty enough to stand beside turkey.

Mac and cheese: Seriously—it can absolutely be the main event for some people.

Vegan Wellington-style roast (the one I did on Serious Eats):Cashews and vegetables simmered in stock until tender, partially dehydrated beans for a meaty texture, all chopped and molded around roasted carrots, then wrapped in puff pastry and baked. It’s a project, but it looks and tastes impressive—vegans and omnivores both love it. You can assemble it ahead and bake it on the day.

Injecting Turkey & Mayo vs Yogurt

Q: Do you ever inject your turkey? What would you inject with?

A: I’ve experimented with injection, especially for smoked or deep-fried turkeys. I don’t do it regularly anymore.

The reason is textural: injected meat often feels wet the way a sponge is wet, not juicy in the way we want meat to be juicy. The injected liquid doesn’t distribute beautifully into the muscle fibers—it sits between them.

That said, if you like injecting:

Use a well-seasoned stock (with salt) so you’re basically brining from the inside.

A mix of stock and brown butter is tasty.

Or stock infused with herbs, or herb butter thinned with stock.

It can help with seasoning and moisture retention; I just prefer brining and careful cooking.

Q: Does yogurt work the same way as mayo for that herb-mayo turkey approach?

A: No. They’re very different.

Yogurt is mostly water with some protein and a bit of fat. It’s great for tenderizing and can give a tangy flavor, but doesn’t promote browning in the same way.

Mayo is mostly fat (oil) with some water and emulsifiers. It carries fat-soluble flavors (herbs, garlic) and encourages even browning and crisping.

Yogurt/brine marinades can be good, but if the goal is golden, evenly browned skin and a thick layer of seasoning that sticks to the turkey, mayo is the better tool.

Pizza Ovens and Brassicas

Q: Any Thanksgiving recipes that work especially well in a pizza oven?

A: Absolutely—brassicas are your best friend here:

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Brussels sprouts

Toss them in olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast them right in the pizza oven. They’ll get charred edges, stay bright inside, and get a nice sweet nuttiness.

You can:

Serve them as-is with a squeeze of lemon and drizzle of olive oil, or

Dress them up with a breadcrumb gremolata (garlic, parsley, anchovy, toasted breadcrumbs) sprinkled on top.

They’re fast, dramatic, and use that screaming-hot oven in a way your main oven doesn’t have to.

Rolls (Canned or Homemade) and Instant Potatoes

Q: Do you bother making rolls from scratch, or do you just buy canned crescent rolls?

A: I love both.

Canned crescent rolls or breadsticks have a nostalgic place in my heart from childhood. Popping open the tube is weirdly satisfying, and they taste great (in a kinda junky way)

That said, homemade is also wonderful:

Parker House rolls are classic, buttery, and bake easily in a casserole dish.

My stuffing-knot skillet bread uses store-bought pizza dough—you get something fresh-baked and fun with almost no real mixing or kneading.

I also feel zero shame about keeping instant mashed potatoes on hand. If you follow the box, they’re bad. But if you treat them like a starchy canvas and add plenty of butter, cream or half-and-half, salt, pepper, chives or scallions, and whip them, they’re legitimately delicious—and incredibly fast.

Outsource whatever part of the meal causes you the most stress. It’s Thanksgiving, not a practical exam.

Cooking Without Alcohol

Q: How do you handle recipes that call for wine or booze if we don’t want alcohol in the house at all?

A: A few approaches:

Wine powders: There are dehydrated red and white wine products that give you wine flavor without actual liquid alcohol hanging around. They’re often better than non-alcoholic wines, which tend to be sweet.

Acid swaps: If a recipe only uses a small amount of wine for brightness, a splash of red or white wine vinegar or lemon juice usually gets you most of the way there. Wine mainly contributes acidity and a little fruitiness.

Tiny real wine bottles: If your relationship with alcohol allows it, you can buy those very small “airplane” bottles or half-bottles, use exactly what you need in the recipe, and be done with it—no open bottle lingering in the house.

In most Thanksgiving dishes, you won’t miss the wine as much as you might think if you replace the acidity thoughtfully.

The One Side That Wows a Crowd

Q: What’s your one Thanksgiving side that always wows people?

A: My classic sage and sausage stuffing. It’s not flashy or weird, it just hits all the right notes:

Crunchy bits on top, custardy/savory interior.

Lots of flavor from sausage, aromatics, butter, and herbs.

Dialed-in ratios from years of tweaking.

I make it with regular sandwich bread that I toast—nothing fancy. The texture is almost like a savory bread pudding when done right, and it’s the thing most people go back for seconds of.

Close second: a really good salad. People don’t expect to be excited by salad on Thanksgiving, so when you serve one that’s thoughtfully composed—bitter greens, sweet fruit, crunchy nuts, salty cheese, a balanced vinaigrette—it stands out.

Non-Traditional Riffs

Q: Any favorite non-traditional riffs on classic Thanksgiving dishes?

A: The most “out there” turkey I like is my turkey porchetta:

You remove the turkey breasts from the bone, score them, and rub them with a classic porchetta mixture—fennel, rosemary, lemon, garlic, salt.

Lay the two breasts end-to-end (tops to tails), wrap the turkey skin around them, and tie into a tight log.

Let it cure overnight, then roast.

Because it’s an even cylinder, it cooks very evenly and stays incredibly juicy and well-seasoned throughout.

Stuffing is also a fun playground. In my family we often have two: my “classic” one and my sister’s edition with additions like cranberries, apples, mushrooms, chestnuts, different breads, etc.

(And yes: Dick’s Stuffing is actually delicious.)

High-Altitude Baking & Exploding Pies

Q: I live at 10,000 feet and my pecan pie filling literally explodes in the oven. How do I prevent that?

A: At high altitude, water boils at a lower temperature, so liquids evaporate more aggressively. Pecan pie filling is a thick, viscous mixture of corn syrup, butter, sugar, eggs, and nuts. In thick liquids, steam bubbles can grow very large before escaping, which makes them prone to sudden bursts and splatters.

To minimize explosions:

Increase liquid slightly to compensate for faster evaporation.

Add a stabilizer like an extra egg yolk to help set the custard sooner.

Lower the baking temperature so the filling heats more gently, reducing violent boiling before the eggs fully set.

You’re trying to coax it to that set-but-jiggly custard stage without encouraging big steam bombs.

Big Debates: Potatoes, Rice, and Vegetables

Q: In our Friendsgiving group, there’s a raging debate: mashed potatoes or rice as the king of Thanksgiving carbs (stuffing not included). What say you?

A: Mashed potatoes. For Thanksgiving? Mashed potatoes.

I love rice. I eat rice all the time. I feed my kids rice with eggs and soy sauce for breakfast. But on Thanksgiving, culturally and structurally, mashed potatoes are the sidecar to gravy and turkey. Rice just doesn’t play that role on most American Thanksgiving tables.

Q: Do non-potato vegetables even belong at Thanksgiving?

A: Yes, absolutely. If your plate is nothing but beige, you’re missing an opportunity.

For me, Brussels sprouts are essential. They’re always the first side to disappear in my family. Green bean casserole is another classic that earns its place. Roasted root vegetables, carrots, a bright salad; all of that brings contrast, color, and freshness.

Thanksgiving is better with something green and something crisp on the table.

Traditions, Disasters, and What Really Matters

Q: Do you have any special Thanksgiving traditions?

A: Growing up in New York, my grandparents lived one floor below us in the same apartment building—my parents and sisters in 10J, my grandparents in 9J. Thanksgiving meant they came upstairs and we were all together.

My grandfather was an organic chemist by profession but also a serious amateur magician. Our standing tradition was that after dinner, he’d perform a magic show for the family. My sisters and I and my dad would play music. As we got older, there were martinis and cocktails involved; my mom would eventually get annoyed at how late and how loud we were singing.

It was chaotic and loud, but Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday because of that.

Q: What’s your worst Thanksgiving disaster?

A: The one I remember most clearly is a not-great turducken I made in college. I was about 20, and I decided I had to attempt this mythical bird-in-a-bird-in-a-bird thing. The results were…fine, but definitely not worth the effort or the hype in that particular execution. Luckily, there were plenty of martinis, so people were forgiving.

But honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever had a Thanksgiving ruined by “disaster” food. The point of the holiday is gathering people around a table and sharing something. If the food is great, you have type-one fun: straightforward, joyous. If the food is bad, you get type-two fun: the kind you laugh about afterwards. Either way, you end up with a story.