THANKSGIVING DINNER PREP CALENDAR
For a downloadable PDF (without photos) of a Thanksgiving Dinner Prep Calendar, click here.
This meal that you are going to cook in three weeks—your annual Thanksgiving Day dinner—is the wildest menu in the kitchen each year. And why is that? Because it means a lot to us, to dine together on our traditional foods and to give thanks for doing so and all else. Good on us; we know what matters.
But it’s daunting—isn’t it?—this mammoth pile-on of so many dishes that the dining room looks like a midnight buffet in Vegas.
Keep in mind that you can tame that wildness by preparing much beforehand, well before the last Thursday in November. Plus, cooking a considerable amount of Thanksgiving Day food ahead of time makes many dishes even more delicious.
Stocks and broths, for example, are profitable do-ahead basics; layered dishes, casseroles, and soups also keep well. Peeling potatoes, dicing onions, rolling out and freezing pie dough, cleaning serving dishes—all might be planned and done ahead.
I’ve got help: a calendar that arranges the prep work, in steps, for your Turkey Day meal—beginning now.
The calendar takes you from this week right up to the big day (and dinner) and includes helpful links to stories, recipes, videos, basic cooking techniques and tips, and selecting wine that I’ve already posted on GET COOKING WITH BILL ST JOHN. Let’s get cooking!
Three to two weeks out:
Bag the bird. If pre-ordering a turkey (for example, a heritage breed to be shipped, or one that’s been pre-brined), do it by now.
Most folks roast their turkey so make certain that you have the necessaries for that (a strong, adequate-sized roasting pan, a long-handled basting spoon, kitchen twine).
Begin laying out your Turkey Day menu, especially if you will cook all of it. With the menu in mind, inventory your pots and pans, the serving dishes, and serving ware. (Think of the entire menu: from nibbles and appetizers, through all the main dishes, relishes, and condiments, to the desserts at the end. All of it sits on dishes.)
A classic tip is to take out all the serving items, temporarily arrange them in the places where they’ll serve and even label them. It’s a profitable overview. (Maybe run rarely used dishes, serving ware, and the like through the dishwasher?)
Another key inventory to take, again with your particular menu in mind, is to think through how it all will cook, over time, through your oven, stove and warm or hot spaces, especially on Thanksgiving Day. If something needs to be done last minute, room might be tight.
Oddly enough, cataloging ahead all the places or methods to keep foods warm may be the smartest thing you do for the big day. (Slow cooker and toaster oven, sure, but also clean the outdoor gas grill or shake out an electric blanket.)
After all this planning, if something looks unworkable or no-can-do, delegate. But, again, don’t assign preparations or recipes that need to be done at the last minute or perhaps even that will require you to reheat them.
One week out:
Now’s a good time to clean out—and clean—the refrigerator. You will need the room.
Shop for and store up on non-perishables (potatoes to be mashed; squashes to be roasted; onions to be diced; et. cetera.)
Make these two foods in advance: buckets of turkey (or chicken) stock—the recipe below—and at least six basic pie dough crusts, rolled flat in the form of large discs and individually frozen in large plastic zippered bags.
Sharpen all your knives—all of them. This is like switching out the batteries in your home clocks every March and November with the “savings time” shifts. Thanksgiving dinner prep is the perfect reason to sharpen all the kitchen knives.
Four to six days before Thanksgiving Day:
If the turkey’s still frozen, start defrosting it—in the refrigerator, not on the counter, not in a tepid bath. It takes one day for every four (4) pounds of frozen bird to thaw it both adequately and safely in the refrigerator.
If you sport two sorts of cranberry on T-Day, ahead of time is a good time to make the lumpy kind. In fact, its flavors will blend and develop over the next couple of days making it more layered and delicious than if you made it closer to the dinner deadline.
Get in the habit of securing any cutting board by placing a moistened (paper or fabric) towel flat underneath it
Get in the habit of securing any cutting board by placing a moistened (paper or fabric) towel flat underneath it. A slipping or slippery cutting board is perhaps the most dangerous place in the kitchen.
If you have room on your kitchen counters, have all the tools or gadgets that you'll use for any preparation, especially on Thanksgiving Day, ready at hand, laid out on a sheet pan or long towel, not stored in their usual drawers. You'll save lots of time not having to search them out, one after the other, from their normal cubbyholes.
Monday of Thanksgiving week:
Get to the store early and buy perishable goods (leafy greens; herbs; citrus, even horseradish—all the things that can handle three days out without losing something for Thursday’s shine).
Sauté what can store in the refrigerator but that also will play key roles in the next few days: diced onions, carrots, celery, sausage, and the like, all the savory foundations for sauces, stuffing, and gravy.
Tuesday of Thanksgiving week:
Set out cubed or chunked bread to stale, for the stuffing, for the ducks in the pond on a walk break, for Hansel, for Gretel.
Remove frozen items to begin thawing in the refrigerator. If you’ve run out of refrigerator cooling space, use some large beer or pop coolers left over from summer shindigs that are set in the garage or on the porch. (If the outside weather is especially cold, say on the porch, consider getting ice and keeping the cooler inside, but in a spot where it also can drain.)
Assemble creamy dips; make salad dressings.
Begin to put together the sideboard and the table by stacking what dishes, cutlery, serving pieces, and napery you’ll need for the number of people who will be pecking at your food.
Cheat on Wednesday by doing what you can today from the list below.
Wednesday, November 27:
That crunching sound that you hear is the clock.
Make or assemble reheatable side dishes (mashed potatoes; sweet potato purée, any casserole, mac ‘n’ cheese, creamed pearl onions, and the like).
Wash and spin greens and vegetables that require cleaning.
Bake some pies, especially the pumpkin. Use your frozen, rolled-out crusts.
Assemble in its cooking/serving dish the stuffing that will be baked in the oven, outside of the bird.
Shock (and awe) green vegetables that will be cooked tomorrow: Brussels sprouts; green beans; asparagus; cauliflower. Blanching them both holds their color, plus gets them one step closer to service.
Peel (if desired) and chunk potatoes and keep them covered in cold water.
Set the buffet table. Set the dining table. Beautiful.
Thursday, November 28, Thanksgiving Day.
Give thanks.
Preheat the oven first thing in the morning because:
Time to roast the bird. An unstuffed turkey will take anywhere from two to four hours’ roasting time, plus 45 minutes to an hour resting time, before carving and eating. That’s a sizeable chunk of the day’s whole time.
Chill well all the wines or beers. Whip whipping cream and store it in the frig.
Bake or heat through thoroughly all those things you’ve prepped: pies, rolls, breads, casseroles, make-ahead stuffing.
Do what you can on top of the stove: sauté Brussels sprouts; boil or steam peas or cauliflower; make gravy with the drippings.
Give thanks again.
A rich turkey or chicken stock, made days ahead of Thanksgiving Day dinner, is a significant foundation to that day’s meal.
RECIPE: Make-ahead Turkey Day Stock
Makes 4-5 quarts. Best if prepared several days ahead of use in other recipes. (This recipe also has its own page on this site here. And here is a video where you can watch me give you Tips on Making Stocks and Broths.)
Ingredients
5 pounds chicken or turkey parts, raw or previously cooked (see note)
2 medium onions, unpeeled but sliced along their “equators”
4 stalks celery (leaves OK), cut in halves
4 medium carrots, peeled, cut in halves
6-8 cloves garlic, to taste, peeled, lightly crushed
8-10 parsley stems, leaves OK but not necessary
1 bouquet garni (optional)
2 bay leaves
1 heaping teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt
Directions
Rinse well the pieces of turkey or chicken and remove any excessive pieces of fat. Set aside. Heat a very large stock pot over medium-high heat and place the 4 onion halves, sliced sides down, on the bottom and let them char to a light brown, about 10-15 minutes. Remove, set aside, and do the same with the carrot and celery pieces, another 10-15 minutes. Set these aside.
Add 8-9 quarts of water to the pot and the reserved pieces of fowl. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook for 90 minutes, skimming off any white or grey scum that rises.
Add the reserved and browned vegetables, the garlic and all the seasonings and return to a simmer and cook, the pot’s lid ajar, for 2-4 hours or until the level of the liquid in the pot is about half as much as when started.
Cool enough to strain the stock of its large solids, then let cool in a refrigerated (or cold outdoor and secure) space overnight. Remove and discard the congealed fat that has risen to the surface. Strain further, if desired, of any other fine solids and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen, in conveniently sized blocks or portions, for up to 3 months.
Note: If using chicken, go heavy on wing sections, thighs or drumsticks. If using turkey, same pieces. In either case, and if using leftover, previously cooked fowl (say, rotisserie chickens), use only bone-in parts and with the skin on. Additionally, all pieces may be roasted in the oven, in high heat, so that they render many browned bits and fond. Along with the stock, these latter may be used as the basis for a make-ahead gravy for Thanksgiving Day dinner that you will freeze and reheat day-of.
For a downloadable PDF (without photos) of a Thanksgiving Dinner Prep Calendar, click here.
I also write for UCHealth Today where you will find this same Thanksgiving Dinner Prep Calendar, as well as additional columns of mine written over the years for its site that give tips and recipes for additional cooking for Thanksgiving, for example, “Mashed Potatoes 5 Ways” and sadly departed but much-beloved Denver icon Gene Amole’s turkey stuffing. Click here.