You're not cooking Thanksgiving dinner for a horde and you're not cookingfor a lone wolf. You're cooking for a respectable, reasonable amount of people. Still, on the biggest cooking day of the year, it can seem a little overwhelming. This menu will get you through the big hurdles—in just three hours total.
Feel free to spread those three hours of work over the course of a few days, or you can do it all on Thanksgiving morning or afternoon. (Here's a timeline to help you out.) If you have some helpers, set them to work shredding Brussels sprouts (below) or mixing up aholiday-worthy cocktail. No helpers? No problem. You'll be able to pull off this simple, delicious, modern Thanksgiving dinner menu all on your own.
First, head to the grocery store—we have a customized shopping list for you. Then start the clock and get cooking.
Turkey with Lemon-Garlic Butter
To make quick work of the turkey, you can purchase two whole legs and two bone-in turkey breast halves—if your store doesn't carry these items, ask your butcher to break down a whole bird for your, or do it yourself (it's the same method forbreaking down a chicken, just on a larger scale—and bonus, you'll have the leftover spine and other assorted piecesfor making stockif you'd like).
To cook the turkey, slather the pieces with a fragrant garlic, rosemary, and lemon butter, then place them on a sheet pan and cover with foil. A bit of wine on the pan will steam the meat—trapped by the foil, this makes the meat exceptionally moist and essentially makes that herb butter self-basting. To finish, rip off the foil so that the skin can get nice and crisp. Total time, including resting: 2 hours.
Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad
This salad isn't just quick to toss together—it can be made up to two days ahead (just hold on to those almonds to garnish right before serving). To make it, raw kale is thinly sliced and Brussels sprouts are shredded—if you want it to go even faster, send those sprouts through a shredding disc on yourfood processor. Toss the leaves with a classic shallot-Dijon vinaigrette and Pecorino cheese and let the flavors meld and the leaves soften for a simple salad that goes with anything.
Roasted Squash and Sweet Potato with Cranberries
Combine two orange Thanksgiving stalwarts intoone dish, dressed with the holiday's favorite berry. To make it, roast rings of delicata squash and circles of sweet potato (aim to buy the two vegetables with approximately matching diameters) on a sheet pan in the bottom of your oven while the bird roasts above. Make a drizzly, vibrant cranberryagrodolcewith red wine vinegar and sugar and spoon it over the veg once you've transferred them to a serving platter.
Skillet Stuffing
Thisone-pan wonderstarts by sautéing sausage, aromatics, and wild mushrooms in a skillet and then baking the stuffing in that same skillet. Toast the bread off a few days before—or the morning of. Slide it into bake just when you take the turkey out and it will be ready by the time the turkey has reseted.
Maple-Pear Tart
Not everybody is a pie maker—and that's okay. Because this puff pastry tart is so gorgeous and so delicious—not to mention easy—that no one will care. (And if someone does care, they canbring their own pie.) To make it, toss pear slices in sugar and lay them all over a prepped sheet of store-bought puff pastry. The sugar will melt and develop crackly caramelized bits while the pears soften and the pastry, well, puffs. To finish, brush with maple syrup and serve with a big dollop of whipped cream or ice cream.
