Can You Cook Your Turkey Frozen If You Forgot to Thaw It?

It’s Thanksgiving Day and if your turkey isn’t already in the oven, well, don’t panic (too much). If your turkey is thawed enough to safely cut into pieces, spatchcock it for faster cooking, but if it’s still frozen solid? You can cook it right now—it will just take a little longer.

Scroll down for quick thaw methods below, but since even that takes a while, you can jump straight to the real question:

• Can you cook frozen turkey?

How Long to Thaw a Turkey

Thawing a turkey can take anywhere from 1 to 6 days in the fridge, which is the best way to do it safely. Plan on letting it rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours per every 4-5 pounds. Here’s a cheat sheet for different sizes of turkey:

• 4 to 8 pound turkey: 1 to 2 days in fridge
• 8 to 12 pound turkey: 2 to 3 days in fridge
• 12 to 16 pound turkey: 3 to 4 days in fridge
• 16 to 20 pound turkey: 4 to 5 days in fridge
• 20 to 24 pound turkey: 5 to 6 days in fridge

The Best Way to Thaw Turkey

The best way to thaw a turkey is to let it happen naturally in the fridge. Set the turkey on a rimmed baking sheet (so if any raw turkey juices leak out, they won’t contaminate other food) and let it hang out for the time recommended above; you can set the baking sheet on the lowest shelf as well just to be safest. Leave the turkey in its original packaging until it’s fully thawed.

How Long Can a Turkey Stay in the Fridge?

Once thawed, you can keep the turkey in the fridge for another two days (the temperature should be about 40 degrees Fahrenheit), so it’s okay to give yourself a little wiggle room and start thawing sooner rather than later. Do not refreeze a thawed or partially thawed turkey, though.

Can You Quick Thaw a Turkey?

You sure can. If you forget to put your turkey in the fridge far enough in advance, you can quick thaw your turkey with the cold water method. You’ll need a large bucket for this (a big stock pot may also work, depending on the size of your bird; in a pinch, use an insulated cooler).

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Fill your vessel with cold tap water, seal the turkey in an airtight bag (if you’ve taken it out of its packaging already), and submerge it. Change the water as it warms up to room temperature—that means you’ll be replacing it with fresh cold water every half hour or so. It’s kind of a pain and it’s still not that fast (you may be changing water for 7 or 8 hours total), but it works in a pinch.

That may have you wondering, Can you thaw a turkey in the microwave? If your turkey will actually fit in yours, then yes—the USDA approves of defrosting it that way too (but only when you do it right before you cook the turkey; otherwise, harmful bacteria will start to grow and no one will be thankful for foodborne illness). And in that case, do take the packaging off first.

How Not to Thaw a Turkey

Despite what your parents may have done, you should never defrost a turkey in the sink (either under hot water or at room temperature), as that gives bacteria a good chance to breed. The USDA says the only safe ways to go about thawing the turkey are the cold water method, microwave method, and in the fridge.

Can You Cook a Frozen Turkey?

If you forget to thaw your bird, period (or just decide to grab a last-minute turkey and don’t feel like attempting to defrost it), good news: You can cook your turkey frozen!

Bruce Weinstein, coauthor of “Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them,” has a few pointers for you in that case:

To recap: Cooking a frozen turkey will take about 50 percent longer than normal, so be sure to budget enough time for that, and cover the turkey with foil if the skin starts to get too brown before the meat is done. Also, remove the giblets from the cavity with tongs about an hour into the cooking time. You can salt and pepper the meat at the same time, and rub oil or butter on the skin as well.

See How to Cook a Turkey for roasting times, temperatures, and more turkey tips and tricks. And see our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving for everything else you need to know.

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What It’s Like to Work in a Restaurant on Thanksgiving Day

While many people are busy celebrating Thanksgiving in theirs, or their friends’ or families’ homes, there are as many people taking their turkey, or avoiding it outright, in restaurants and bars. The reasons are myriad: perhaps a turkey disaster forced the festivities out; perhaps the extra long weekend was used for an excuse to travel. (Read: flee.) Or, there are plenty of American residents, as well as people visiting the U.S., who simply have no interest in Thanksgiving, with or without its perhaps dubious origin story.

Whatever the motivation, Thanksgiving may be a bank holiday, but it’s not a total shutdown, and many restaurants and bars keep their doors open to catch the orphaned, the travelers, the culinarily-challenged, the dishes-averse, the Thanksgiving-phobic, or simply the person in need of a drink and an hour away from the family.

Which then means, that for a subset of the country’s restaurant employees, Thanksgiving signifies something else entirely: another day at the office. The experience of working on Thanksgiving day inspires a veritable buffet of emotions from restaurant workers, myself included among them, ranging from: “My one and only Thanksgiving at work was enough to make me vow to get out of the business for good;” (Sheena Mohan, Houston TX) to: “I’ve worked the past three Thanksgivings, and now I have my family come to the restaurant to celebrate with me.” (Johnny Livanos, New York, NY)

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Family Meal of a Different Nature

In keeping with the genuine vibe of Thanksgiving—which is gratitude, in case anyone needs reminding—I’d like to start with something I am indeed personally grateful for, in my time spent working the Thanksgiving shift. With all due respect to both the talented cooks in my family and anyone else’s family I’ve ever spent Thanksgiving with, and also to many of the memorable Friendsgiving meals I’ve had in my life, it’s really hard for any of that to compete with a Thanksgiving dinner put up by a brigade of professional chefs.

So while I may have sacrificed spending time with friends and family in order to serve others on Thanksgiving day, enjoying a 2-Michelin star Thanksgiving meal made to reward those who are working the holiday—albeit at ten a.m.—is hardly a sacrifice.

Running the Marathon

But it can be a punishing shift, and a long one, so it’s damn near necessary to have made the most of the feast that ended even before the parade did. Rather than the separate lunch and dinner shifts that occur on normal days, many restaurants will keep “shorter” Thanksgiving hours. The restaurant where I work seats from noon to six p.m. on Turkey Day. While that sounds like a relatively short shift, what that means is that staff have come in earlier than that to set up, and any diners sitting at 6 p.m. can be expected to be there for at least a couple of hours. So while it may be an earlier night than usual in restaurant terms, it can be a shift of maybe 10 hours. Strength and stamina most definitely required.

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Taking One for the Team

Sometimes those working the Thanksgiving shift are looking out for their fellow employees who do have important Thanksgiving festivities to attend. Rather than roll the dice and leave it to the mercy (or lack thereof) of the scheduling gods, your Thanksgiving server or bartender may have actually volunteered to work. (All the more reason to treat them kindly.)

“There’s the joy of allowing some of my co-workers to spend the day with their family, alas—ours are too far away— and the thankfulness of guests who have a dining out option when most places are closed.” (Frederic Yarm, Boston, MA)

Guest Expectations

One challenge I have found in a Midtown Manhattan restaurant open on Thanksgiving, is that a lot of the diners that day aren’t necessarily American families trying to spare themselves a load of dishes at the end of the night, but rather international visitors to New York just looking for a place that’s open. They’re not approaching their dining experience like it’s a special occasion or anything out of the ordinary. Especially if there’s some sort of language barrier, communication can be made even more difficult when some of the dishes—especially those that feature heavily on Instagram—aren’t being served. It can be frustrating when you want someone to enjoy themselves, but they seem disappointed that the restaurant is not operating how they thought it was supposed to.

Spirit of Compassion

Unlike Valentine’s Day, which tends to engender a spirit of misanthropy among any romantically-challenged restaurant staff, it seems that Thanksgiving can foster a spirit of compassion, especially for those in need of company on such a family-centric holiday: “I’ve met several people who are alone and sad around the holidays and coming out and chatting to someone who will listen along with having some nice food and drink turns the day around for them. I’ve met some great people as well who are just so excited to be in New York for the day.” (Paula Fidler Lukas, New York, NY.) It’s hard to maintain a bitter edge in those moments when you feel like you are genuinely being of service.

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Escape Clause

But inevitably, sometimes the pressure from family and feasting turns to feistiness: “One night years ago, we were open for Thanksgiving and it was a disaster, angry people who had a bad family night, drunk college kids escaping their parents and the icing was the full family knock down drag out fight at 2:00 a.m.” (Lisa Cloutier, Bigfork, MT)

So, maybe this season, give thanks that you don’t have to work in a restaurant, and give good tips, for those who do.

Related Video: Etiquette Tips to Help You Survive Thanksgiving

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How to Fix the Dreaded Dry Turkey Breast

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is complicated and despite your best efforts, sometimes things go wrong. Overcooked turkey is one of the biggest potential disasters, but you can fix dry turkey breast! Here’s how—and how to prevent it in the first place.

How to Fix Dry Turkey Breast

If your turkey breast is dry and overcooked, carve it into slices and soak them in broth, stock, or gravy to rehydrate. Simple, yet effective:

A dip of a few seconds should suffice for most moderately dry birds, but you can hold the slices in a shallow pan of warm broth as well to keep them juicy and at a good temperature while you’re finishing up other things (like the pan gravy).

Caveat: If you’ve got a totally desiccated, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” style bird on your hands, this won’t help, and you better hope your side dishes are exceptionally delicious, or find a restaurant that’s open.

Related Reading: How to Make Your Green Bean Casserole More Gourmet

How to Avoid Overcooked Turkey

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The best plan of action, of course, is to not overcook your turkey in the first place. Luckily, there are several ways to ensure a moist turkey every time.

Brine It

The backlash against brining turkey is real, and not unfounded—brining turkey too long can have the opposite effect you want and actually dry out the meat instead of making it juicy. But if you follow pro chef Michael Chiarello’s method, you’ll end up with a delicious bird with moist breast meat:

Butter It Up

Rubbing flavored butter under the turkey skin is a time-honored move that helps the meat stay moist and flavorful, but it may not be enough on its own.

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Time It Right

Whether or not you brine or butter (and if you don’t butter, at least oil it), one obvious factor in perfecting turkey is timing, which depends on how big your bird is. Food safety guidelines state turkey should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165-170°F when a thermometer is inserted into the thickest part of the breast and/or thigh; for an accurate reading, be sure the probe isn’t touching bone.

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If you’re cooking a turkey at 350°F (our preferred temperature to roast turkey), here’s how long it should take based on the size of your bird:

• How long to cook a 12 pound turkey – 14 pound turkey: About 3 hours at 350°F (start checking a bit sooner to ensure it doesn’t dry out)
• How long to cook a 15 pound turkey – 18 pound turkey: About 3.5 to 4 hours at 350°F (start checking a bit sooner to ensure it doesn’t dry out)
• How long to cook an 18 pound turkey – 20 pound turkey: About 4 to 4.5 hours at 350°F (start checking a bit sooner to ensure it doesn’t dry out)
• How long to cook a 21 pound turkey – 24 pound turkey: About 4.5 to 5 hours at 350°F (start checking a bit sooner to ensure it doesn’t dry out)

Related Reading: How to Quickly Fix Undercooked Turkey

Start It Breast Side Down

One trick for moist turkey breast meat (which cooks faster than the dark meat, i.e. legs) is to start roasting the turkey breast-side down. After about 45 minutes, you’ll flip it over and continue cooking and basting, but we acknowledge that—especially if you have a monster turkey—that’s a bit of a pain.

Drape It With Cheesecloth Soaked in Butter

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Herb Butter Roasted Turkey with White Wine Pan Gravy. This is my GO-TO turkey recipe, I make it every year. It never fails me. Cooking with @wholefoods turkeys have the best flavor and I get organic to ensure the highest quality. My secret to the perfect roasted turkey? Butter-soaked cheesecloth. Yes, cheesecloth soaked in herb butter and then draped over the turkey as it roasts. The skin comes out perfect, the meat is incredibly moist and the flavor is SO GOOD. No tenting with foil, nothing fancy…just easy and so good. The cheesecloth works magic. And the gravy? White wine, pan drippings, herbs. Simple and delicious. Grab the recipe on HBH (swipe in stories) and pick up your holiday turkey @wholefoods, they are currently running a sale for their Organic Turkeys ($2.99 per lb) and Whole Turkeys ($1.99 per lb) for Prime members. Not a Prime member? Sign up! #sponsored #wfmcolorstheclassics #makesmewhole

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Basting turkey with its own drippings and/or extra melted butter is a classic move, but every time you open the oven, you affect the temperature inside. So some people prefer a self-basting sheet of cheesecloth soaked in butter draped over the turkey for most of the cooking time. This keeps the breast moist, but needs to be removed near the end so you get the all-important crisp skin.

Spatchcock It

If you’re up for a little butchering (or are buying a fresh turkey and can have your actual butcher butterfly it for you), a spatchcocked turkey will cook perfectly—plus, make you feel all cheffy. Here’s how it’s done:

Read more about how (and why) to spatchcock turkey.

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Make It in the Instant Pot

If you have a small turkey and a large Instant Pot (or other pressure cooker), it is possible to cook the whole thing that way. But Instant Pot turkey breast is more common, easier, and perfectly juicy every time:

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This super easy Instant Pot Turkey Breast is made in a fraction of the time and you’ll end up with the juiciest turkey breast ever, plus make your own gravy right in the instant pot. Click the link in my bio for the recipe!

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See some other Instant Pot Thanksgiving recipes to take even more pressure off on the big day.

Make It in the Slow Cooker

If you prefer low and slow, a Crock-Pot turkey is also an option, and guaranteed to be moist. You might think you’d have to sacrifice the golden, crispy skin, but not so—just broil it briefly in the oven when it’s done for the best of both worlds. (And a slow cooker turkey breast is equally great, ideal for smaller crowds.)

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CRISPY SKIN SLOW COOKER TURKEY is THE MOST succulent Turkey, WITHOUT brining OR marinading! This Turkey will have EVERYONE talking! — The recipe is linked in my profile @cafedelites ! — https://cafedelites.com/crispy-skinned-slow-cooker-turkey/

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See more Crock-Pot Thanksgiving recipes for every other part of the meal, from potatoes to pies.

Don’t Skimp on the Gravy

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No matter what methods you employ to make sure you turn out a moist turkey, be sure you have lots of gravy too. It helps hide imperfections, yes, but it also makes an already perfect turkey even better. Ditto everything else it touches on the plate.

Related Reading: How to Fix Lumpy Gravy

Fore more tips, tricks, hacks, and recipes, see our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving.

Related Video: What to Do If You Forgot to Thaw Your Turkey

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How a Lapsed American Came to Celebrate Thanksgiving

I’ve always been an American, but I didn’t grow up like one. My mother is from England and my father from California; they went to the U.S. consulate when I was just three years old to register me as a U.S. citizen. Where was I? Paris, France, where I lived for my entire childhood. It is a place with many delicious foods and food traditions that I indulged in liberally, but Thanksgiving was not one of them.

When I moved to New York in late 2012, I began visiting the American side of my family in Boston for Thanksgiving. As an American-on-paper-only who had just decided to live in the motherland, I was excited to start celebrating this holiday, but my first Thanksgivings were not the traditional home-cooked affair.

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What Came Before

My father’s aunt Sally was the matriarch of the family. I considered her a grandmother, as all of my parents’ parents were long gone. A tiny woman with an outsize personality, Sally was the core around which everything revolved, although she would have hated me putting it that way. Deeply caring of each and every one, she was also no-nonsense and acutely averse to people fussing or troubling themselves, especially for her.

Sally was a wonderful cook and host. Her daughter, Nancy, told me about Thanksgivings back in the day: always a turkey, sweet potato casserole, crazy Jell-O molds, and my grandmother Marcia’s pecan pie recipe.

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Evolving, Adapting & Honoring Traditions

By the time I came into the Thanksgiving picture, the reality was quite different. Sally moved from her big, beautiful house in Brookline to a home, first in independent living and eventually in assisted living. She kept all her marbles and her sharp sense of humor, but her physical health rapidly deteriorated, and moving to a home was an emotionally traumatic experience for her. She told Nancy not to cook Thanksgiving—it was too much trouble, and boy did she dislike trouble.

“Forget it, I’m doing it,” Nancy insisted, but it would soon become too much for her too.

From then on, Thanksgiving would be ordered in. We still had the traditional dishes. A turkey, of course; green beans, which Sally loved; Brussels sprouts; mashed potatoes…all delivered to Sally’s door already cooked.

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Nancy would still make the stuffing, and when my parents started coming, she would make an extra gluten-free stuffing for my dad, who has sensitivities. It often turned out better.

Related Reading: 9 Amazing Thanksgiving Dinners You Don’t Have to Cook

Nancy did not let the ready-made Thanksgiving get in the way of her biggest passion: food, and shopping for food. She went out of her way to find interesting snacks for us to munch on throughout the day, as we chatted, watched TV, and played games. She would go to Formaggio Kitchen, Flour Bakery, and other gourmet stores in Boston.

While the selection changed every year, two things became staples of our Thanksgivings: a fabulous display of cheeses and shrimp cocktail. The latter’s perennial appearance was likely due to my dad, who would be quite content eating shrimp every day for the rest of his life. I was always more interested in the cheeses, which Nancy and I would geek out on, making sure we thoroughly taste-tested each kind.

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While I didn’t have the same home-cooked Thanksgiving experience as everyone else, I still cherished the holiday, making new traditions in my new home and getting to know my American family even better.

Leslie, Nancy’s daughter, would come from San Francisco. Just a few years older than me, Leslie brightens every room she’s in with her constant stream of general chatter, jokes, and commentary about everything and anything, from her cats to Millennial pop culture. Neal, one of Sally’s sons, would come in the early evening for a “second Thanksgiving” after he enjoyed the one his girlfriend, Francesca, threw for her own family in another part of Boston.

Neal, quite possibly Leslie’s Boomer counterpart (although neither of them would like me saying that), is always armed with sharp satirical commentary about the demise of society. He would more often than not blame young people for this phenomenon, sparking witty banter with Leslie and me, all in good fun.

Related Reading: Small Talk Topics for the Thanksgiving Table

There was also always plenty of politics talk, but mostly the arguments were about who’s a lefty and who’s leftier.

What Came After

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And so the years went by, until Thanksgiving 2017, which was a special one. It was deeply sad: Sally had been moved to yet another, much smaller room in the home, and while no one acknowledged this openly at the time, we all knew this would be her last.

It also happened to be a blast. Despite her predicament, Sally was in good spirits that day, surrounded by family and making conversation. I remember laughing—a lot. We booked one of the communal spaces for our meal to have more space. After dinner, we went back to her room and watched “Bad Moms,” which Leslie had put on, forgetting how inappropriate and not-parent-friendly it was. But everyone was in hysterics, including Sally, who looked at her happiest in a while.

Sally passed away in the summer of 2018 at the age of 96. She was the anchor of our Thanksgivings and it would not be immediately clear what would happen to them, but at the funeral reception, a seed was planted.

A photo of Sally and Marcia, courtesy of the author

Over cheese and crudités, someone asked what Leslie and I were to each other. We always knew we were some kind of cousins (and would always forget: is it second or removed?) but in that moment, it dawned on us what the closest connection was. We said in unison: “Our grandmothers were sisters!”

Leslie and I decided to host Thanksgiving that year in her apartment in Brooklyn, where she was living by then. We share a love of food and cooking and took our duties as hosts very seriously. There was a planning meeting, and a Google spreadsheet with several tabs to organize everything: a master shopping list, links to all the recipes, a list of appliances and tools, and a day-of plan of action.

Nancy and my parents were impressed. It was our first time making a turkey and it came out amazing—team dry-brined for the win! We went all out for the sides: green beans with garlic and miso, maple-glazed sweet potato fries with bacon, chile-infused mashed potatoes, Port gravy, chestnut stuffing (gluten-free!), and cranberry-cherry sauce. And of course, we made sure there was plenty of cheese and shrimp cocktail.

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Leslie lives in Minneapolis now, but she and Nancy will be coming to my parents’ home in Tarrytown, N.Y., this year, and we will once again be co-hosts (Neal and Francesca will be in Boston). At the beginning of this month, I posted an Instagram story of my Thanksgiving-issue food magazines with the caption “Leslie I’m ready.” Seconds later, she replied with her own post: the exact same magazines in her home, with the caption “I too am ready.” We’ve since had our planning call and the Google spreadsheet is under construction.

On the menu this year? A spice-rubbed turkey, glazed Brussels sprouts with pistachios, potatoes with spiced oil, the same chestnut stuffing as last year, and Samin Nosrat’s focaccia, because, why not. And yes, there will be cheese and shrimp cocktail.

I know it would have made Sally incredibly happy that the family continued the holiday in its own way, especially with her granddaughters at the helm.

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The Basics: How to Make Cranberry Sauce

Thanksgiving dinner is a serious undertaking and shortcuts can be great, but step away from the canned cranberry sauce (considered by many one of the worst Thanksgiving side dishes, though others adore it). Making it from scratch is so easy—and so much more delicious. Our basic cranberry sauce recipe will walk you through it.

With all the heavy, savory, creamy food at Thanksgiving, the tart bite of cranberry sauce is essential. You may not want to nosh on a bowl of cranberry sauce by itself, but a little dab beside the stuffing and turkey lifts the entire meal.

While you don’t need extra stress when cooking this big dinner, you don’t want that wobbly canned cranberry sauce mold either. Good thing making a delicious, orange-scented, and not-too-sweet cranberry relish is so easy, you don’t even need a recipe, certainly not a complicated one. Here’s a simple, memorizable method that turns four ingredients into the perfect condiment for your holiday bird. When you’re ready to move on and tackle something a bit more complex, check out the recipes below.

For 8 Servings, You’ll Need:

• a medium saucepan
• 3 cups (12 ounces) fresh, or frozen and thawed, cranberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• finely grated zest from a whole orange
• juice of half an orange

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How to Make Cranberry Sauce:

1. Combine the cranberries, sugar, orange zest, and orange juice in the saucepan.

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2. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once the mixture boils, reduce the heat to low.

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3. Simmer the sauce until the cranberries are soft and start to fall apart, about 30 minutes. Then remove from heat—the sauce will thicken some as it cools.

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The End!

You can refrigerate it and serve chilled (it will thicken as it cools), or serve it while still warm for something different.

Cranberry Sauce Recipes

For more exacting recipes, try these:

Easy Cranberry Sauce

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You can make your own delicious cranberry sauce in just about half an hour, which is hardly more time than fishing around for the can opener in the drawer, grinding open the can, and shaking the jellied cylinder out onto a dish. We’re exaggerating, but you get the idea—make your own! To this basic mix of ingredients, you can add more layers of flavor in the form of grated ginger, a splash of Port, a couple fresh sage sage leaves, or whatever else sounds good. Just keep the liquid ratio about the same. Get our Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe.

Cranberry and Citrus Sauce

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Fresh grapefruit comes onto the market like gangbusters just as Thanksgiving prep is ramping up, a sure sign that they should find a spot on your holiday table. Here, grapefruit zest mingles with orange zest and ruby red grapefruit sections to elevate cranberry sauce from ho-hum to amazing. Get our Cranberry and Citrus Sauce recipe.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce

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If you’re into making cranberry sauce from scratch but you yearn for the jellied texture of canned, fear not. This recipe uses gelatin to set your cranberry relish into a jiggly, delicious Thanksgiving condiment. Get our Jellied Cranberry Sauce recipe.

Related Reading: A Love Letter to Canned Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Relish

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Tannic pomegranate juice combines with crisp apples and sweet raisins for a tasty sauce that goes way beyond the Thanksgiving table. It’s best made at least one day ahead so the flavors can meld. Serve room temperature or warmed, which is kind of a revelation. Get our Cranberry Relish recipe.

Cranberry Conserve

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A fresh take on Thanksgiving relish: chopped walnuts, apples, and—of course—cranberries, cooked together but kept chunky. Texture, flavor, and color combine, in one of the brightest dishes on the buffet. Get our Cranberry Conserve recipe.

Fennel and Walnut Cranberry Sauce

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Give a little twist to your traditional cranberry sauce with some fragrant fennel and walnuts, plus some yellow raisins. It’ll be a nice surprise, and it’s not really much extra work. Get our Fennel and Walnut Cranberry Sauce recipe.

Cranberry Chutney

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Instead of regular cranberry sauce, make some chutney for your dinner rolls—or even better, dinner cheddar biscuits. Candied orange peel is what makes this spread sing, but it also boasts notes of maple syrup and red pepper. You can make it up to a week ahead of Thanksgiving. Get our Cranberry Spread recipe.

For more tips, tricks, and recipes, see our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving.

Related Video: How to Make Cranberry Sauce Sangria

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Thanksgiving Advice from Etiquette Experts

Thanksgiving advice doesn’t stop at how to cook turkey—we tapped etiquette experts for tips on gracefully navigating stickier social situations too.

Every Thanksgiving we encounter the same pesky issues. We loathe guests who barge into the kitchen, disrupting our roasting and baking. We fear overcooked turkey and burnt yams. Plus there’s that meddling uncle who asks for leftover pumpkin pie before dinner has even begun. Alas, the biggest food holiday of the year is often the most stressful.

Thanksgiving Host 101The Ultimate Guide to ThanksgivingIn order to help you survive the big day, we reached out to several etiquette experts. In the video above we chatted with Myka Meier, founder of Beaumont Etiquette and The Plaza Hotel Finishing Program, and got the scoop on how to deal with all these holiday challenges and many more.

We also compiled some of the best Thanksgiving tips from Helena Echlin, Chowhound’s former etiquette writer. She wrote the column Table Manners for six years. Here’s her best advice on how to survive Thanksgiving, all in one place. So if you need help appeasing your vegetarian friends, dealing with your snobby cousins, or attending multiple feasts on the same day, you’ve come to the right place.  Check out all of her advice below.

How to Host a Turkey-Free Thanksgiving

If you’re a vegetarian, how do you successfully throw Thanksgiving without a turkey?

Alexis deBoschnek’s Maple Hasselback Butternut Squash

(See also: Vegan Thanksgiving Dishes Everyone Will Love, and How to Accommodate Vegan Guests at Thanksgiving.)

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Thanksgiving-Hopping

You’ve got multiple Thanksgiving dinner invites. Is there a way to hit all the meals without offending?

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(Also helpful: The Best Thanksgiving Host & Hostess Gifts to Bring.)

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Greedy Gobbler

Are guests entitled to leftovers (which are, after all, the best part of Thanksgiving)?

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What If You Ruin the Turkey?

Quick! Order pizza! (And other ways to salvage your party, including how to fix an overcooked, dry turkey and how to quickly correct an undercooked turkey.)

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Meddling Mother-in-Law

Your mother-in-law knows exactly how the gravy should be done. Yeah, right. Here are ways to get her out of the kitchen (appetizers are one nice distraction).

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Thanksgiving Turkey Snob Dilemma

Is it wrong to suggest that your host buy a politically correct bird?

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Here’s hoping these tips serve you well come Turkey Day!

See our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving for everything else you need to know.

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How Green Bean Casserole Became a Thanksgiving Staple

Even if the name Dorcas Reilly doesn’t ring a bell, you’re likely familiar with her iconic culinary creation. Way back in 1955, Reilly, who served as the Test Kitchen Manager for the Campbell Soup Company (which is currently celebrating its 150th anniversary), was tasked with developing a vegetable side dish that incorporates the brand’s popular Cream of Mushroom Soup. Beyond this essential component, the objective for the recipe was twofold: It needed to be easy to prepare, and, most importantly, taste great. Little did Reilly know that she was on the path to creating one of the most beloved items on the Thanksgiving table, green bean casserole.

Related Reading: How Thanksgiving Menus Vary Across America

Cream of the Crop

Though Reilly tinkered with several different Cream of Mushroom Soup dishes, her green bean casserole (originally called green bean bake) managed to hit all the right marks. Beyond the soup and signature vegetable, the recipe only consists of four other easily accessible ingredients—milk, soy sauce, black pepper, and fried onions. (During the development stage Worcestershire sauce was also used but it failed to make the final cut.)

Campbell’s

Then there’s the fact the dish is relatively foolproof, requiring only 10 minutes of prep time and another 30 to cook the casserole.

But, of course, flavor is everything, which is why green bean casserole has endured after nearly 65 years. According to Maria Gamble, Executive Chef, Campbell’s Culinary & Innovation Hub, it’s the interplay of “creamy comfort” and “varying textures” that makes the dish stand out.

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Despite its incredible longevity, the casserole wasn’t an instant hit. “Over time, the growth happened,” says Gamble who attributes word-of-mouth to the dish’s eventual success. “Once you start to talk about it more, and people start to realize how easy it is to put together, it gets this popularity.” When the recipe finally found its way, years after its inception, onto the Cream of Mushroom Soup can label, its fate was sealed.

Giving Thanks to a Simple Side

Getty Images/Lynne Gilbert

Though it became a year-round staple, green bean casserole would find its sweet spot during Thanksgiving as a star side attraction. It’s a dish perfectly suited for Turkey Day—not only is it a crowd-pleaser, but if you happen to be playing host of one of the most stressful meals of the year, the relatively effortless task of preparing it and the ease of scaling it up for a large group are thoroughly embraced. “I think when you’re cooking for guests, you want to make sure that what you’re making is going to work,” she says.

Related Reading: Classic Thanksgiving Dishes from the Crock-Pot

According to Gamble, 20 million families serve green bean casserole during the holiday and 40 percent of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup that is sold during November is used in the dish. “That’s pretty astounding when you think about the numbers,” she adds. “I kind of have to remind myself  ‘Wow. That’s going on a lot of tables.’”

The Remixes

Chowhound’s Herbed Green Bean Casserole

While most households stick to the original six components, there have been some variations on the classic recipe over the years: crispy jalapeños joining crispy onions for a spicy kick, additions of cheese and bacon, broccoli tagging in for green beans. There’s even a keto-friendly Instant Pot version which ditches the soup.

“It is kind of a canvas that you can experiment with,” says Gamble, who prepares a version of the dish that includes toasted almonds, crisp pancetta, and fresh herbs, though she admits it has yet to make its way into her family’s Thanksgiving roster. “When I offer to add some twists or zhuzh it up, family members are like, ‘Nope. Gotta keep it tried-and-true.’”

Gone, But Not Forgotten

As for Dorcas Reilly, she sadly passed away in October of 2018 at the age of 92. Though she is no longer with us, her legacy will surely live on for years to come.

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Pecan Pie

With a homemade crust, sweet pecan filling and a touch of molasses, this is THE pecan pie for your Thanksgiving table! Make it a day or two ahead, or freeze it for even longer.

Continue reading "Pecan Pie" »

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