The Thanksgiving Recipes You'll Come Back to Forever

Hey what's up? In this video I'm going to show you my meticulously tested recipes for the core 7 holiday dishes. My goal is to save you the pain of having to recipe scroll through blog slop or even worse Instagram and instead deliver you something that tastes amazing and has been thoughtfully designed to just work in home kitchens. Also spread throughout this video are going to be some quick tips on the logistics and timing of how I pull all these recipes together into a full meal and a little bonus gift that To get started I'll need a turkey. Mine's about 17 pounds but this process works the same for birds that are within 3 pounds in either direction. By the way I threw this turkey in the lower drawer of my fridge to thaw 7 days before the big day. Of course if you're a scrub and you forgot to thaw you can speed thaw it in a sink of cold water in about 8 hours but that's a food safety gray area, it's a pain in the butt, and most likely your sink won't comfortably hold a 17 pound bird. To prep the thawed turkey I'll just lay it out and remove the giblets, the neck, and that weird plastic thing in the butt. Then I'll cut through the wing joint at the end of the drummy to remove the outer two segments of each wing. Taking these off not only makes the bird easier to move around but more importantly it gives me a bunch of extra turkey meat to use to make the gravy taste more flavorful. Next I need to make the weck brine that seasons the bird and keeps the breast meat juicy. Into a big pot I'll add 4,000 grams or about 4 liters of water, 300 grams of salt, 100 grams of sugar, 3-4 bay leaves, 4 heads of garlic that I've sliced in half, and several sprigs of rosemary, thyme, and sage. To save myself from having to buy all three individually I just get one clamshell of poultry herb blend. From here I'll bring this brine up to a simmer for about 10 minutes then I'll kill the heat and let the herbs and garlic infuse for 30 more. After 30 minutes I'll pour the infused brine over 4,000 grams of ice in a big old container and stir it in to melt. This ice is going to cool down the brine super fast which allows us to use it right away and it dilutes the brine to the perfect salinity. Next I'll grab a food grade injector and pump each breast 5-6 times and each leg 2-3 times. These injectors are pretty widely available at grocery stores and they're usually by the foil pans and all the other baking supplies but if you can't find one I'll throw a link to a cheap one down in the description. Once injected I'll come back and stab each breast about 50 times. This is a move that I kind of invented when working in restaurants to mimic the industrial injectors that they use to make deli turkey in factories. It creates all these extra channels for the brine to seep into and it helps the meat absorb the brine more evenly and more deeply. From here the bird goes into the brine bucket and then into the fridge to soak for 3 days. Also if you don't have fridge space for a huge bucket like this one you can just use the bottom drawer of your fridge if it's big enough. Just make sure to drop the bird in breast side down so that it stays submerged the entire time. Or if you live somewhere where it's below 45 degrees fahrenheit leading up to the big day whether that's Thanksgiving or Christmas you can brine this in your garage. Up next I need to show you guys how to turn that turkey neck and turkey wings into a delicious gravy. First I'll break down the wings and neck into 2-3 inch chunks then drop them onto a sheet tray with 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots, and 3-4 stalks of chopped celery. Then I'll roast them at 450F for about 15-20 minutes. When I pull these out you can see that the turkey is roasted up and the veggies have left behind a bunch of caramelized stuff on the sheet tray. All that residue is called fond and that's where the real flavor in this gravy lives. To get it off the tray I'll add about a cup or so of water then scrape it up with the wooden spoon. If it's being stubborn and not coming off the tray you can always move it over to the stove and heat it for about a minute or so to help loosen things up. And once the fond is dissolved I'm going to pour all of those roasty drippings into a saucepan along with 1500 grams of store-bought chicken stock. Then I'll add in all the roasted bones, all the veggies, 2-3 bay leaves, and a few sprigs of thyme and simmer this for 30-45 minutes to make a rich roasted poultry stock. 45 minutes later I'll just strain off the bones and the vegetables. Now most people will just add flour to the drippings on the big day and hope that they have enough gravy. The problem with this is that most birds only yield about a cup of drippings and that's not really enough for a 17 pound bird. Making this stock ahead of time allows us to not only make a ton of gravy but it also makes the gravy taste way better. To turn this stock into what I call gravy base I'll whisk 100 grams of all purpose flour into 115 grams of melted butter and stir until smooth and lump free. Then I'll cook the roux for about a minute to take off the raw edge before whisking in all of my roasted turkey stock. From here I'll bring it up to a simmer and cook it down for about 10 minutes until it's thickened and slightly reduced. Now once this is cooked I'm going to throw it into a cork container, cool it down, and throw it in the fridge until it's game time. I also want to mention that there is no salt in this gravy. The brined turkey drippings are going to be pretty salty and we want to leave ourselves plenty of headroom for that. You can always add salt later on but you can never take it away. Another recipe that I like to bust out 2-3 days before the big day is the easiest and fastest in this video. Cranberry sauce. To make it one bag or 340 grams of cranberries goes into a saucepan. Then top with 100 grams of water, 125-150 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of salt. From here I'll move it over to the stove and bring it up to a hard simmer. Right now if you're wondering, hey Bry what about orange peel or orange juice or warm spices? Yeah those are good but I don't think they're necessary at all. Considering how maximalist the entire plate of food is going to be on the big day I really prefer a minimalist cranberry sauce that just brings a tart acidity and a little bit of sweetness to cut through all that richness. And after about 10-15 minutes of cooking over medium high heat the cranberries have released their juices, they've cooked down, and they're fully softened. I'll call them done when they've reached this nice jammy consistency. Then I'll move them over to a container to cool down until it's time to feast. Also since cranberries have an insane level of natural pectin this sauce is going to thicken up a lot in the fridge once it's cold. So on game day if yours is a little bit too thick don't hesitate to add a splash of water to adjust the consistency. Up next I'm going to show you the last item that I like to prep before the big day, usually the night before. It's called sheet pan apple pie and it's probably my favorite holiday dessert of all time. It edits out all the things that usually fall short and improves upon all the things you really love. It's like apple pie 2.0. To get started I'll combine 400 grams all purpose flour, 40 grams of sugar, 6 grams of salt, and 300 grams of grated butter in a food processor. If you can get it use a higher fat butter like Kerrygold because it makes a flakier pastry. I also froze the butter first then grated it on the large holes of a box grater. This helps it break into tiny little flecks quickly and boosts the overall flakiness. Next I'll pulse the butter into the flour mixture about 5 or 6 times or just until it breaks down into fine even flecks. Don't overdo it here, we still want the butter to be distinctly separate from the flour. Next I'll add in about 130 grams of ice cold water, pulsing it in in short bursts and adding a little bit more as needed. The goal is to spin in the minimum amount of cold water necessary to bring together the dough while also keeping those tiny little bits of butter intact. Once the water is in the mix here gluten formation is going to set in so less spinning with the food processor is going to equal more tenderness. Then I'll move this over to a bowl and squeeze it firmly to bring it together without kneading it. I want just enough compression here to form a solid mass. And that's pie dough, a barely held together clod of flour and flaky butter. Next I'll flip this clod onto a long wide sheet of plastic wrap and then gently massage it into an 8 by 12 flat rectangle that is more or less the shape of a sheet tray. Getting this pre-shaped now means less rolling later on which means less gluten development which basically means more tender more flaky crust. Once I've got this wrapped up into an 8 by 12 rectangle I'll throw it into the fridge to firm up the butter and hydrate the flour for about 30 minutes. While that sets up let's do the apple part. For that I'll take 8 granny smith apples, peel them and then chop into chunky but relatively uniform 1 inch cubes. I would avoid sweeter apples here. Granny smiths bring some necessary acidity that balances the sweet streusel topping that's coming up next. Once the apples are cut I'll add in 125 grams brown sugar, 6 grams cinnamon, 5 grams salt, 50 grams cornstarch, 15 grams lemon juice which is about half of a lemon, and a couple cranks of nutmeg. Then I'll just toss to get things combined and to get the apples evenly coated. Next let's make that streusel topping. For that into a bowl I'll combine 375 grams of all purpose flour, 225 grams of brown sugar, 6 grams cinnamon, 5 grams salt, and 75 grams of chopped pecans. For this I like to buy the small pre-chopped kind because they're sifted and have a really uniform shape. Then I'll pour in 230 grams of melted butter, jump in with a fork, and stir and fluff this until everything is evenly combined into a uniform, crumbly texture with nuggets that are about a half inch big. Now streusel and cut apples go off to the side. Then I'll grab my rectangle of cold pie crust from the fridge and give it 15 minutes to soften back up enough to roll it. 15 minutes later I'm going to dust everything liberally with flour and then use my rolling pin to roll the crust out into a larger rectangle that is about an inch or two beyond the width of a half sheet tray. I'm not going to go super deep on the process here, I think it's relatively self explanatory, but if you want a full step by step on how to get this sheet tray sized I'll link to a video fully dedicated to sheet pan apple pie in the description. Since we started with a rectangle it's relatively easy to roll this out into a larger rectangle and after about maybe 3 minutes I'm there and to verify that it's large enough I'll drop on a half sheet tray to check the fit and I'll also press it into the crust to leave an outline. Next I'll come back and trim the excess dough about a half inch outside that indent. This is going to give me a clean professional edge on the crust. And once we've got a beautiful looking rectangle I'm going to dust it liberally with flour to prevent sticking then I'm going to carefully roll it up onto my rolling pin and unroll it over a well buttered half sheet tray. From there I'll tuck it into the corners and give it a little zhuzhing to settle things in. Then I'll dimple around the edges to make it look pretty. Once it's all tucked up into the sheet tray we should have a nice fluted border all the way around and a smooth layer of crust across the bottom of the pan. One last touch is to poke the bottom of the crust with a fork so that it doesn't bubble up during baking. Then I'll drop all of my sugared apples into the crust, spread them evenly from edge to edge, then top with streusel again spreading that evenly from edge to edge. From here the sheet pan pie goes into a 375F oven to bake for about 45-50 minutes. Time to enjoy a satisfying time lapse while I thank Maiden for sponsoring this vid. I use Maiden cookware on this channel because it's the best option on the market in my opinion. Of course Maiden stuff is designed for home cooks but it performs at such a high level that even Michelin starred chefs use it in their restaurants which tells you a lot. Guys like this don't tolerate junky pans. My favorite thing about their stainless clad pans is the 5-ply stainless steel construction that runs up the sides and across the bottom. Those five layers give you great heat retention and super even heating so you don't get hot spots or uneven browning. The form factor is a dream too. These have these beautiful curved walls which make tossing really easy. They've got this rolled rim so you can pour without making a mess and these pans are safe to go right into the oven up to 800F. Maiden's Black Friday sale is going on right now so if you've been thinking about upgrading your cookware now is the time. You can check out their entire stainless collection and all of my other favorites using the link down in my description. Special shout out to the 3-quart saucier and the 12-inch stainless. I love those pans and I use them almost every day. Okay back to the pie. After a 45-50 minute bake I'm going to pull it out of the oven, cool it down, and serve it after people eat turkey. You guys for me this is peak apple pie. It's just got the perfect ratio of soft roasty apples to flaky crust to crunchy sweet streusel topping. Most apple pies are apple heavy and you end up with a plate of stewy fruit or even worse crunchy apples that never have enough crust to balance it out. Every year at Thanksgiving this is my guest's favorite dish. If you haven't had it before I really think you should try it. It's a banger. Next let's talk about the sides. First I want to show you guys how to make a from scratch green bean casserole that absolutely smokes the gloppy canned stuff. I'll start by dropping 2 pounds or about 900 grams of chopped green beans into a pot of well salted boiling water and cooking them for about 4-5 minutes until they are quite tender. By the way I cut these green beans down into 1.5 inch sized planks because that's about the same size as the green beans that come out of the can. Once cooked I'm going to move these over to a bowl to hang out while we make the saucy part. Also at this point lean towards slightly more cooked than less cooked because green beans have a lot of fiber that needs to be softened if you want that cozy comforting casserole experience. Next into one stick of melted butter I'll add 450 grams or about 1 pound of chopped mushrooms. By the way the easiest way to break these down is to quarter them then pulse in a food processor about 10 times until you've got a coarse gravelly chop like this. From here I'll add in 15 grams of minced garlic and 10 grams of salt then stir to combine and sweat the mushrooms in the butter for about 5-6 minutes until they've cooked off all their water. Once they're golden and frying in the butter instead of steaming in it I'll add in 5 grams of chopped fresh thyme, I'll stir that in and fry it off for a second, then 65 grams of all purpose flour. I'll stir that in to combine and cook off the raw flavor for about 90 seconds or so. Once I've got a roux going on I'll pour in 400 grams of chicken stock and 125 grams of heavy cream. Then I'll stir to combine and bring up to a simmer. About 3-4 minutes later things have thickened up and now we've got a homemade version of canned cream of mushroom soup. Now the beans go into the sauce along with 50 grams of grated parmesan and 3 grams of black pepper then I'll stir to combine. One quick thing to note is that everyone's sauce thickness at this point is gonna vary a little bit depending on their specific cook time and how much their flour absorbed. So if yours is looking super thick you can always just sneak in a little bit more stock at this point. From here the casserole goes into a metal 9x13 pan and I'll just spread it out evenly. For me metal is better than ceramic here because it gives you more of a roasty fried edge but it's not totally mandatory. Then I'll top with crispy fried onions or in my case fried shallots. In my original holiday sides video I show you guys how to make these from scratch which I think is absolutely worth doing if you've got an extra 30 minutes and you really want to dazzle your guests. Store bought onions aren't as good but they're still pretty good so if you don't want to spend the time use those instead. Once topped up with crispies the pan goes into a 375 oven to bake for 18-20 minutes. And after about 20 minutes we've got truly S tier green bean casserole. It's packed with earthy mushroom flavor, the beans actually taste like something, and the ratio of crunch to creamy sauce to veg is just perfect. People love this recipe. Over the last couple of years I've gotten hundreds if not thousands of positive comments on Instagram, YouTube, and directly in my email. Speaking of email, Lauren put together some really beautiful printable PDFs for this recipe and all the other recipes in this video. Just click the link in the description called Holiday PDF Recipes and we'll send them directly to your inbox. They're free. I really want you guys to try these recipes. Up next, let's make some stuffing. I worked really, really hard to get this recipe right and I'm stoked about it. First we've got to get the bread going. For that I'll cut 750 grams of hearty white bread, crust and all, into 1.5 inch cubes. Next I'll spread those between two half sheet trays and dry them out in a 275F oven for about 25-30 minutes. Or if you don't have the extra oven space you can just leave these sheet trays on your counter overnight to dry out. Next, into one stick of melted butter I'll add 350 grams of diced onion, 250 grams of diced celery, and 5 grams of salt. From here I'll stir those to combine and sweat the aromatics in the butter for about 5 minutes until they release all of their water. While that cooks I'm going to add 150 grams of golden raisin, then I'll cover it with about 400-500 grams of water, then move it to the stove, bring it to a ripping simmer and cook it for about 5 minutes to soften. Once we're there I'll kill the heat and continue to soak these raisins for about 15-20 minutes or until everything is ready and I can mix them into the final stuffing. Back to the aromatics. Once the onions and celery are translucent and their water is cooked off I'll add 5 grams of chopped fresh sage, then fry that in the butter for another 4-5 minutes until the vegetables are fully tender. There should be absolutely no fibrous crunch from the vegetables in the final stuffing. Once cooked I'll set that aside then check back on the bread. At this point the cubes should be firm and dry but not totally parched. Next, the bread goes into my largest bowl followed by the buttery onions and celery then the golden raisins which at this point I've drained. By the way, raisins might be controversial for some people but I really urge you to give them a try because they bring a really nice pop of sweetness in the midst of what is a very savory plate of food. Next I'll add in 15 grams of finely minced parsley, 2-3 grams of poultry seasoning, 2-3 grams of black pepper, 5 grams of salt, then a whisked up mixture of 5 large eggs, 950 grams of chicken stock, and 50 grams of better than bouillon chicken base. If you don't got BTB you could sub in half of a ramen chicken packet, that'll work pretty good. Then I'll jump in and toss to get the bread saturated with that eggy stock and to get the vegetables evenly spread throughout. Just like for the green bean casserole, at this point if things are looking dry and tight do not hesitate to add in a little bit of extra stock. Next I'll flip this mushy bread mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and just smush it in. Then finally I'll top it with 6-8 very thin pats of butter spread evenly over the top. Then cover with foil and bake at 375F for about 45 minutes. At that point the eggs are gonna be set and everything is gonna be cooked through but we still need to get golden crust. So 45 minutes later I'll pull off the foil then throw the stuffing back into the oven, this time at 450F and I'll bake it for another 15-20 minutes or until it's crisped up beautifully around the edges and the top is deeply golden brown. For me, this is just the platonic ideal of stuffing. It's packed with herby poultry flavor, it's tender, it's soft, it's fluffy, and it also has a little bit of crispy chew around the edges. It's just the perfect most flavorful thing that you could put next to your mashed potatoes to soak up all the excessive gravy. Speaking of mashed potatoes, next I'm gonna show you how to make something that is so superior to what we are used to that it should be called a different thing. And it is. It's actually called potato puree. To make it I'll start with 10 pounds of russet potatoes that I've peeled and chopped into large chunks. Then I'll throw them into a pot full of water and bring them up to a lazy simmer and cook gently until they are fully tender. About 35-40 minutes later I'm gonna strain off all the cooking liquid and move these potatoes back into a large pot. As you can see they're totally tender but they're not so boiled that they've turned into wet mealy slop. This is the sweet spot. If you undercook these potatoes they're gonna make a gluey mash but if you overcook them they're gonna be waterlogged. Next I'll smash these up with a wooden spoon or a ground beef musher. Then I'll add in 450 grams or 4 sticks of melted butter followed by 350 grams of hot heavy cream. I've got about 500 grams of cream hot but I am gonna save some of it to thin things out later if we need to. From here I'm gonna stir the butter and cream into the potatoes while breaking things up a little bit more. Then grab a fine mesh strainer and plop a few large ladlefuls into it and then pass it through with a spatula or better yet a 2 ounce ladle. Yes this is a lot of work I'm not gonna lie to you guys but out of everything in this video it is the most worth it. Pushing the potatoes through the fine mesh while they're hot and creamy gives you the smoothest most supple restaurant level potato texture that you could ever imagine. Once the potatoes are all passed through I'm gonna move them over to a crock pot or a slow cooker to keep them warm until serving. Once the butter and cream are in you really can't let these cool down otherwise you lose a lot of that silky texture. The last step is to add 15 to 20 grams of salt into the potatoes and then throttle the butter and cream until you hit your dream texture. The amounts of butter and cream that I've listed are what I think are perfect but every batch of potatoes is gonna be a little bit different and some people like butterier some people like creamier. In my opinion these potatoes are the best possible potato experience that someone can have at home. By the way the fine mesh strainer is the thing that pretty much makes this entire process possible and if you don't have one I'll link to the one that I use down in the description. It's a little bit expensive but it is professional grade, it'll last forever, and it's cone shaped which makes passing the potatoes much easier. You might also want to get a two ounce ladle which I'll link to as well. Okay finally it's time to get down to the main event turkey and gravy. To make that about three and a half hours before I want to serve my guests turkey I'll pull out my brine bucket and then one more time for good measure I'll pump each breast three or four more times full of brine. This might seem excessive but turkey breast is very hard to make juicy and we need all the help that we can get. From here I'm gonna take a triple layer of foil and drop it into a roasting pan with a rack and spray it with some pan spray. Then I'll add in about a cup or so of water to keep the drippings from burning later on. Then I'll drop the turkey onto that foil breast side down. Also bonus points for adding in a probe thermometer into the breast and the leg thigh. Of course an instant meat thermometer also works but I find that probe thermometers are the most reliable easy way to track the internal temperature which is pretty important to getting high quality results. Then I'll wrap the whole thing with foil and roast it breast side down for one hour at 425. Starting the breast side down gives the dark meat a head start and creates a temperature offset which is necessary for the dark meat to cook to its optimal temperature which is quite a bit higher than the optimal temperature for breast meat. After one hour I'll pull out the turkey take off the foil and throw it back in the oven at 325 to roast until the breast is at 150 and the thighs are at about 165. This is going to take about 90 minutes or so and at this point the turkey is fully cooked through and if you're fine with pale breast skin you could technically call it a day right here and serve it. But we all know we need that golden roasty glow. So next I'm going to tent the turkey with foil and rest it for one hour. This gives the juices inside the breast meat time to stabilize so they don't get squeezed out later on when we go to brown and more importantly it gives you plenty of time to bake your sides like green bean casserole or stuffing. One hour later I'm going to flip this bird over using a towel and a pair of tongs. Be careful here this is by far the trickiest and most dangerous moment in this entire turkey process. Once the turkey is flipped I'm going to move it off to the side then pour the turkey drippings into my gravy base a little bit at a time tasting as I go. The drippings can be a little bit salty so you'll want to ease them in to make sure you don't go too far salt wise. Once the turkey is back in the pan breast side up I'm going to brush the skin liberally with butter or a neutral oil to help that skin get sizzled up and golden when it's in the oven. Then I'm going to throw it back in at 500F for about 15-20 minutes to get it nice and brown. While that finishes I'll move my gravy and drippings back over to the stove and reduce it until it reaches the thickness that I want. I usually give mine about a 15 minute reduction for that perfect medium viscosity. After a quick high roast you can see that the breast meat is deeply golden brown. You might also notice that it's looking a little bit splotchy. That's from having sugar in the brine and poking it a bunch of times with the thermometer during the filming of this video. During cooking some of that sugary salt water squeezes out and the sugars get caramelized. That's totally fine it has no impact on eating quality or anything like that it just doesn't look 10 out of 10. But anyways the flavor of the skin is great here. The fat is fully rendered, it's roasty, and it's just as delicious as the meat. Which by the way is some of the juiciest that I've ever experienced. It's just so freaking moist that I'm almost worried that it's going to water down the gravy on the plate. It's just good, it's herbal, it's perfectly seasoned with salt, it's succulent, and it's just juicy in a way that you didn't think turkey breast could be. Also the thigh meat tastes great too but that part's pretty easy. This recipe is really about delivering you guys perfect breasts. Again Lorne and I are giving you guys free high quality printable pdfs for this recipe and all the recipes in this video at the link down in the description. I really hope you guys make these I hope they deliver and I hope you have a great holiday because of it. If you guys want to watch the original greatest of all time turkey video just to brush up on some of the finer details of that recipe I'll link to that on the screen right here. I'll see you there.