This is your complete Wood Fired Thanksgiving menu, prepared at a leisurely pace over three days without even a hint of stress, timing issues, overcooking or undercooking.
Wood Fired Thanksgiving menu—Recipes and Videos
- Wood Fired Blistered Cranberry Jalapeño Sauce
- Wood Fired Sous Vide Turkey
- Wood Fired Turkey Gravy
- Wood Fired Sourdough Stuffing
- Wood Fired Brown Butter Yams
- Wood Fired Shaved Brussels Sprouts
- Wood Fired Pumpkin Crostata
Catching on to the theme here?
I know what you’re thinking, everyone claims the easiest, smoothest, or best Thanksgiving ever around this time of year.
That being said, we ourselves don’t want to work any harder than we need to or rush around the kitchen missing everything Thanksgiving is truly about: Family, Friends and Food.
We prepped and cooked almost everything in advance and broke it down step by step, day by day, so you can spend more of your time rubbing elbows with your guests.
So let’s break this down, starting with the turkey.
This entire process and holiday come down to the bird. Even with all the recipe inspiration and instructions in the world, you’re only as good as the ingredients you start with. Please do the best you can to use ingredients from your local purveyors. These are definitely some of the people we should all be thankful for.
Speaking of birds, Sue and Andy Heffron of Purely By Chance are the perfect example of taking the food system back into small local hands and doing it for all the right reasons. We did an amazing Deboned Whole Chicken with one of their birds.
Day 1 (2 days before Thanksgiving)
Individual steps detailed in the recipes
- Make the brine—Start early to give it time to steep as it cools down naturally and thoroughly infuses the liquid.
- Quarter the turkey—Quartering the turkey allows early access to the carcass so the gravy process can begin right away. The smaller pieces of turkey will also require less time in the brine than a whole bird 24 hours. 12 hours to the good already! You’re welcome.
- Make the turkey stock—Fire up the wood oven and roast the bones and vegetables infusing them with a smoky essence you wont find in any other gravy. Reduce, strain and refrigerate overnight. The gravy portion starts the next day
- Make the Blistered Cranberry Jalapeño Sauce—While the stock is reducing and the oven is still hot knock out the cranberry sauce. This is now one thing out of the way and it will only get better with time.
- Make the pâte brisée—2 doughs, 5 minutes, half the Pumpkin Crostata Wrap in plastic and refrigerate this beautiful pastry dough overnight.
- Brine the turkey overnight—Once the brine has cooled to room temp, add the turkey and refrigerate overnight.
“The second most important thing about the turkey, I believe is the stock and then the gravy. So if you can create a well-cooked bird and a beautiful stock into a gravy, you win. I mean you could screw up your potatoes if you wanted to, lumps in there, whatever, this is the important stuff,” Eric Wilson
Day 2 (day before Thanksgiving)
Individual steps detailed in the recipes
- Marinate turkey—Remove the turkey from the brine first thing and get it dried off. A light seasoning of salt, pepper and your fresh herbs, throw it into your vacuum bags with a stick of butter, seal up and refrigerate overnight.
- Make the stuffing—Fire up the wood oven and roast your hand torn sourdough bread pieces and vegetables. Transfer completed stuffing to a buttered cast iron, cover and refrigerate overnight. A quick re-fire in the oven is all that’s left to do. One more item checked off.
- Make the gravy—Combine the strained turkey stock with butter, fresh herbs, a roux, Armagnac and some whisking, then simmer for half hour. Gravy is done. Third box checked off.
- Make the Pumpkin Crostata—Now that the oven has calmed down a bit from cooking the stuffing it’s time to roll into the pumpkin crostata. Make the filling, roll the dough, a little egg wash for color, fill and bake. Dedicate some time here to really supervise the crostata as it bakes. Boom, another box checked.
- Prep the brussels sprouts—This vegetable prep is super fast, store in airtight containers and refrigerate overnight. Another great step to get out of the way and all you’ll have to do next is pull lids, quick sauté and serve.
Day 3, Thanksgiving
Individual steps detailed in the recipes
- Sous vide the turkey—Add the bagged and marinated turkey legs to the 140°F water bath, sous vide for one hour, then add the bagged turkey breasts and sous vide for two hours.
- Fire up the wood oven—Throw in the seasoned, foil wrapped yams, continue to rotate sides of yam and their placement within the oven as you work on other preparations.
- Make the Brown Butter Yams—Peel yams, rice, season, stir in brown butter and buttermilk. Cover finished yams with parchment paper and foil, place the bowl on a pot of water to create a double boiler, set aside to keep warm.
- Finish the turkey—Remove turkey from the sous vide bags, roast in a preheated cast iron pan for about 15 minutes, cover tightly with foil and rest. Ideally, rest the turkey until everything else is complete.
While the turkey rests finish all the other dishes.
- Heat up the Turkey Gravy—Once at temperature, let it sit on a low simmer until everything else is served on the table. Transfer to a serving vessel and straight to the table it goes.
- Heat up the Sourdough Stuffing—Pull the cover off and toast up in the oven. You can leave it in the oven right up until dinner is ready, then simply grab the stuffing, a hot plate and bring to table.
- Finish the Shaved Brussels Sprouts—While the stuffing is toasting up, render pancetta, caramelize the brussels sprouts, toss in mirepoix, transfer to serving platter and bring to table.
- Serve the Brown Butter Yams—Remove warm yams from the double boiler, stir a few times, transfer to a bowl, top with chives and serve.
- Carve the turkey— Cut through the joint to remove the drumette from the breast leaving it whole, then slice the breast. Cut through the joint to remove the leg from the thigh leaving it whole as well. Remove thighbone, roll meat together and slice. Fan meat out on a serving platter.
- Eat that Pumpkin Crostata—Dust with powdered sugar and serve as is or with some whipped cream. Hold on because this crostata is ridiculous.
A ton of love and energy has gone into getting this food onto the table, so soak in the moment, give thanks and enjoy the meal.
Now, let’s talk clean up. Just kidding, that’s what guests are for.
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