Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 26 this year, and most of what makes the day go well happens before it. So this page starts with Thanksgiving dinner ideas for three kinds of table: a full classic spread, a smaller one for four to six people, and one built around something other than turkey. Then it works back from Thursday through the weeks and days before, so each dish has a day when it actually gets made.
Treat the timings as a starting point and move them around to suit your household. The one date that’s hard to shift is the thaw, because a frozen turkey needs days in the fridge, and that’s the thing people most often discover on Tuesday night.
Thanksgiving dinner ideas for three kinds of table
Which menu suits you depends mostly on how many people are coming and how much oven you have. One standard oven can roast a large turkey and then bake two or three sides while the bird rests, and that’s about its limit, so anything beyond that needs a slow cooker, the stovetop or a dish served cold.
A classic table for 10 to 12. A roast turkey of 16 to 20 pounds, gravy, bread stuffing baked in its own dish, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, roasted sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and two pies, usually pumpkin plus pecan or apple. Almost all of it can be made or prepped before Thursday. When a guest offers to bring something, hand over the pies or the rolls, since both travel well and neither needs your oven.
A smaller table for four to six. A whole bird is more than four people will finish, so a bone-in turkey breast is the usual swap. It roasts in roughly half the time of a big turkey and still gives you drippings for gravy, and a couple of thighs alongside it cover anyone who prefers dark meat. Add one stuffing, potatoes, a green vegetable, cranberry sauce and a single pie. In size and effort it’s close to the bigger Sunday dinners plenty of households already cook.
A table without turkey. Some tables skip the bird because nobody really likes it or because some guests are vegetarian. A glazed ham is the easy alternative, since most holiday hams are sold fully cooked and only need warming through. Braised short ribs work well too, and they’re better made the day before. For a vegetarian main, a stuffed roasted squash or a mushroom and lentil pot pie holds its own. The sides can stay exactly as they are, since stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce and pie don’t depend on the turkey, as long as the stuffing and gravy use vegetable stock.
Three weeks out: the menu, the headcount and the turkey
Around three weeks before Thanksgiving, about Thursday, November 5 this year, is a sensible time to settle the menu and the guest list, because nearly every later decision depends on both. The headcount tells you what size turkey to buy, how many pies to make, and whether the classic menu fits your oven.
If you want a fresh turkey, order it now. Butchers and many grocery stores take holiday orders weeks ahead, and the popular sizes go first. A frozen turkey can be bought whenever it’s convenient and left in the freezer until its thaw date.
A few things can be made now and frozen: pie dough wrapped in flat discs, dinner rolls baked and bagged, and turkey stock for the gravy made from wings or necks. All three hold for several weeks, and our post on cooking whole meals for the freezer covers wrapping and labeling. It’s also a good moment to check you have a roasting pan big enough for the bird and a meat thermometer, while there’s still time to borrow one.
When should you move the turkey from the freezer to the fridge?
A frozen turkey needs about 24 hours in the refrigerator for every 4 to 5 pounds, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Counted back from Thursday, that gives these latest days to move it into the fridge:
- 4 to 12 pounds: 1 to 3 days, so by Monday, November 23
- 12 to 16 pounds: 3 to 4 days, so by Sunday, November 22
- 16 to 20 pounds: 4 to 5 days, so by Saturday, November 21
- 20 to 24 pounds: 5 to 6 days, so by Friday, November 20
Those dates get the turkey thawed by Thursday morning, so starting a day earlier gives you slack, and the USDA says a turkey thawed in the fridge can stay there another day or two before cooking. Keep it in a pan on the bottom shelf so drips can’t land on anything else.
If Thursday morning comes and the middle is still icy, the USDA’s other safe method is a cold-water thaw: the turkey stays in its wrapping in a sink of cold water, the water gets changed every 30 minutes, and it takes about 30 minutes per pound. A turkey thawed that way has to be cooked right away, and thawing on the counter isn’t safe at any size.
The weekend before: cranberry sauce, gravy and room in the fridge
The weekend before Thanksgiving, November 21 and 22 this year, is for the dishes that keep and the shopping that won’t spoil. Cranberry sauce holds for about a week in the fridge, and many people think it tastes better after a few days. If you froze stock, the gravy can be made now and reheated on Thursday with the pan drippings whisked in. For bread stuffing, cut the bread into cubes and leave them on a sheet pan to dry.
Potatoes, onions, celery, sweet potatoes, butter, canned pumpkin and anything boxed will keep until Thursday, so most of the shopping can happen now. Leave herbs, salad greens and cream for Tuesday. Then clear the fridge. A thawing turkey takes most of a shelf for days, and by Wednesday it’ll be sharing space with pies, cranberry sauce and a couple of assembled casseroles, so putting drinks in a cooler with ice saves a lot of rearranging.
Tuesday and Wednesday: what can you make the day before Thanksgiving?
Most Thanksgiving sides can be made or assembled the day before and finished on Thursday. Pies, mashed potatoes, stuffing baked in its own dish, green bean casserole and sweet potatoes all keep overnight in the fridge, which leaves Thursday mostly for the turkey.
Tuesday is a good day for pies. Pumpkin pie is a custard, so it’s fine made a day or two ahead as long as it stays refrigerated, while apple and pecan are happy at room temperature for a day or two.
Wednesday is for everything else. Mashed potatoes reheat well, and holding them in a slow cooker on low on Thursday keeps them off the stove. The stuffing can be packed into its dish and refrigerated unbaked, and the green bean casserole assembled with the fried onions kept aside so they stay crisp. Chop the onions, celery and herbs, set the table, and pull out the serving dishes. Wednesday’s own dinner can be the simplest meal of the week, and soup or sandwiches the night before a big cook is plenty.
Thursday: an oven schedule worked back from dinner
The Thanksgiving oven schedule is easiest to plan backward from the time you want to eat, because the turkey has to come out and rest before the sides go in. For a 16-pound unstuffed turkey and dinner at 3 p.m., it might look like this:
- 9:30 a.m. Heat the oven to 325°F.
- 10 a.m. Turkey goes in. A bird this size usually takes around 3¾ to 4¼ hours.
- Late morning. Mashed potatoes go into the slow cooker on low.
- From about 1:30 p.m. Start checking the turkey’s temperature.
- Around 2:15 p.m. Turkey comes out to rest under loose foil. The oven goes up to 375°F for the stuffing and green bean casserole.
- 2:45 p.m. Rolls go in for a few minutes, the gravy reheats with the drippings, and someone carves.
The USDA’s Thanksgiving guide says to roast at no lower than 325°F and to treat the turkey as done at 165°F in the thickest part of the breast, the innermost thigh and the innermost wing. Go by the thermometer rather than the clock, since birds and ovens both vary. A turkey that finishes early is fine, because a big bird tented with foil holds its heat for a good while.
The ordinary dinners on either side of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving week still has six other dinners in it. From Monday to Wednesday you’re shopping, thawing and baking, so those nights want food that’s quick and stays out of the oven. Friday and the weekend run on leftovers, and the USDA’s guidance on handling cooked holiday dinners is to refrigerate them within two hours and eat them within three to four days, which takes you to about Sunday. Friday lunch is the natural slot for our holiday leftover sandwich.
Those in-between dinners are the ones a meal-planning app can cover. A Better Meal is a dinner-planning app: you tell it what you like, what you can’t eat and what you’re aiming for, and it fills in the week with real recipes. It has no holiday mode, so the Thanksgiving menu stays yours, but Monday to Wednesday and the weekend after can come from the plan. In a crowded week you can ask it to cut cooking time, simplify the instructions or lean on meals with fewer ingredients, and trade out a night that doesn’t fit, like Friday, when the fridge is full of turkey. There’s a plain list of what the app does on the site, and if you’d rather sort those nights yourself, our post on quick weeknight dinners has plenty of options.
Frequently asked questions
How much turkey do you need per person?
You need about 1 to 1½ pounds of whole turkey per person, which allows for the bones and leaves a little over. For eight people that’s a bird of around 12 pounds, or closer to 16 if you want plenty of leftovers.
Can you cook a turkey that’s still frozen?
A turkey can be cooked straight from frozen, and the USDA says it’s safe, but it takes at least 50 percent longer than a thawed one. The giblet bag can be pulled out with tongs partway through, once it has loosened.
Is it better to cook stuffing inside the turkey or in a separate dish?
Stuffing baked in a separate dish is easier to get right and is what the USDA recommends. Stuffing cooked inside the bird has to reach 165°F at its center, and by then the breast is often overcooked. Whether crisp edges beat the softer stuffing from inside the bird is a matter of taste.
How many side dishes should you make for Thanksgiving?
Four to six side dishes is enough for most tables of 8 to 12 people, as long as they cover a starch, a vegetable, the stuffing and cranberry sauce. Beyond that, extra sides mostly add oven time and leftovers, unless guests are bringing them ready-made.
