Thanksgiving Menu 2025

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Philadelphia Fish House Punch

If you’ve never made a “house” punch, I highly recommend it, and I highly recommend this one: Philadelphia Fish House Punch, a mix of brandy, cognac, rum, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup.

Since discovering this recipe eight years ago, there has not been a Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, or Easter for which I have not made it. Its reception, without fail, is wild, and for this, I look forward to making it more than just about anything during the holiday season.

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Holiday Bread

Popovers 🎉

Rolls 🎉

Biscuits 👏

Bread 🎉

If making rolls is a page-turner for you, you could make a batch of this no-fuss focaccia. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s best made the day before and tucked in the fridge — on Thanksgiving morning, you would just let it rise at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours. You can bake it when the turkey is out of the oven.

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Favorite Stuffing

This kale and caramelized onion stuffing is a variation of the one in my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs. After 45 minutes in the oven, it emerges with a crisp golden exterior and a creamy center, flavorful enough to eat on its own, but welcoming to many a relish, sauce, gravy, or anything else the Thanksgiving plate has to offer.

Know you can customize the seasonings and add-ins to your liking. Also: you can make it ahead and freeze it. See instructions in the post for how to freeze it.

I love the kale and caramelized onion version, but if you’re looking for a very classic stuffing, made with onions and celery, seasoned with Bell’s Seasoning, find that here:

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Potatoes

Crispy Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

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Sweet Potato Casserole

This is my Great Aunt Phyllis’s recipe for sweet potato casserole: creamy, orange-scented, brandy-spiked, and unapologetic in its use of butter and sugar.

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4 Holiday Sauces

All of the sauces below can be made in advance. Bring cranberry sauces and mustard sauce to room temperature several hours before serving, and bring the gravy to a gentle simmer before serving.

Cranberry Sauces

On the left: Sally Schneider’s Red Wine Cranberry Sauce (an old favorite, also delicious when made with Port). On the right: No-Cook Cranberry Relish (sweet, tart, orange-scented, and delicious).

Gravy & Mustard Sauce

On the left: Simple, Make-Ahead Gravy. What is especially nice about having gravy made before the bird is even roasted is the mental assurance that as soon as the bird is done, you can (after it rests) serve it without too much of a last-minute scramble. On the right: My Grandmother’s Mustard Sauce: We rarely make a ham for Thanksgiving, but if we do, we make my grandmother’s mustard sauce, affectionately known as the ham sauce!

Also, do yourself a favor and make a batch of this delicious roasted turkey stock before Thanksgiving… it will make the best gravy, and you will need it for your stuffings and potatoes, too:

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Simple Salad

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Other Sides

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Thanksgiving Desserts

One of the best ways you can get a jump start on your Thanksgiving preparations is to make your pie dough in advance. The recipe in the video below and in the recipe here, which includes instructions on how to parbake your pie dough yields two rounds. If you want to double it, I recommend measuring all of the ingredients and making two consecutive batches (no need to clean the food processor in between) as opposed to trying to make a double batch all at once. I use this recipe for all of my pies, tarts, galettes, etc.

Every Thanksgiving I make Ronnie Hollingsworth’s Most Excellent Squash Pie, which comes from Kristin Kimball’s, The Dirty Life, in which she writes: “Pumpkin shmumpkin, winter squash has more flavor and better texture.”

I couldn’t agree more. I also always make David Lebovitz’s no corn syrup bourbon pecan pie and some sort of apple tart, either this apple frangipane galette or this French apple tart. Sister Pie’s salted maple pie has become a recent favorite.

Foolproof, Food Processor Pie Dough

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Vegetarian Thanksgiving?

Butternut Squash Lasagna

One snowy Thanksgiving in Vermont, this butternut squash lasagna, brought to the feast by a vegetarian friend of my aunt’s, stole the show. This is the kind of dish you will want to make all winter long, one you’ll want stashed in your freezer, ready to take to a friend in need, the crowd-pleasing recipe you’ll turn to for your next holiday party, one proven to please both carnivores and vegetarians alike.

The recipe comes from Gourmet magazine: Butternut Squash Lasagna

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And last but not least… the turkey!