A Gourmet Thanksgiving Menu for Those Who Like to Show Off

This is the menu for home cooks who like to show off, with Chris Kimball’s favorite turkey recipe, savory, decadent bread pudding, mashed potato gratin, and a caramel-drenched tarte tatin.

The Bird: Roasted and Braised Turkey with Gravy

The architecture of a whole turkey makes it impossible to cook the legs to ideal doneness without turning the more delicate breast meat to sawdust. To solve this problem, we separate the legs from the breast prior to cooking so the breast can be removed when done and the legs can keep cooking. We also use a hybrid cooking method. The breast roasts while the legs braise in a shallow depth of liquid (water or broth or stock, if you have some on hand), surrounded by aromatics. This yields a richly flavored broth for making the gravy. Dry-brining the turkey parts for at least two hours or up to a day before cooking results in better-seasoned meat and improved browning and crisping of the skin.

The Stuffing: Savory Bread Pudding with Mushrooms, Gruyère and Tarragon

This bread-based side is totally decadent. A whole pound of crusty white bread gets soaked in a mixture of heavy cream, chicken broth and nearly a dozen eggs—get it soaking the night before to save time Thanksgiving morning—then baked until golden brown and puffed. It’s not technically stuffing (or dressing), but it is delicious. The egg-soaked bread mixture must stand for at least an hour (or up to 24 hours) before baking, so this dish offers make-ahead convenience.

The Mash: Mashed Potato Gratin

This holiday side combines two classics: mashed potatoes and cheese-topped potato gratin. Milk-simmered mashed potatoes are the base, sliced potatoes and shredded Gruyère are layered on top, then the casserole is baked until golden. If you own a mandoline, here’s a good time to use it, but hand-slicing with a knife works, too. Aim for ⅛-inch thickness so you have enough for full coverage and so the spuds cook through in the time indicated. If you need a short pause in the preparation to focus on other dishes, cover the mashed potatoes with foil after spreading them in the baking dish; they’ll hold at room temperature for up to an hour before the casserole needs to be finished.

The Sweet Potato: Browned Butter Sweet Potato Spoonbread

Combine cornbread and soufflé and you have Southern spoonbread. This version is gussied up for the holiday table with sweet potato, browned butter and Parmesan. Canned sweet potato puree simplifies the prep, but we drain it of excess moisture so the spoonbread won’t be sodden. If you prefer to use fresh, peel 1½ pounds orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, cut them into 1-inch chunks, cover and microwave on high until fully tender, about 5 minutes, stirring halfway through. Drain in a fine-mesh strainer for a few minutes, then mash until smooth and measure out 1½ cups for making the batter. Spoonbread is served by, well, spooning it out of the baking dish, not slicing. It’s best served warm and reheats well if made in advance. If rewarming, hold off on the final browned-butter flourish. Cover the dish with foil and place in a 375°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes; drizzle with the butter just before placing the spoonbread on the table

The Vegetable Side: Roasted Agrodolce Onions

Italian cipollini agrodolce are small whole onions with a sweet-and-sour glaze. We riffed on that classic to create a side dish that complements rich meats and poultry—from a standing rib roast to the Thanksgiving turkey. Instead of balsamic or wine vinegar, we’ve opted for Spanish sherry vinegar, which has rich, woodsy notes. Use either standard yellow onions or sweet onions such as Vidalia or Walla Walla. Cut into wedges and arranged in a baking dish, the onions require a total of about 90 minutes to turn soft and succulent, but need very little attention during roasting. To make in advance, after the covered cooking, remove the dish from the oven, uncover (save the foil) and let cool. Re-cover and refrigerate for up to two days. When ready to serve, baste the onions with the liquid in the dish and bake, uncovered, at 425°F for 25 to 30 minutes, basting once halfway through; cool and serve as directed.

The Bread: Maque-Style Mexican Bisquetes

Maque is a bakery/café with multiple locations in Mexico City. During a visit to the Condesa shop, we became particularly enamored of their bisquets. Mexican bisquets are common, but Maque’s stand out as unique. The deeply golden oversized buns featured a crumb that is light and airy, yet rich and substantial—a perfect marriage of French brioche and American biscuit, with slightly more sweetness. Maque’s recipe is proprietary, so drawing on our baking experience and working from memory, we eventually devised a recipe that we think is a good approximation. (They even impressed Jennifer Garner.)

The Pie: Tarte Tatin

Tarte tatin is made by baking apples in sugar under a blanket of pastry, then inverting the tart out of the pan for serving to reveal a stunner of a dessert: velvety, caramel-soaked fruits atop a tender, buttery crust. Said to have been invented by accident by the Tatin sisters in the late 19th century, the rustic tart is a now a culinary classic. For our version, we add a little maple syrup to the sugar mixture; it helps the granules dissolve while also adding subtle woodsy notes that pair perfectly with the apples. Honeycrisp is the apple variety of choice, as the fruits strike a perfect balance of sweet and tangy. And though they soften with cooking, their texture does not turn mealy or mushy. Galas are the runner-up.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.