Have a Thanksgiving Feast on Your Table by 12pm with This Menu

Best for parties of 6-8 people

It's that special time of the year when families gather around a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. But if you're like me, trying to coordinate everything can seem overwhelming! The task of getting all the ingredients ready, prepping and cooking them — how is it possible to have a delicious, warm, feast on your table by 12 pm? This year, we curated a delicious menu that you can mostly prep beforehand and gives you maximum time with the fam instead of in the kitchen. The stars of this menu are J. Kenji-López-Alt and Alison Roman. You can find an in-depth recipe for the prime rib in Kenji’s The Food Lab. We highly recommend Alison Roman’s cookbooks, but for this menu, she kindly shares the goods via her newsletter & website.

It’s not impossible to pull this menu off solo in the kitchen, but we recommend having another set of hands in the kitchen. Peeling the potatoes and cutting the squash are good things to hand-off to anyone asking, “can I help with anything?”

Here's the Thanksgiving feast you can have on your table before noon:

Kenji’s Perfect Roast Prime Rib, Oxtail jus & Horseradish Cream Sauce

Alison Roman’s Creamy Buttermilk Potatoes

Alison Roman’s Brown Buttered Squash, Dates, and Walnuts

Brussels Sprouts in Garlic Butter

Alison Roman’s Cornbread

Alison Roman’s Caramelized Maple Tart

French Silk Pie - we’re on the hunt for the best recipe. Have just the one? Let us know!

Run of show:

• Two days before:

  • Make the French Silk pie

• One day before:

  • Season the prime rib and let stand on a wire rack in a sheet pan in the fridge for 24 hours prior to cooking

  • Make horseradish cream sauce at least 24 hours before serving

  • Make oxtail jus

  • Make the Caramelized Maple Tart

  • Trim and cut (lengthwise) the Brussels Sprouts and store in an airtight container.

  • Optional: Peel & cut the potatoes and store them in a pot of salted water.

  • Finely chop chives for the potatoes and store in an airtight container.

  • Prep nuts and dates for the squash.

• T-DAY:

  • 8:00am - 8:30am - Set the oven to 400F and then prep and bake cornbread.

  • 8:30am - 8:45am - Prep brown butter/walnut/date mixture for the squash. If an option, place on a warming stove eye otherwise, set aside to rewarm later.

  • 8:50am-8:55am - Remove cornbread from oven and set oven to 425F.

  • 9:00am - 9:15am - Start the squash.

  • 9:15am-10am - Prep potatoes if you didn’t the night before. Otherwise, relax for a little bit.

  • 10am~ish - Squash should be done. Remove and turn oven to ‘keep warm’ or set for re-warming the squash later.

  • 10:15am - Start potato recipe!

  • 11:30am - Throw squash in oven, start gently rewarming brown butter/walnut/date mixture. Start Brussel Sprouts.

  • 11:45am - Start plating and getting ready to serve.

  • 12pm - Time to eat!

Cooking notes

Alison Roman does not explicitly say to peel the garlic but go ahead and do so!

Both pies call for homemade whipped cream but we’ve omitted this from the run of show in lieu of store-bought whipped cream. If you have the willpower and determination to make some, go ahead and work it into the schedule.

The recipe says the maple syrup for serving the caramelized maple tart is optional but we are here to tell you do 👏 not 👏 skip 👏 on 👏 the 👏 syrup!