Thanksgiving Dinner Menu & Cooking Timeline

Snacks & Drinks

⏱️ Start Here: Pick Your Dinner Time

This plan works backward from the time you want to eat, whether your family serves Thanksgiving dinner at 2 PM or waits until actual dinner time like ours does. No judgment here. Mostly. 😂 If you’re eating at 5 PM, “5½ hours before dinner” means 11:30 AM. Eating at 2 PM? Start at 8:30 AM.

Guest arrival is a separate clock. Put out the appetizers and drinks just before your people arrive rather than waiting for a specific point in the cooking schedule.

🧊 A Few Days Before Thanksgiving

Make sure your turkey is thawing: A 15-pound turkey needs roughly five days in the refrigerator, so don’t discover Wednesday night that you’ve got a bowling ball in there. 😂 Check the USDA turkey thawing guidelines for thawing times based on the weight of your bird.

🍰 The Day Before Thanksgiving

• Make the desserts: Pumpkin Spice Trifle + Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars. Refrigerate overnight.
• Make the Pumpkin Dip: Cover and refrigerate.
• Make the crostini: Cool completely and store airtight at room temperature—or buy premade crostini. No judgment here.
• Build most of the charcuterie board: Add sliced cheeses, deli-meat roses, olives in small bowls, fruit that won’t brown and other refrigerated components. Wrap the whole board and refrigerate. Save baked brie, spreadable cheeses, crackers, bread/crostini and anything that won’t hold well for right before serving.
• Prep the stuffing: Do the advance prep, keeping wet and dry components separate if it’s going into the turkey.
• Get the drinks cold: Cider, Prosecco and mocktail ingredients into the refrigerator.
• Assemble the Sweet Potato Casserole: Prepare the casserole through assembly, cover and refrigerate overnight. It will bake Thanksgiving Day while the turkey finishes and rests.

🥤 Thanksgiving Morning

First, feed yourself. Make a Pumpkin Pie Smoothie, pour some coffee and enjoy the calm before the turkey takes over your kitchen. 😂

Then knock out a few easy jobs before the cooking timeline begins:

• Prep the mashed potatoes: Peel and cut the potatoes, then keep them completely submerged in cold water until you’re ready to cook them.
• Finish anything you didn’t get to yesterday: Because real people don’t always finish their Wednesday checklist. 😂
• Clear the decks: Put away the breakfast stuff, clear some counter space and get ready to move into turkey mode.

5½ Hours Before Dinner — Get the Turkey Ready

Follow our Oven Roasted Turkey with Gravy recipe for the complete roasting instructions. We’re giving ourselves about 5½ hours from starting prep to dinner so there’s some breathing room if your bird takes a little longer.

4 Hours Before Dinner — Start the Carrots

Apricot Glazed Carrots go into the slow cooker on HIGH.

You have some breathing room now. Clean up the turkey mess, get yourself ready, set the table or sit down for a minute. You do not need to cook continuously just because it’s Thanksgiving.

🥂 Just Before Guests Arrive — Put Out the Good Stuff

• Pull the prepared charcuterie board from the refrigerator and finish adding the cheeses, crostini, crackers and other components.
• Bake the brie: About 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve the board, bake the brie according to the recipe. If the turkey has taken over the oven, use a toaster oven or air fryer with a bake setting instead.
• Add the warm brie to the charcuterie board.
• Put out the Pumpkin Dip.
• Pour the Apple Cider Spritzes and Sparkling Cranberry Mocktails.

About 1½ Hours Before Dinner — Start the Final Prep

• Remove the assembled sweet potato casserole from the refrigerator so it isn’t ice-cold when it goes into the oven.
• Check the carrots.
• Get everything staged for mashed potatoes and gravy.
• Make sure serving dishes are out.

45 Minutes Before Dinner — Start the Final Sides

• Make the mashed potatoes: Drain the potatoes that have been waiting in cold water, cover with fresh water and cook according to the recipe. Once finished, cover and keep warm.
• Start warming the Sweet Potato Casserole: If there’s room alongside the turkey, put the assembled casserole into the oven now. It can begin warming at 350°F, then finish at 375°F once the turkey comes out.

About 25 Minutes Before Dinner — Turkey Out

• Check the temperatures: Remove the turkey when the innermost thigh and wing and thickest part of the breast reach 165°F. If you’ve cooked the stuffing inside the turkey, check the center of the stuffing too—it should also reach 165°F. Tent the turkey with foil and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Increase oven to 375°F to finish warming the assembled Sweet Potato Casserole.
• Meanwhile:
  • Make the gravy.
  • Finish the apricot glaze/carrots.
  • Get stuffing and mashed potatoes into serving dishes.
  • Finish anything else for the table.

🦃 Dinner Time!

Carve up that beautiful bird, let your guests help themselves, and soak up the praise from your grateful family while you finally sit down and enjoy it, too.

🥧 Dessert Can Wait

The trifle and cheesecake bars are already in the refrigerator. There is nothing to bake.

Eat dinner. Clear the important things. Make coffee. Then bring out dessert when people actually want it.

🥪 Before You Go… Tomorrow’s Lunch Is Handled

Leftover Turkey Panini: Save turkey, stuffing and gravy while you’re packing leftovers because tomorrow we’re turning them into paninis.