Thanksgiving is the perfect time to relax and spend some quality time with your family and friends. But what if you don’t have much planned for the big day? No problem! Thanks to the crockpot, you can throw a delicious, stress-free dinner for your loved ones in no time.
Make the Perfect Turkey Stress Free
Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, Everyone wants the perfect turkey and stress free. When making yours you don’t want to season it too early, as this will cause it to lose too much moisture. Seasoning your turkey early will also make it very salty, so keep this in mind when deciding how much salt to add to the turkey. Season your turkey for at least 3 days before you plan on cooking it. For the best flavor, you’ll want to brine your turkey. Brining adds a ton of flavor and also helps keeps the turkey juicy. Brine your turkey for at least 5 hours, but ideally overnight.
Classic Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving tradition, so you’ll want to make sure that they taste delicious. You can make mashed potatoes in a few different ways, but the classic way is the best. To make classic mashed potatoes, you’ll want to start with potatoes that are peeled, then boiled, mashed, and seasoned.
For stress free mashed potatoes, you’ll want to use at least medium-sized potatoes. If you use small or extra-small potatoes, it will be too runny. Once they are peeled and cut into small chunks, you’ll want to add them into a pot with enough water to cover the potatoes. Add water until the potatoes are fully covered, then bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat. Once the potatoes are at a full boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer until fork-tender, about 20+ minutes. Once the potatoes are fork tender, strain them and set them aside. Next, you’ll add the potatoes back to the pot and mash them with a potato masher. You can add in some milk, butter, salt, spices, or any other flavorings to create the mashed potato taste you want.
Make gravy and stuffing
Gravy is one of the more important ingredients of a Thanksgiving meal. It not only adds to the base of your meal, but it also helps to hold the turkey together. To make the perfect gravy, start with a roux. A roux is a mixture of equal parts butter and flour, which is cooked together until it becomes a rich brown color and forms a paste. You can make your gravy in a few different ways, but I recommend making a basic brown gravy. Simply melt the butter in a saucepan, then whisk in your stock. Once the butter and stock are fully combined, you can add in your other ingredients and simmer until the gravy thickens.
For stuffing, you can make savory stuffing or sweet stuffing. If you choose to make a savory stuffing, you’ll want to make sure that you add salt and pepper to the stuffing and mix in some butter, olive oil, celery, onion, and garlic. You can also add herbs such as sage, thyme, or rosemary to add flavor to your stuffing.
Stress Free Thanksgiving Pie
If you love making pies from scratch as much as I do, then you’ll love how easy it is to make Thanksgiving pies in a crock pot. To make a Thanksgiving pie, choose a traditional apple or pumpkin pie flavor, and follow the recipe. For the filling, you may want to use applesauce to keep the pie gluten-free. You can also use gluten-free flour in the filling, but be sure to taste it and add more flour if it’s missing some flavor. For the crust, you can use a gluten-free graham cracker crust or a regular crust.
Don’t Forget The Photos
There’s nothing more special than taking photos of your Thanksgiving dinner. There are a few ways to do this. If you’re hosting a dinner, you can ask family and friends to bring their own cameras so that you can take photos of the entire group. Alternatively, you can ask your guests to take photos of their own plates and share them on social media with the hashtag #hometurkey.
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