5 Tips for Oven Planning on Thanksgiving

Imagine this: it’s Thanksgiving day. Your family is over and excited to spend the holiday with you after a long and crazy year. While everyone is having a blast, things slowly begin to unravel nearby in the kitchen: Aunt Susie needs to make appetizers but hasn’t started cooking yet. However, Cousin Gil didn’t pre-bake his cookies. Because of that, you’re now an hour behind on the turkey and nothing is hot or ready when dinner needs to be served at 5PM.

This scenario is everyone’s biggest fear on Thanksgiving. Avoiding this, however, is quite easy: all you need is to oven plan!

Here are 5 quick tips on how to oven plan this Thanksgiving.

1) Have a solid plan

Thanksgiving meal prep can be stressful and oftentimes, you may assume it can all be done on the day. The Washington Post suggests figuring out the timing of meals throughout the day, such as when you are going to eat. Use that schedule and work backward, so you know what to prepare or reheat first. 

2) Heat Items That Hold Temperature Well First

Heating items that hold temperature well will allow you to get those food items out of the way first. For example, if mashed potatoes are on your menu, you can heat them first and retain their temperature by keeping them hot in a chafing dish or croc-pot. 

3) Roast Veggies the Day Before 

Sides such as roast veggies are easy, quick, and simple to prepare the day before. Prepare these sides in glass bakeware the day before so you can easily reheat in the oven right before serving dinner. The glass bakeware also easily transports from oven to table.

4) Play Oven Tetris 

Before the big day, OXO suggests playing with multiple pans and dishes in your oven to see how everything fits together. This will help you greatly especially if you’re working with limited item space. knowing what fits in your oven will help you prioritize what dishes to prepare the day before and the day of thanksgiving.

5) Aim to have Turkey done two hours prior to serving

Scheduling oven use is key to a successful meal on Thanksgiving. We recommended aiming to have your Turkey done two hours before serving. This will allow you to have time to carve and reheat the carved meat (we recommend adding a bit of hot stock and butter while you heat the turkey up again).

We hope our tips will help you plan the best and stress-free Thanksgiving Dinner. If you have any questions or are looking to receiving some additional phone coaching before the holiday, please email us at hello@peppercornevents.com.