If there is anything that can be called the Super Bowl of cooking days, that’s Thanksgiving. It’s the day, when the humble home-cooks are transformed into all-rounders by roasting a 15-pound turkey simultaneously with sides and pies made from scratch, managing their time from dawn to dusk swirling around the kitchen. But what if you can enjoy a blissful Thanksgiving surrounded by loved ones with just a few manageable kitchen works? Here are a few tried-and-true tips from professional chefs to get your Thanksgiving dinner on the table faster and easier.
Plan Ahead and Delegate
According to the chef and co-owner of Crudo e Nudo, Brian Bornemann, planning ahead and delegating tasks are the chef-style key factors of event-day cooking. While there is no shame to get some help for the marathon task, also making a few dishes ahead will ensure your time off from cooking on the day to enjoy some loving time with your family. Reheating the sides and gravies just before serving is way easier and faster than making everything from scratch on the very day.
Drop Peeling Potatoes
Peeling potatoes before boiling is a headache especially in stressed and rushed situations. Forget peeling and boil the potatoes skin-on. When cooked through, just shock them in an ice bath. The skins will come off in no time! According to the owner of NuLeaf, Craig Cochran, this is one of the major timesavers of any cooking prep work.
Go for Spatchcock Cooking
The turkey is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving table. But it’s no fun to wait just for the turkey to finish cooking, while the rest of the meals are ready to be savored. Instead of taking the traditional full-roasting route, which kind of takes forever, try the spatchcock cooking method to get the same beautifully roasted turkey on the table, but much faster. The executive chef and partner of Huckleberry Bakery and Café, Jennifer Toomey explains, that the bird has to be flattened out and roasted skin side up after the backbone is removed. This butterflying technique will allow you to serve that juicy turkey with crispy skin, in less than half the time.