Thanksgiving FAQ

J. Kenji López-Alt does a long Thanksgiving Q&A on Serious Eats answering all those questions you’ll be babbling in your kitchen around 2 pm this Thursday.

He addresses classic conundrums:

If turkey is roasted well in advance of guests arriving, or there is a delay, what’s the best way to re-heat? To what temperature?

If tented with foil and left in a warm place, a turkey should stay warm for at least a couple hours—at least internally. The real danger is the skin getting soggy and the surfaces getting cold. The best way to fix this? Just pop it in a 550°F oven for 7 to 15 minutes until the skin is crisp and piping hot again. The rest should take care of itself.

As well as more contemporary considerations:

I have a vegan cousin coming to visit this year. Could you suggest any vegan dishes that I could serve that the rest of the family would be able to enjoy as well?

I really love my Vegan Chili made with real dried chilies and chickpeas, and I’d serve a vegan marinated kale salad with sumac onions to anyone, regardless of the carnivorosity.

For a more “holiday”-like approach, how about a stuffed delicata squash? You can totally leave off the parmesan from the breadcrumbs and still make out with a fantastic main course.

Check out all of Kenji’s answers to 50 different Thanksgiving questions over on Serious Eats.

Also on Serious Eats: the ultimate turducken. I made a turducken for Thanksgiving 3 years ago and, considering how much I manhandled it, it came out more delicious than it had any right to be. Duck fat covers a multitude of sins.

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