4 Best Thanksgiving Recipes

Every family has its own secret Thanksgiving recipes of the traditional turkey. And while turkey is definitely the most important course of the dinner, additional puddings, salads, and desserts are essential to make the festive dinner table interesting and nutritious. Below you can find four easy Thanksgiving recipes to make your evening tasty and to treat your guests.

Erin Napier’s Skillet Cornbread

You might have seen “Home Town” star Erin Napier on HGTV. He serves this rich and buttery cornbread to get extra presentation points because it’s so easy to make. The total time for this amazing dish is only 40 minutes which includes around quarter of an hour for preparation and 25 minutes for cooking. Cornbread is one of the traditional Thanksgiving recipes all over the country. The recipe below is for 10 people.

Ingredients needed

• divided 6 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1.75 c. self-rising white cornmeal mix (spooned and leveled)
• 1 c. all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2.3 c. buttermilk
• 0.5 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

How to

1. Take 10 inch cast-iron skillet, put 2 tablespoons of butter and preheat the skillet in the oven at 450°F for 5 minutes.
2. At the same time, whisk together cornmeal mix, flour, and sugar. Then melt the remaining butter and whisk it with buttermilk and eggs in a separate bowl. Now stir all ingredients together to combine.
3. Very carefully pour batter in the pre-heated hot pan. Sprinkle everything with pepper.
4. Bake until the cornbread gets golden brown. Usually 20-25 minutes is the time. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Pecan Bread Pudding

Many chefs use pumpkin as a traditional base for their Thanksgiving recipes. You can cook a soup, a dessert, and a main course out of it. This recipe is one of the perfect Thanksgiving deserts to make your special dinner not only tasty, but flavored with history. It’s easy to make and can be a perfect base for the starter menu. If this bread is served to adults only, then pour some sweet bourbon sauce on this dessert for the ultimate fall treat. This pudding will be perfect for 8 people in a party.

Ingredients needed

Ingredients for this Thanksgiving recipe are divided into the main ones for the pudding itself and for the special Bourbon sauce.

Bread pudding

• Cooking spray
• 0.75 c. pure pumpkin puree
• 1 c. milk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbsp. unsalted melted butter
• 0.5 c. heavy cream
• 0.5 c. packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp. salt
• 0.25 tsp. ground ginger and 0,25 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 7 c. day-old brioche (cut it into 1-inch cubes)
• 0.5 c. roughly chopped pecan halves

Bourbon sauce

• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp. Bourbon
• 0.5 c. heavy cream

How to

1. Grease an 8-by-8-inch baking dish and preheat it in the oven at 350°F.
2. Pudding
   In a bowl whisk together pumpkin, eggs, cream, butter, milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, and nutmeg until smooth. Make the dough into a form of bread and fold in pecans. Leave it stand and breathe for 30 minutes. Then bake until set for 30-35 minutes.
3. Sauce
   While the pudding is baking, make the sauce. Take a medium saucepan and mix there 0.25 cup of water with sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook. DO NOT STIR until the mixture gets dark amber in color. It will take 12 to 15 minutes. Now remove from the heat and very slowly and carefully add the left cream and bourbon. Stir the sauce until it’s smooth and creamy.
4. Serve the pudding with sauce alongside.

Roasted Sweet-Potato Casserole with Praline Streusel

Potato is always served for special occasions in the US. Make your Thanksgiving recipe for this holiday unique and try something new. Keep in mind that this dish is better served when taken right out of the oven, yet will also taste amazingly if reheated before serving. The total time required for the potato casserole is about 2 hours and 16 minutes, which includes 20 minutes for preparation. You will get 8 portions with the ingredients below.

Ingredients needed

• 5 lb. sweet potatoes
• 3 eggs
• 10 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 c. chopped pecans
• 0.5 c. of orange juice and 1,5 tsp. of orange zest
• 0.5 c. granulated sugar
• 1 c. light-brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp. baking powder
• 2.5 tsp. vanilla extract
• salt

How to

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prick sweet-potatoes all over with a fork and roast them on a baking pan until they get soft. Usually you’ll need about an hour for that.
2. Once the potato is cooled, peel it and discard skins. Now mash until smooth in a large bowl. While mashing, add orange juice and zest. Then while stirring, add eggs, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla, and salt to your taste until combined. Once the mixture is homogeneous, transfer to a buttered 3-quart casserole dish.
3. Now either cover the casserole with something and refrigerate overnight or proceed to the following point.
4. Combine pecans, some salt, brown sugar, remaining butter, and vanilla and bring the mixture to a boil. Let it boil for two minutes and pour over the sweet potato mixture. Bake everything until it gets bubbly. It would take between 40 and 45 minutes.

Pumpkin Mousse

Thanksgiving Day is on the border line between fall and winter. While the weather might still be bearable, the streets might be covered in snow. So decorate your Thanksgiving table with one of the most beautiful and tasteful Thanksgiving recipes. Desserts made of pumpkin should always be present on your table, so here is an idea for you. To add some personal touch to this mousse you can use whipped cream and elegant chocolate curls at the top. The cooking process will take about 40 minutes of your time, but to complete this type of Thanksgiving recipes you’ll need to leave it in the fridge for at least 8 hours, and better overnight. With the ingredients above you’ll get 16 portions.

Ingredients needed

• 2 tbsp. dark rum
• 5 egg yolks
• 3.5 c. heavy cream
• 15 oz. canned pumpkin
• 1 c. sugar
• 0.25 tsp. salt
• 1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. powdered gelatin
• 0.25 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 3 oz. shaved dark chocolate

How to

1. First fill half of a large bowl with ice water and set aside.
2. Now whisk together the yolks, 0.75 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 0.75 cup of cream in a medium saucepan. Then put on the stove and stir carefully while heating; use a spoon over medium-low heat for stirring. In about 10 minutes the mixture will thicken and coat the spatula. Now pour everything to a medium bowl and set it all over the ice bath.
3. Add pumpkin, spices, vanilla, and salt to the egg mixture in another bowl. Stir 1 teaspoon of gelatin and 1 tablespoon rum together in a separate small bowl. The remaining rum should be heated and stirred in to the gelatin mixture until everything gets dissolved. After that very carefully and gently whisk it into the pumpkin mixture. Now pour everything into a shallow dish, cover it and let everything chill until cold and thick enough. The mixture must fall from a spoon in heavy dollops. This can be reached if it’s left in the fridge for about 8 hours or better overnight.
4. The remaining cream should be beaten up with sugar to stiff peaks. For more effective serving of the fish you can layer the mousse with the whipped cream in layers in a glass serving dish. Add final touches with some chocolate sprinkles. Serve chilled.

With these four Thanksgiving recipes your dinner will be intriguing and can obtain a unique taste. Your family will be happy and your friends will be jealous!