How do we BBQ Thanksgiving?

Can you make BBQ turkey legs? People can feel like they are eating a Medieval Royal feast!

@Judi :: Can you buy them separately? I don’t want to buy a whole turkey to get two legs. And, yes, I am this stupid.

I think the easiest way is to do Thanksgiving is to buy the premade meal that they offer for a reasonable price at most stores. You do have to pre-order it. As for the bbq part I would have a variety of sauces for dipping.

~ Tell you what- I will pick it up on my way to your house as soon as I get rid of my kids too. ;)

Barbecued turkey breast

They sell just turkey breast.

Or you could go for turkey burgers, with side dishes of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberries.

On second thought I think @PandoraBoxx has an awesome recipe there.

Were you only thinking Turkey or could we consider ribs?

@Dog :: The BBQ is part of the fun. My sister is usually in tears when the family gets together (mothers are around and judging). This is the first year since she got divorced. It is party time!!

@johnpowell ; I think you can, but you would have to ask your local butcher. They sell breasts separately don’t they? They have to do SOMETHING with all those legs!

@johnpowell, in that case, I suggest an all-out “Turkey Throw-down”—barbecued breast, wings and burgers.

Here’s the BBQ Turkey leg recipe
And there’s always Deep Pit Turkey if you know someone who cis set up for it.

@johnpowell Wow- I was in tears last year at Thanksgiving for the same reason! Last year the Thanksgiving I hosted for the whole family would have seriously made a great National Lampoon movie. It was off the charts for everything going wrong. As a little example the turkey was not done yet at 9:00pm and every time I brought it out of the oven to test it my mom leapt to my side glowering. I was so nervous I burned my forearm on the roasting pan and as a reflex my arm whipped up- whacking my mom in the face so hard she needed an icebag on her cheek the rest of the night… (Sometimes there is not enough wine to get through family events)

Costco has the marinaded BBQ ribs in a bag that are really good on the BBQ. (Easy and good)

Sweet potato casserole!

My Mother’s Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients: 2 large cans of yams (drained), 3 eggs, ¾ cup flour, tsp baking powder, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 can crushed pineapples, ½ stick of butter, ¾ cup brown sugar, cinnamon to taste (2 tsp), topping
Tools: casserole dish of some sort, masher or mixer of some sort

Preheat oven to 350 or 375 (whichever you have to cook other stuff at)
a. Mash the yams (or buy them that way).
b. Stir in the eggs, flour, baking powder, raisins, pecans, pineapples, sugar, and cinnamon.
c. Melt the butter and stir it in.
d. Grease the casserole dish and dump everything in.
e. Top with topping (¼ cup of butter, ½ cup sugar, ⅓ cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon mixed together until resembles coarse meal)
f. Stick in oven until done. You’ll know. Think about 40 minutes. Maybe up to an hour, maybe longer.

It stays warm/hot forever, is easy to make, totally delicious, incredibly forgiving as a recipe, and perfect for a BBQ since it stays mostly glumped together (you don’t have that problem of it making a mess as you eat it or try to serve it.)

I also recommend pumpkin bread pudding.

Buy (or make) some pumpkin bread. Cut it into 1 inch cubes. Mix together 2 eggs for every cup of milk and make enough for cover the bread in a baking dish. Usually 2 cups of milk/cream/whatever for a loaf of bread. Mix the milk and eggs with a bit of brown sugar (or not, depending on how much sweetness you like), some pumpkin pie spices, a tsp of vanilla, raisins if you want to go that route. Preheat the oven to 350*. Dump it all in a nice, oven-safe dish of some sort. Put it in the oven for about 45 minutes (until the bread is puffed and golden—45 minutes should do it). Serve hot!

For extra yummy bonus, make a quick rum sauce: half a stick of butter, half a cup of cream, half a cup of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of dark rum. Put everything but the rum in a pan on the stove and simmer until sugar dissolves, then take it off the heat and add the rum. Yum, yum, yum.

Bread pudding also more or less glumps together and stays hot forever in the dish which makes it easy to eat and a bit different from pumpkin pie. It takes about five seconds to put together.

You can also grill green beans. I happen to love grilled green beans. Screw the mushrooms—I was gonna suggest figuring out an easy mushroom soup dipping sauce thing, but eff that—they’re great just straight up grilled.

Stuffing is great because, again, it glumps together and makes for easy BBQ setting dining. I usually make the stuff from a box because I’m not a huge stuffing fan either way. That’s easy and low on dishes.

So, in my world, you’d grill the beans, make two casseroles, grill the meat, and maybe heat up some rolls and be done with it. Decently simple, I think, and totally delicious.

Edited to add: Yes, I know the sweet potato casserole looks a lot like a dessert. Yes, I realize it’s kind of similar to pumpkin pie filling. But we have always had it as part of the Thanksgiving and Christmas meal—my entire life. It’s totally tasty and really worth trying out. It usually converts skeptics. And one hundred percent counts as a vegetable. Not matter what anyone says.

There’s no need for thanksgiving to be married to turkey.
If you’re going with a bbq, I recommend cooking up some tri-tip.

So many times on Thanksgiving people try to cook new and elaborate dishes which is fine but the success rate is somewhat lower. We’ve all had the Thanksgiving dish that was just off and then the cook feels self conscious and it makes an awkward scene of people not wanting to say they didn’t like the food because they’re trying to be supportive but then everyone’s ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room.

I vote for doing something you know, and do the hell out of it. We’re it me in that position, I’d opt for surf and turf, twice baked potatoes, mixed green salad and maybe a guest could bring some appetizers.

Sounds like a fun thanksgiving at the Powell estate.

I’d do the meat and tell the friends to bring the sides.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic ; I think Tri-tip is a regional thing. I had never heard of it when I moved to California. It is easy though! And really yummy with salsa and beans!

@Judi Really? The rest of the country is missing out.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic ; Yes they are!!!

I like the turkey leg idea. At our local grocery store, you can buy packages of just turkey legs. If you call the store now, they may be able to make sure they have the quantity you need when you are shopping for supplies.

You can also roast corn on the cob as a side dish. Pull the husk down from the ears, remove that silky stuff, pull the husk back up, and soak in water for a couple of hours before grilling. You can season the corn or spread some butter on it before you replace the husk. Or, completely husk the corn, spread with butter, wrap in foil, and grill.

There’s also grilled garlic potatoes which can be prepped in advance, don’t make dirty pans, and are very, very tasty!

You can BBQ sweet potatos and white ones. Cut them in half, salt, pepper, butter, slice of onion for whites, wrap them up in a doule layer of tinfoil. These take about an hour on the cooler part.