Amazon's Thanksgiving Deal: Let's Dig In

Okay y'all, did you miss me?

Well, I'm back! I’ve done some digging into our first Thanksgiving deal. I want to give you some tools to maximize the items included and stretch your dollars even further!

Amazon has a Thanksgiving deal that's time sensitive (only available from November 12-27), so let's dive into that!

Thanksgiving Meal Deal Breakdown

This deal can feed 5 people for just $25 and includes the following:

• One Butterball Frozen Turkey ($0.69/lb.)

• Reser's Brand of the following:

- Homestyle Stuffing

- Mashed Potatoes

- Gravy

- Green Bean Casserole

- Cranberry Orange Relish

• Amazon Grocery Crescent Rolls

• Holiday Pie (select national brands)

  
  

I think this deal is fantastic for small families, those with limited access to a fully functioning stove, or anyone who might find standing in the kitchen uncomfortable. Everything except the turkey is microwaveable, although I do see oven directions. Just a heads up: watch the sodium content of the Reser's brand items if that’s a health concern for you or a family member. Pre-prepared foods can sometimes have surprisingly high salt levels, which can be an issue around the holidays.

Customization Options

Reser's brand has several side dish options available at the same price point under this Thanksgiving deal. This means you can customize your holiday meal to make it your own! For instance, you can choose cornbread stuffing instead of traditional stuffing or mashed sweet potatoes instead of creamy mashed potatoes. Amazon is also advertising some less expensive instant stuffing mix options if Reser's brand doesn't appeal to you.

If you're unfamiliar with Cranberry Orange Relish, I highly recommend trying it; it's delicious! Jellied and whole berry canned cranberry sauce is available under the deal as well. Canned green beans are listed too if you prefer those over green bean casserole. And for desserts, I see Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, and THANK GOD, somebody added Sweet Potato Pie for $5.99 each!

The trick to making these Thanksgiving deals shine is to doctor the pre-made items to make them your own. I follow Julia Child's advice: when in doubt, add a little butter or wine! So, stay with me.

Elevating Your Stuffing

Stuffing can always use more sage, whether fresh or dried, before cooking. A splash of broth and a few pats of butter or margarine can add moisture. Baking the stuffing will give it a homemade-like crust on top with crispy edges. Food pantries in my area often give out apples (dice them up), dried cranberries, and walnuts or pecans, which would be great folded into either the cornbread or traditional stuffing.

Perfecting Your Potatoes

For the creamy regular mashed potatoes, add a boiled potato from your pantry to cover any artificial taste. A little butter (brown the butter if you wanna be fancy) and a splash of milk will loosen everything up to the right consistency. Want to be super fancy? Add thyme, rosemary, parsley, and/or sage (fresh or dried) to the melted or browned butter before it cools. Stir it around to let the herbs bloom and flavor the butter. If you used fresh herbs, pour the whole pan into the potatoes. If you used dried herbs, separate the bits from the butter, pour the butter onto the potatoes, and save the herbs for the turkey!

For the mashed sweet potatoes, add some melted or browned butter again. This time, shake a little ground cinnamon, nutmeg, or pie spice into the butter and stir. Pour that mixture into the sweet potatoes and maybe mash in a spare baked sweet potato.

Gravy That Packs a Punch

The Reser's brand gravy comes pre-made, so taste it before you doctor it. I suspect it will be a little salty. But I have a trick! WINE! Maybe a half cup or so...don’t drink it. There’s time for that later. A pinot grigio or chardonnay will do nicely. Something white and dry.

Add a little at a time and taste as you go. The flavor should round out and get a hint of lemony flavor from the wine. But you’re not done yet! Garlic is the final key! Add a teaspoon or two (or three if you really love garlic like I do) of minced garlic to the gravy before heating it up. Feel free to add fresh or dried herbs to the gravy as well. I recommend heating this gravy on the stove rather than in the microwave when using these tips. If you don’t have access to wine or don’t drink, no problem! Simmer chicken or veggie broth or even water on the stove with dried or fresh herbs and a splash of lemon juice for about 15-20 minutes to create a flavorful liquid to add to the gravy.

Green Bean Casserole Ideas

Now, this one stumped me, I have to be honest. Green bean casserole is basically green beans in cream of mushroom soup and milk. If you choose this option, leaning into the mushroom flavor would be really cool. If your pantry gives you canned mushrooms, drain them and sauté them in oil and garlic before tossing them into the casserole. If you can get fresh mushrooms, try roasting them after coating them in oil and garlic. A splash of wine on the cookie sheet will add fragrant steam for the mushrooms to cook in.

French fried onions can always add a nice touch, but sautéed onions could be just as good and a little more health-conscious. Use what you have! Sautéing the onions and mushrooms together in garlic and oil would be my choice. If you want a crunch on top, crush some almonds, walnuts, or pecans in a bag and sprinkle them over the top before popping the casserole in the oven.

Creative Uses for Cranberry Orange Relish

For me personally, the Cranberry Orange Relish seems like it would be best as an appetizer. I love cheese! It might be my favorite food group. You could use the crescent rolls and a muffin tin to make a delicious side dish with a soft or spreadable cheese. I would use goat cheese. Form the crescent rolls into little cups in the muffin tin, leaving a rim of dough. Fill each cup about 1/3 of the way with goat cheese, add a spoon of Cranberry Orange Relish, and then pinch the leftover dough together in each cup. Brush the tops with butter and bake for about 20 minutes.

Or you could bake the crescent rolls according to the directions and just enjoy the Cranberry Orange Relish as a normal side dish. Your call!

Pies: Keep It Simple

Y'all, please do not try to doctor these pies. Just heat them up and add whipped cream. Everything will be just fine.

The Turkey: Your Star Attraction

Oooooooh! My favorite part! Welcome to the Thunderdome!

Now look, a turkey seems super scary. It’s a huge piece of meat, and I’m sure everyone has a horror story about a dry, tasteless bird that took all night to swallow because it sat in the oven ALL. DAY. LONG.

But that will not be your bird this year! Your bird will be juicy, flavorful, and perfect for leftover sandwiches and soups. People will want to keep eating it until it’s gone!

And here's why: DRY BRINE.

Dry brining your turkey is the lowest maintenance way to flavor it. Now, I am bougie. I do a 7-day dry brine followed by a 48-hour wet brine before popping my turkey (sectioned by dark meat and light meat) into the oven. Most people don’t want to do all of that, and I completely understand. But in the interest of putting an edible turkey on your Thanksgiving table, a dry brine is best. You can dry brine a frozen turkey, and the brine will work as the turkey thaws in your fridge.

What Is a Dry Brine?

It's simple. A dry brine is just salt. In its most basic form, a brine is a salt solution. The cool thing about a dry brine is that the meat creates its own liquid for the brine through a scientific process called osmosis (My chemistry teacher father would be so proud!). Here’s how it works:

1. You put salt on the outer turkey skin and place it in the fridge.

2. The salt draws water out of the turkey, flavoring the water with salt on contact.

3. Once the salt has pulled a large amount of liquid out of the turkey, that salty solution is sucked back into the meat, flavoring it.

   
   

This brining process can be done in 12 hours, 48 hours, or, as I do, for a week. The longer the time period, the more chance you give the salt solution to be reabsorbed back into the turkey.

Note: Some turkeys come "pre-brined." I don’t think pre-brined turkeys undergo enough brining to be sufficient for cooking. If you have a "pre-brined" turkey, lower the salt level of your brine mixture to compensate for any process the turkey went through before you got it.

Brine Recipe

You can use all or some of the items I’m going to list based on what you have on hand. The only thing you need to brine a turkey is salt.

• Kosher salt (no additives; try Diamond Crystal brand in the red box)

• Brown sugar (dark or light doesn’t matter)

• Herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley)

• Garlic (powder or minced, either works)

• Citrus juice (lemon, orange, clementine, whatever you have on hand)

• Black pepper

  
  

Now, measurements require an eye, but I'm here to help. For a 10-15 lb. turkey, fill a small cereal bowl with salt. You can always add more, but you can't remove it. For brown sugar, use a little less than equal to the salt, maybe 3/4 of the bowl. For herbs, whether you use any or all, at least a tablespoon of each dried herb. For fresh herbs, use a 1/4 cup of each. Dried herbs have a stronger concentration of flavor than fresh. Garlic, to taste. I love garlic, so that would be 3-4 heaping tablespoons of minced or 1-2 tablespoons of powder. For citrus juice, mix lemon and orange if you have it, using about 1/2 cup of each, totaling 1 cup.

Mix your brine ingredients together and rub it all over your rinsed bird. It doesn’t matter if it’s still frozen; the turkey will thaw and brine at the same time. Just make sure you remove the giblets and reserve those in the freezer if you add them to gravy.

I use giant zipper-close food storage bags from the Dollar Store to keep my bird sanitary in the fridge. They haven’t failed me yet knock on wood. I don’t suggest leaving your turkey uncovered while brining due to contamination risk and bacteria. Just don’t risk it.

Now, I told y'all I roast my turkey in sections by dark meat or light meat. If you feel SUPER comfortable butchering your own meat, here is the roasting recipe I use every year for temperature guidance and more details into why roasting in parts is preferred.

Please do not attempt this if you don’t feel comfortable using some force with knives. It is NEVER that serious. I am NOT responsible for any finger, hand, or knuckle injuries that may happen. I have hurt myself learning how to butcher, so maybe practice with a chicken first and graduate to the Thanksgiving turkey. I believe in you, but I also want you to stay out of the ER if at all possible.

There is a safer alternative: this guideline for roasting your bird completely intact. No need to overcomplicate anything, and you’ll end up with perfectly cooked turkey.

Another note: Stuffing turkeys is not recommended—by me, along with tons of immunologists and food scientists. There’s a genuine concern about bacteria from the cooking turkey dripping into the stuffing, leading to potential cross-contamination. There are WAY better options for flavoring your stuffing than putting it inside a raw bird. Don’t worry; I’ll teach you. It’s coming!

Final Thoughts

I hope this was a good overview of how to use Amazon's Thanksgiving Meal Deals. If you use it with some of my tips, let me know! I wanna see your cool dinners! Check out my previous post to get an overview of this Thanksgiving in a SNAP series!