Houston chefs offer recipes for the bird, sides and dessert.
If ever we need the pleasures of a traditional roast turkey with familiar trimmings, it’s now. Thanksgiving dinner — for many, the most important meal of the year — might for a few precious minutes help restore a sense of normalcy to our pandemic- colored lives. But make no mistake, COVID-19’s relentless march will alter this year’s turkey day in many ways. The dinner will probably include only immediate family; it might even be set outside. The turkey might be smaller; for some, perhaps, just roasted breasts. And the celebration itself, whatever form it takes, will look and feel different in our socially distanced life.
But it will still taste the same. It has to.
Home cooks are committed to a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year. According to turkey giant Butterball, nearly 90 percent of consumers say they will set out a Thanksgiving dinner spread, even if celebrations look different. More than 75 percent, according to the annual Butterball survey, said they are looking for an easier, simpler Thanksgiving
We couldn’t agree more.
We reached out to some of Think of the recipes as our favorite Houston chefs Thanksgiving 101 — a holiday for recipes that underscore reset. how we’re cooking during In a year when the home the pandemic: uncomplicatcook has been challenged ed, comforting meals that like never before, 2020’s don’t sacrifice on flavor. turkey dinner will resonate These recipes are straightin profound ways. It will forward enough that even a nourish. It will encourage. novice can get Thanksgiving And it will hold the hopeful dinner on the table. For promise that next year’s more seasoned home cooks, dinner will give us somethe recipes also provide a thing to truly be thankful for. degree of flair and a recogni. tion of Texas foodways.