Intimate Thanksgiving

By Food & Wine
Updated May 18, 2017
From Spanish-inspired turkey breast to corn pudding, these recipes are perfect for an intimate Thanksgiving meal for four.
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Roast Chicken with Butternut Squash

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Chicken quarters roasted with golden squash and sage are nice for a chilly autumn evening. To help the squash to brown evenly, be sure to spoon off the fat from the roasting pan after removing the breasts. This is a case where less is more: A thin layer of fat will brown the vegetable better than a quarter-inch of it.

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Cellared-Vegetable Salad

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Art Smith uses a mix of roasted root vegetables, such as the beets, turnips, parsnips and celery root here, to make a delicious salad in colder months. His vinaigrette, made with fresh orange juice, shallot and white balsamic vinegar, is equally wintry.

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Glazed Cornish Hens with Garlicky Radicchio

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The ginger preserves in the glaze makes these hens particularly piquant, but any citrus preserves will do.

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Red Kuri Squash Soup

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Red-orange kuri squash has a pumpkin shape, but no ridges. Its flavor is sweet and nutty, reminiscent of chestnuts.

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Pimentón-Roasted Whole Turkey Breast with Chorizo

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A faster and incredibly moist Thanksgiving alternative, this Spanish-inspired turkey breast with chorizo and pimenton is full of smoky heat and flavor.

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Turkey Shepherd's Pie with Two-Potato Topping

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This recipe, from Jimmy Bradley of the Red Cat in New York City, makes a large pie, but you can also prepare the dish in individual 1 1/2-cup ramekins. Check them for doneness after 20 minutes.

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Corn Pudding

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Like a soufflé but less temperamental, this pudding can be served either straight from the oven or at room temperature. Don’t worry if you can’t find fresh corn; frozen kernels work just fine.

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Baked Apples With Oyster Mushrooms

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Confit of Guinea Hen Legs with Prunes and Honey

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Pairing Suggestion: Pouilly-Fuissé from Burgundy’s Mâconnais region is often full-bodied but has great, tangy vibrancy, nice with the heavy flavors here.

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Fennel-and-Citrus Salad with Mint

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For his light, simple salad, chef Matthew Accarrino mixes grapefruit and orange segments with shaved fennel and a sweet-tart honey-lemon dressing.

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Roasted Carrot and Cumin Puree

Credit: PHOTO © HANNAH QUEEN
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Roasting carrots until they are golden brown brings out their sweetness and provides a perfect foil for tart lemon juice and musky cumin. Our silken puree is a particularly good side dish for lamb and also for roasted chicken.

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Mixed Grains with Green Beans and Crispy Bacon

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The great shortcut here is the packaged rice-and-grain blend. Instead of cooking them separately, all the grains cook in one pot in the same amount of time.

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Potato Puree

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Crispy Baked Kale with Gruyère Cheese

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Chef Sam Hayward usually tops these lush onion-sweetened greens with an excellent aged raw-milk cheese from Vermont called Tarentaise. He says Gruyère or any other Alpine-style cheese is a great substitute.

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Crispy Duck Legs with Toasted Hazelnut and Garlic Sauce

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Marcia Kiesel roasts duck legs simply with salt and pepper until the skin is crisp, then makes a sauce by thickening the meaty cooking juices with hazelnuts, toasted bread and garlic.

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Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Thyme

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Chef Nuno Mendes separates brussels sprout leaves by hand before sautèing them, an extremely time-consuming task. Thinly slicing the sprouts vertically—by hand or with a food processor fitted with a slicing blade—gets similar results in a fraction of the time.

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Oven-Roasted Cauliflower Florets

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When roasted with a little olive oil, cauliflower florets turn lusciously sweet, crisp and caramel-brown. A squeeze of lemon brightens their flavor.

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Baked Custard with Allspice

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Classic and homey baked custard benefits from a dusting of allspice instead of the usual nutmeg. Custards don’t get much quicker to prepare than this one.

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Cranberry Apple Raisin Crisp

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We like to serve this homey dessert warm with vanilla ice cream. If you prefer it straight, reduce the amount of ground cloves to one-eighth teaspoon, or the flavor may be overwhelming. Be sure your baking dish is at least two inches deep so the sweet juices don’t bubble over the edge and burn onto your oven floor. If the crisp comes to the top of the dish, put a baking sheet under it.

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Fallen Toasted-Almond Soufflés with Poached Pears and Prunes

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These soufflés collapse gracefully in their molds, so there’s no need to rush them to the table; they are more like a light cake than a fragile whipped-egg-white confection.

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