Michael Symon's Heartland Thanksgiving Dinner

By Food & Wine
Updated April 25, 2017
Superstar chef Michael Symon's Thanksgiving menu draws from his Greek-Italian-Eastern European-Midwestern heritage.
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Shaved-Vegetable Salad

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Michael Symon begins Thanksgiving with this tangle of multicolored vegetables—radishes, golden beet and carrots—tossed with a lemon-dill dressing. Because they’re served raw, the vegetables should be sliced very thin, in a food processor or preferably on a mandoline. Symon recommends using a Greek feta for the salad’s cheese garnish, because he likes that Greek feta is saltier than some others.

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Cider-Glazed Turkey with Lager Gravy

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Lots of people brine their turkeys. Not Symon, who thinks brining makes the bird a little rubbery. He salts his bird well and refrigerates it overnight to season it. Before roasting, he covers the breast and legs with cheesecloth that's been soaked in a cider-infused butter. For his beer-spiked gravy, Symon recommends the German-style Dortmunder Gold, made by Great Lakes Brewing Company, from his home state of Ohio.

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Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

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Symon’s four-ingredient potatoes get plenty of flavor from browned butter and crème fraîche. Reserve a little browned butter to drizzle on the potatoes just before serving.

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Capers, Walnuts and Anchovies

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The key to Symon’s deeply savory side dish is a dressing that includes anchovies, capers, mustard and a little honey.

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Lemony Mushroom-and-Pine-Nut Stuffing Muffins

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A mix of sautéed wild mushrooms adds lots of texture to this stuffing; lemon juice and zest make it tangy. The mushroom stuffing can be made vegetarian-friendly simply by replacing the chicken stock with vegetable stock.

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Swiss Chard and Leek Gratin

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This gratin combines blanched chard and sautéed leeks, cooked until just tender in a creamy two-cheese sauce made with both Gruyére and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

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Apple Brown Betty

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Symon usually doesn’t make dessert for holidays. Still, his version of this classic is great after a big meal because it isn’t too sweet or too heavy. He layers brioche bread crumbs with sliced apples and a cinnamon-citrus sugar, baking everything together so it becomes wonderfully soft.

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