Thanksgiving: Better With Bacon

Chef David Tanis grew up in the Midwest, with rich corn bread stuffing for Thanksgiving. He tweaks his mother’s recipe by adding a smoky element. “She’d roll over if she saw the bacon,” he says. But it’s not critical to the stuffing, which also gets savory flavor from hearty kale, so you can leave it out.

This delicious gravy is an excellent make-ahead recipe since it doesn’t require drippings from a roast turkey or chicken. The rich flavor comes from bacon, white wine and thyme.

Make this acorn squash a meal. With sweet maple syrup and flavored with crisp bacon, it's hard to not eat the whole thing by yourself.

After rubbing this turkey with a bold and delicious mix of chile powder, cumin, sugar and herbs, Texas chef Tim Love blankets it with slices of salty, fatty pancetta, resulting in a supermoist and savory bird.

This easy roasted broccoli gets slathered in a tangy mustard sauce and paired with chunks of crispy bacon.

With a golden layer of puff pastry topped by caramelized onions, soft potatoes, bacon and tangy Reblochon cheese, this tart is lighter than the sum of its parts, making for a satisfying fall dish that’s great any time of day. The Reblochon, a washed-rind cheese from France, can be replaced with a robust Taleggio from northern Italy or the smooth French soft-ripened cow’s-milk cheese Saint-André.

A good loaf of cranberry-nut bread from a bakery has so much flavor that there's no need to trick it up with lots of ingredients. As the pudding bakes, the bread becomes almost custardlike, with a crispy brown top.

This chunky mashed-potato dish is packed with tangy mustard, fresh herbs and thick-cut bacon.

A light broth loaded with chunky Great Northern beans and topped with a sprinkling of bacon, this soup was inspired by the caldo gallego (a Spanish white-bean soup) that chef Jose Garces serves.

After tossing the ingredients and spreading them in a pan, Melissa Rubel Jacobson chills the stuffing for at least an hour before baking. This ensures that the bread soaks up the liquid—key to a stuffing that’s crisp on top and moist within.

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.

Adding Guinness, or any dark beer, to the brine gives the turkey a toasty flavor and helps give the skin a dark brown color.

Grated Gruyère cheese melts among ribbons of leafy Swiss chard and slices of Canadian bacon and potato. The dish bakes until the cheese on top is a crusty golden brown.