Learn how to roast two small turkeys instead of one large turkey. They’ll roast in less time, be easier to carve, plus you’ll have four of everything! This recipe tip is perfect for beginners who are preparing their first Thanksgiving meal.
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Table of Contents
- Planning for a Smaller Thanksgiving?
- Thanksgiving with the Instant Pot
- Thanksgiving Recipes
- Thanksgiving Bread Recipes
- Thanksgiving Dinner Dessert Recipes
- Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
- The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy
- Kitchen Academy Videos
- How to Roast 2 Thanksgiving Turkeys Recipe
- Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Planning for a Smaller Thanksgiving?
If you’re planning for a smaller gathering than usual for Thanksgiving, remember that you can always enjoy leftovers afterward. You can save the meat for soups and bones for bone broth.
Thanksgiving with the Instant Pot
If you have an Instant Pot, you can cook a turkey breast for your gathering, and I’ll show you how in my step-by-step recipe video. As a traditional foods cook, you’ll want to make sure your turkey breast has the bone in it so you can make turkey broth at the same time!
Thanksgiving Recipes
How to Make a Blender Pumpkin Cake
Delight your guests with dessert that’s in the holiday spirit but is something different from pumpkin pie.
Northern Italian Spinach Ricotta Pie Recipe
This spinach ricotta pie makes a tasty appetizer, side dish, or holiday entree for family and friends who follow a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.
Turkey Neck Pot-au-Feu Recipe
Surprise yourself and your family and friends with this easy and memorable French Pot-au-Feu recipe made with turkey necks.
Thanksgiving Bread Recipes
For bread selections, you can make yeast rolls or cornbread to accompany your Thanksgiving meal.
Thanksgiving Dinner Dessert Recipes
Be sure to make a delicious dessert to enjoy after your Thanksgiving Dinner. Here are some pumpkin pie recipes that are sure to be crowd pleasers!
Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
For an extensive list of the traditional foods you can make and purchase to stock your pantry, be sure to download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more!
And if you’re looking for a printed book full of my traditional foods recipes that shows you how to create a traditional foods kitchen, be sure to order your copy of my new book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook.
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The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
Seasonal ingredients, traditional techniques, and nourishing recipes. Over 85 traditional, from-scratch recipes! Discover for yourself how you can use simple ingredients and traditional techniques to cook the modern pioneer way.
Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy
Are you looking for more traditional foods videos? If so, I invite you to join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy. Members of this optional paid YouTube community get access to exclusive videos and other members-only perks. Plus, your YouTube comments include a special members-only badge.
Kitchen Academy Videos
Discussing the Secrets to Perfect Green Herbal Oils
Let’s talk about the popularity of flavored herbal oils.
Are You Salt Sensitive or Salt Resistant? Get the Latest Salt Intake Research
Learn how your body may react to salt intake differently from others.
What Is the Best Time to Eat Dinner?
Find out if eating dinner early or late is best for you. You might be surprised!
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- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy (Optional Paid) - For more detailed videos and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.
- Order The Modern Pioneer Cookbook (Optional Paid) - Get a printed book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This bestselling cookbook is published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!
How to Roast 2 Thanksgiving Turkeys
Ingredients
- 2 Turkeys, approx. 12 pounds each
- 1 Onion, quartered
- 2 stalks Celery, cut into thirds
- 2 Carrots, cut into thirds
- 1/2 cup Herbs de Provence
- 1/2 cup Coarse ground Celtic sea salt
- 1/2 cup Ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon Red pepper flakes
- 1 stick Butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Place onion, celery, and carrots onto baking pan or baking sheet.
- Unwrap turkeys and remove neck and giblets to save for making stock. Place the turkeys on top of vegetables.
- Mix the herbs, salt, and peppers together and add a small handful to the cavity of each turkey.
- Baste each turkey with butter using a pastry brush and sprinkle the remaining herb, salt pepper mixture over each turkey.
- Place turkeys on the lowest rack in the oven and roast for approximately 3 hours until a thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165°F.
- When the turkeys are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to rest, covered for 20-30 minutes. Then transfer them to a serving plater or cutting board and carve.
Video
Notes
Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Favorite Kitchen Supplies
- Favorite Aprons
- Spice Grinder
- Countertop Burner (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
- Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
- Vacuum Lids
- Whisk
- Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven
- 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
- Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)
- Flour Sack Towels
- pH Strips (Helps you check on the acidity of your vinegar)
Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide
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Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Farmhouse Teas, Lehman's, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, and More!
Hi Mary, I just found your fantastic Thanksgiving videos and will be trying your mashed potatoes, turkey bone broth and turkey spice seasoning & dressing. Since I will have the spices ground up for the dressing, why not use it to season the turkey? Do you prefer the Herb de Provance seasoning to the turkey spice seasoning for roasting the turkey?
Hi Shirley, Thank you so much for your sweet comment!! Your plans for your Thanksgiving dinner sound wonderful. It’s OK to use the Bell’s poultry seasoning in the cavity of the turkey but not for the skin. It tends to turn things green from the sage. However, I prefer the Herbs de Provence in the cavity and on the skin. It makes it look like a fancy rotisserie chicken from a French bistro (well, in this case a turkey!) The only thing you need to watch is that if you put the herbs on the skin that they don’t burn. Sometimes, I have to tent my turkey. Thanks again for visiting here and leaving a comment!
BTW – Do you enjoy making traditional foods? If so, I have a playlist of some of my videos titled “Mastering the Basics of Traditional Nutrient Dense Foods Cooking”. It’s a series of 15 detailed videos that covers How to Make Bone Broth, Cultured Dairy, Ferments, Sourdough Starter (my foolproof stater), Sourdough Bread, Soaked and Sprouted Nuts and Beans, and How to Soak and Sprout Grains to Make your own Sprouted Flour at Home. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U3b4eu0QraZReKlGzA11h3y And please share the playlist with any other folks you think might be interested in learning about these types of things. I’m passionate about the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (of the Weston A Price Foundation) and want to help as many people as I can learn how to make Traditional “Nutrient Dense” Foods.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’m so happy to help! And I’m SO glad you visited here and left a comment!! Love, Mary
PS – Are you in our FB group? It’s called Mary’s Nest Modern Pioneers. Come join us! We have a lot of fun chatting about Traditional “Nutrient Dense Foods and it’s a great place to get questions answered.