Top Thanksgiving Day Cooking Hacks that you’ll want to use all year round! – Your Modern Family

With Thanksgiving just around the bend and Christmas season coming right behind it (with your Christmas shopping list already on your mind), it’s important to slow down & enjoy Thanksgiving.
After all, Thanksgiving is a great time to remember to be gracious & thankful (and teach our kids to do the same).
Today’s Thanksgiving Day Hacks will make your food prep so much easier and less-stressed.

First things first – here is a Printable Thanksgiving Day Planning Sheet. (Planning & being prepared is the best way to stay stress-free!)

I’m sharing these Thanksgiving hacks and Thanksgiving Cooking tips because I think the worst thing is that you can be a stressed-out hostess. If you are stressed, your company will not feel relaxed and welcome.

So… grab your planning sheet, set up a cute Thanksgiving Handprint Table Cloth for the kids to work on, get ready with your ingredients, and let’s get going on Thanksgiving!

A collage of a variety of Thanksgiving themed foods with text.

Thanksgiving Day Hacks

These Thanksgiving day hacks will help you to keep your cool, cut back on your cooking time, and save time. Now you can spend that time doing what you really want to be doing on the big day: hanging out with your family, eating pumpkin pie, apple cobbler, turkey breast, caramel apple slices, sweet potatoes & cranberry sauce!

1- Don’t have a roasting rack?
Use aluminum foil instead.

2- Do you want a juicier turkey?
No matter which part of the turkey is your favorite: the breast meat, the legs, the thigh… make it juicier with this tip! You can dry brine or wet brine your turkey, but when it comes to cooking… overcooking your turkey will dry it out.
This tip will prevent that! Cook your turkey in the slow cooker all night long to retain the juiciness. (Remember to add chicken broth or chicken stock to your shopping list.) Be sure to cover the bottom of your slow cooker with chicken broth or chicken stock to prevent burning.

3- Rinse your potatoes in your DISHWASHER…
Yes, really. Instead of scrubbing them, put them on your top rack and run a rinse cycle.

Do you want to cook them faster? Try cooking your mashed potatoes in the slow cooker!

A bowl of Mashed Potatoes with butter on top.

4- Cool your drink in 15 minutes:
Wrap a wet paper towel around your drink bottles and put them in the fridge.

5- Boil potatoes with the skin on for 15 minutes to make them easy to peel:
They will be easy to peel afterward. Just take them out of boiling water, let them cool for 10 minutes and peel them by rubbing them gently.

6- Soften Brown Sugar Quickly:
If you are trying to make a recipe that calls for brown sugar and the sugar is hard, place a moist paper towel in the brown sugar container. Microwave it for 30 seconds, and it will be soft.

7- Want Creamy Mashed Potatoes?
Add a small pinch of baking powder to your potatoes while you are mashing them to make them light and creamy. These make for a delicious side dish!

8- If you need cold butter, ‘cut into’ your recipe:
Try grating them (great tip from Listotic)

9- Keep Your Veggies Fresh while waiting for your company to arrive:
You’ve spent all of the time cleaning and chopping veggies. Keep them fresh by wrapping a paper towel around them to make them stay fresh longer.

10- Bacon Tips: Place cooked bacon on paper towels to soak up the excess grease. (Cook the bacon for a minute per slice)

.If you want bacon bits for your green bean casserole? Try putting a folded paper towel into a paper bag. Cook your bacon & once it is cooked, drop it into your paper bag. Shake the bag to remove the excess grease. Gently break apart the bacon by crumbling the bag, careful not to rip the bag.

11- Pie Crust: Use tongs to cramp pie crust edges, as suggested by LifeBuzz.

12- Create a homemade degreaser solution to clean your stove.
Did you get grease all over the stove surface? Fill a spray bottle 3/4 full with hot water, add juice from one lemon and fill the rest with vinegar. After the stove cools, spray the solution directly on greasy areas. Immediately, use a paper towel to wipe the melting grease off the stove surface.

13- Keep your food warm:
Use a COOLER to keep your food warm when it is cooked but not ready to serve (like a pie or rolls)

14- No more room in the fridge?
If you run out of room in your refrigerator for drinks, put them in another cooler filled with ice and leave it on the back porch.

A bowl of food on a table, with Cook and Corn on the cob

15- Make Corn on the Cob in a cooler!
Or use your cooler to make corn on the cob!
Pour two kettles of boiling water into a cooler over corn.
Shut the lid and cook it for 30 minutes.

Or… make corn on the cob on the grill!