Thanksgiving for Twenty: Two Turkeys, One Oven, a Real Timeline

Twenty people at Thanksgiving is a different animal from eight. The turkey math changes, the oven becomes the bottleneck, and the gravy cannot be a last-minute affair at the stove while everyone stands around holding plates. With four weeks to go, this is a good time to make the big decisions: how many birds, what goes in the oven and when, and who brings what. Here is how I run it.

Two smaller turkeys or one large one

The rule of thumb for a whole bird is 1 1/2 pounds per person, which covers dinner and a reasonable amount of leftovers. For twenty, that is 30 pounds of turkey.

You can buy a 28 to 30 pound bird. I would not. Here is the comparison.

Two birds win on almost every line. The one real drawback is oven space, so measure before you shop. Two 14-pound turkeys in roasting pans need about 26 inches of interior width side by side. If your oven is narrower, roast one on the middle rack and one on the lower rack, swap them halfway, and add 20 to 30 minutes to the total time because the air moves less freely.

A third option, if the oven is truly small: roast one whole bird and buy a separate bone-in turkey breast for the second oven, a neighbor's, or a covered grill held at 325°F (165°C). Breast meat is what most people take anyway.

Thawing

Thaw in the refrigerator, allowing one day for every 4 to 5 pounds. Two 14-pound birds bought frozen need to go into the refrigerator by the Saturday before Thanksgiving. They take up a lot of room, so clear a shelf early and put each bird in a rimmed pan to catch drips.

The oven timeline

Dinner at 4:00. Two 14-pound unstuffed turkeys, plus stuffing baked separately, plus rolls. Everything else stays off the oven (more on that below).

Two notes on that table. The turkeys come out before the official 165°F (74°C) because carryover heat during resting raises the internal temperature another 5 to 10 degrees. Check with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, not touching bone, and in the deepest part of the breast. Second, if a bird is running behind at 1:30, leave it in and push the stuffing to the hour before dinner. Stuffing is patient. The turkey is not negotiable.

I like to have the turkeys out a full two hours before dinner. It sounds early. It is the single best thing you can do for a calm afternoon, because the oven opens up for everything else and the birds rest properly.

Sides that stay off the oven

The oven belongs to the turkey from 10:30 to 2:00. Every side that can live on the stovetop or in a slow cooker should.

• Mashed potatoes: For twenty, 10 pounds of potatoes. Boil them the morning of, mash with butter and warm milk, and hold them in a large slow cooker on low with a few tablespoons of cream poured over the top. They hold beautifully for 3 to 4 hours. Stir once an hour.
• Squash or sweet potatoes: Roast and mash them the day before, then reheat in a second slow cooker on low for 2 to 3 hours, stirring now and then, until they reach 165°F (74°C).
• Green beans: 5 pounds, blanched the day before, chilled and bagged. On the day, sauté them in two big skillets with butter and shallots for 6 to 8 minutes.
• Cranberry sauce: Made up to a week ahead; served cold or at room temperature. Two 12-ounce bags of cranberries make plenty for twenty.
• Brussels sprouts: Shaved raw into a salad, or roasted the day before and served at room temperature with a maple walnut vinaigrette.
• Stuffing: The one side that needs the oven. Bake it in two 9-by-13 pans after the turkeys come out.

Keep the slow cookers on a counter near an outlet with space for a ladle on a plate beside each. Anything holding hot should stay at 140°F (60°C) or above. The notes on keeping party food safe cover holding temperatures and the 2-hour rule if you want the details.

Make-ahead gravy

Gravy for twenty is about 2 1/2 quarts (2 to 3 ounces per person, more if your family pours it on everything). Making it at the last minute means whisking a big pot at the stove while the turkey cools and the guests hover. Make the base days ahead with roasted wings, then stir in the pan drippings on the day.

From the recipe box

Make-ahead turkey gravy for a crowd

About 2 1/2 quarts

Prep

20 min

Cook

3 hr

Total

3 hr 20 min

Show amounts in

US cups & spoons metric

Stock

• 5 lb2.25 kg turkey wings or drumsticks
• 2 large2 large onions, quartered, skins on
• 33 carrots, cut in chunks
• 33 celery ribs, cut in chunks
• 4 quarts3.8 liters cold water
• 66 sprigs of thyme

Gravy

• 1 1/2 sticks170 g unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups190 g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup120 ml dry white wine or cider
• to tasteto taste salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Spread the wings, onions, carrots and celery in a roasting pan and roast 60 to 75 minutes, turning once, until the wings are deep brown.
2. Move everything to a large stockpot. Pour 2 cups of the water into the hot roasting pan and scrape up the browned bits, then add that to the pot with the rest of the water and the thyme.
3. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for 2 hours, skimming foam, until reduced to about 3 quarts.
4. Strain the stock, cool it quickly in a sink of ice water, and refrigerate overnight. Lift off the fat.
5. Melt the butter in a heavy pot over medium heat, whisk in the flour, and cook, stirring, for 6 to 8 minutes until the roux smells nutty and turns the color of peanut butter.
6. Whisk in the wine, then the warm stock a quart at a time, whisking out lumps between additions. Simmer 15 minutes until the gravy coats a spoon.
7. Season, cool, and refrigerate up to 4 days or freeze up to 3 months.
8. On the day, rewarm the gravy over low heat. Pour off the fat from the turkey roasting pans, deglaze them with a cup of hot gravy, and whisk the drippings back into the pot.

Notes from the kitchen

• Thin with stock if it thickens too much while holding; thicken by simmering a few minutes longer.
• Hold in a slow cooker on low with the lid on, whisking every 30 minutes.

Resting and carving

A 14-pound turkey needs at least 30 minutes of rest and is happier with 45 to 60. Tent it loosely with foil (tight foil steams the skin soft). It will stay hot enough to serve for well over an hour, especially once it is carved and covered with hot gravy.

Carve in the kitchen, not at the table. With two birds, put one carver on each. For each turkey:

1. Cut through the skin between the leg and the body, then pull the leg outward until the hip joint pops. Cut through the joint to remove the whole leg.
2. Separate drumstick from thigh at the knee joint. Slice the thigh meat off the bone.
3. Run the knife down one side of the breastbone and follow the ribs to lift off the whole breast half in one piece.
4. Lay the breast skin side up and slice it crosswise about 1/2 inch thick. Every slice gets skin this way.
5. Remove the wings at the shoulder joint.

Arrange dark meat on one end of a warm platter and white on the other, with drumsticks on top for the people who want to gnaw. A ladle of hot gravy over the sliced meat keeps it moist on the buffet. If you are serving buffet style, the buffet table layout guide will help you get twenty people through the line quickly.

Save the carcasses. They make the stock for next weekend's soup.

What to delegate

Twenty guests means at least a dozen willing hands. Use them. The trick is to assign things that are complete when they walk in the door and need nothing from your oven.

Be specific. "Bring a pie" gets you five pumpkin pies. "Bring an apple pie, and a second dessert of your choice" gets you variety. For anyone baking ahead, the notes on baking pies in quantity cover how many to plan and how to transport them.

Two other jobs are worth delegating: a dishwasher and a drink pourer. Ask a reliable guest to keep glasses filled for the first hour, and ask another to run the dishwasher after the main course. You will be standing by the turkeys with a knife, so you are not in a position to argue about either.

The day before

• Thaw check: both birds should be pliable at the thighs. If not, finish thawing in a cold-water bath in the sink, changing the water every 30 minutes.
• Peel potatoes and hold them in cold water in the refrigerator.
• Blanch the green beans; roast and mash the squash.
• Cube bread for stuffing and leave it out to dry.
• Set the buffet table, with serving dishes labeled by sticky note for what goes in each.
• Set out the roasting pans, the thermometer, and two carving boards with juice grooves.
• Check that the slow cookers work.

When you sit down at 4:00 with both birds carved and the gravy in a hot pitcher, the hardest part is behind you. The rest is passing the potatoes and finding room in the refrigerator for the second turkey's leftovers.