In this article: Discover 7 simple shortcuts for a Christmas turkey dinner that cut down on time and stress! They make the simplest turkey dinner ever possible!
I love a traditional Christmas turkey dinner. It’s part of the fun of the holiday season for me.
Cooking it, however, is NOT!
Early in our marriage, I struggled to figure out the mysterious secrets of preparing the “perfect” turkey dinner.
I asked questions, gathered recipes, baked ahead, plotted, planned, and strategized.
I’ve cooked turkey dinner for our family of 5, small groups of 25, and one notorious group of 100 (never again…).
Even with all that experience, turkey dinner is still one of the most challenging meals to get on the table (with all the food hot at the same time!!).
So, just for fun, the other day I decided to experiment and try my hand at making the most simple turkey dinner of all for 4 people, using every shortcut I could think of. Here they are, along with (my opinion of) how well each one worked:
Christmas Dinner Shortcuts
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #1 – Simplify the menu and purchase groceries accordingly.
Rather than trying to out-do every Christmas turkey dinner menu I’d ever heard of, I jotted down a simple one. My husband and I are trying to eat healthy on a consistent basis, and we don’t want all our healthy habits to fly out the window by “pigging out” on a huge Christmas dinner!;)
Here was the menu:
- Turkey
- Stuffing
- Cranberries
- Mashed Potatoes
- Gravy
- Veggies
- Spinach Salad with dried cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette dressing
- Pumpkin Pie
- Buns (I opted out of these since, you know, #calories)
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #2 ~ Start with a boneless turkey breast
Hold onto your horses, people! This is an absolute game changer…
There was no thawing for 3 days in the fridge, no digging out bags of gizzards (and other unidentifiable yuck), no wrestling a sad bird in and out of the pan, no basting, and no carving meat off the bone.
This little guy was baked from frozen to done in less than 3 hours! Once it was cooked, it was as easy as pie to lift out of the pan and slice quickly with an electric knife.
My opinion? I’m a TOTAL FAN! I loved its simplicity, and it tasted delicious. (It is a little pricey, though.)
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #3 ~ Choose a pre-stuffed turkey breast
I went to the store planning to buy stovetop stuffing for our super simple turkey dinner. But I was unaware that some turkey breasts come pre-stuffed! (What??!!)
So once I laid eyes on them, I decided a 2 for 1 deal would work even better for me. Stuffing with absolutely no extra work at all ~ does it get any better than that?
My opinion? I’m in! It was absolutely delicious. (But bacon wrapped stuffing bites are still highly recommended!)
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #4 ~ Reach for canned cranberry sauce
Just like the frozen and stuffed turkey breast, I had never in my life bought canned cranberry sauce. I’ve always used the old-school “start with fresh cranberries” method. (And started a few oven fires with them, too…)
This time, I spooned the cranberries into a pretty white bowl, microwaved them for about 45 seconds, stirred, and microwaved them some more. Honestly, it was absolutely delicious ~ no cooking down on the stovetop or putting out oven fires involved.
My opinion? I’m questioning why I thought I needed to make “homemade” cranberry sauce. These were just as delicious!
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #4 ~ Rethink the buns
Okay, I’ll admit it. These fresh, homemade bread machine buns are so good with turkey dinner. I usually bake them ahead, freeze them, and pull them out on Thanksgiving or Christmas morning. A quick warm-up in the microwave right before dinner makes them taste fresh. I love how they melt in your mouth and soak up the gravy…
But since we’re trying to be more mindful of our bread intake, having dozens of melt-in-your-mouth buns in the house is just not a good idea!;)
I was going to reach for a lovely bag of bakery dinner buns ~ which I think would be a great option ~ but this time I chose to have no buns at all. Our Irish friends always laughed at us for having buns and stuffing with turkey dinner. They just couldn’t understand why one meal needed so many bread products! (But their bacon wrapped stuffing was an event in itself…)
My opinion? Do what you need to do in the bun department….
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #5 ~ Forget the peeling, chopping and dicing, and choose frozen veggies instead
One of my favorite Christmas dinner side dishes is a baked carrot casserole. It’s absolutely delicious ~ but it definitely takes some prep time!
So instead, we stood in the frozen veggies section and had a terrible time choosing which kind to get. There were so many options. The final pick of corn with jalapenos was made by my husband.
My opinion? The veggies were a bit uneventful… They were tasty, but nothing special.
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #6 ~ Let the bakery make your dessert
I don’t know that I could get away with skipping our family tradition of steamed pudding at Christmas dinner, but this time I chose pie.
When I went to pick it up from the bakery section, I discovered it was only $2.98! Goodness… I don’t know if I could make one from scratch for that price!
My opinion? It was delicious served slightly warmed with just a small scoop of salted caramel frozen yogurt.
Christmas Dinner Shortcut #7 ~ Buy gravy mix
The one downside of the handy dandy frozen turkey breast was that there were NO drippings, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I’ve used gravy mix before, but only stirred it into a batch of homemade gravy made from drippings. This was my first time mixing up gravy with just the mix. It was simple, but…
My opinion? Ugh. I did NOT like the gravy! It tasted to me like truck stop gravy… After talking with a few friends, I realized I made a rookie packaged gravy mistake. Apparently, brands make a really big difference in the gravy department. I’ve just ordered some Epicure gravy mix, which is supposed to be the big deal…
Final Thoughts & Conclusions
Overall, I think the super simple Christmas dinner for 4 experiment went very well. It took substantially less work and time than a traditional turkey dinner. I admit it lacked some of the flair of a real cooked turkey, but I loved that putting this dinner together was really not much more work than a normal weeknight meal.
Another thing to note is that there were not many leftovers. I usually love to make casseroles for leftovers and pull them out of the freezer later in the month, but the four of us (our young adult sons gladly took part in this experiment!) finished off nearly the whole meal.
The lit Christmas tree and Christmas music playing made it a fun little memory, and I would definitely try this idea again. Fun, delicious, and no-stress (or fires!) involved. tee hee.;)
More Ideas to make a Christmas Turkey Dinner Festive & Fun:
- Turn your turkey dinner into a little Christmas party – with folded napkin trees at each place setting!
- Set the table with wood block place cards and folded pocket napkins.
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