TAMPA, Fla — Casualties of a full Thanksgiving meal can include a hot kitchen, running out of utensils, overflowing trash bags and so many dishes.
There has to be a better way.
We wanted to find out if it’s possible to cook a full Thanksgiving meal without an oven or stove.
Maybe you’re stuck in your college dorm room and only have a small slow cooker and a microwave. Or, maybe you’re a young professional who’s always traveling and just doesn’t have time or space to make all the dishes from scratch and you’re really craving turkey and pumpkin pie.
The microwave and slow cooker are going to be your best friends in this endeavor. A slow cooker is, essentially, a miniature oven.
Here are some ideas for cooking Thanksgiving dinner without a kitchen.
Turkey: While you probably won’t find a slow cooker big enough to fit a 20-pound roaster, it’s certainly possible to bake your fowl without ever turning on the oven.
A recipe from The Little Kitchen recommends finding an 8-9 pound turkey (or whole turkey breast) and filling the slow cooker with vegetables and garlic before putting the turkey in. The best part: the cooker won’t need water because the turkey creates a broth while cooking.
Tip: If you really want crispy skin on your turkey, you’ll have to stick it under a broiler for a bit after the slow cooker. Or, if for some reason you have a cooking torch but not an oven, you can use that tool to get a crispy skin.
Potatoes: A slow cooker is probably the easiest, least messy way to make mashed potatoes. Sure, you still have to peel the spuds, but after that, the recipe is alarmingly easy.
The recipe: toss potatoes, butter, salt and pepper in a 6-quart slow cooker. Add a cup of water, then cook on high for about 4 hours or until the potatoes are tender.
Then, add sour cream and 1 ½ cups warm milk to the potatoes. Mash the potatoes with a masher until mostly smooth. Add whatever mix-ins and toppings you’d like. We recommend crumbled bacon and topped with chives.
Green beans and corn: Keep it simple and go with canned vegetables as a base. Heat them up in the microwave or slow cooker and jazz them up with mix-ins and toppings like fried onion pieces, garlic, onions, hot sauce or red pepper flakes and lots of butter.
Chef Michael Moench, Dean of Culinary Arts at Keiser University Sarasota, recommends making "cheesy corn goodness." The recipe calls for a can of creamed corn, a can of sweet corn, a cup of elbow macaroni, a cup of Velveeta cheese, chopped onions and butter.
Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker for about 45 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked. Moench recommends heating up the slow cooker ahead of time to speed up the process.
Stuffing: Follow the instructions on the box for preparing in the microwave, but spruce up the dish with onions, celery and poultry seasoning or diced apples and cranberries. Sub out some or all of the water in the instructions with chicken or vegetable stock for even more flavor.
Cranberry sauce: Pop open a can of that jiggly cranberry jelly you can buy for a dollar. It’s the American way.
Pumpkin pie: This no-bake pumpkin pudding pie is scary simple.
Blog Crazy for Crust has a recipe perfect for when you’ve run out of room in the oven or you’re just over cooking and baking for the day.
It combines pumpkin puree, vanilla instant pudding mix and milk with whipped topping and pumpkin pie spice for a light fall dessert.
The best part: It can be made in about 10 minutes.
