Outsourcing Thanksgiving dinner

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Irvinecommuter

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Curious to see peoples' experience with outsourced Thanksgiving dinner.  May have a big family over this year and rather pay some money then having to spend all day preparing food.  Just off top of my head...some choices:

Pavilion's
Sprouts
Whole Foods
Albertson/Vons/Ralph's
Ranch 99
Sam Woo
Capital Seafood

Any other suggestions would be great.  Price/value discussion would also be appreciated.
 
These are the 2 places that would first come to mind from someone who is as American as it gets and looks for the traditional offerings on Thanksgiving (not sushi or anything.) I've used them both in the past.

Honeybaked full holiday menu (yes, they do more than just ham!):https://ca.honeybaked.com/ProductList.asp?c_id=20

Boston Market - they can also deliver and set up!:http://www.bostonmarket.com/ourFood?page=ovenToTable

Good luck!

Happy Thanksgiving, Talk Irvine.

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Tyler Durden said:
We have 15 people coming over... i'm going to fry the turkey.  it takes 3m / pound.
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Hey, sounds like you bought one of those (new?) electric turkey fryers. I've only just started seeing these this year! I don't know if they've been around longer. Did you get that new Butterball fryer? They look really cool. They cook so fast and don't have the hazard that the outdoor fryers have. Sounds awesome. Let me know how it turns out.
 
Not sure about here, but I remember the Chinese BBQ places in SF would sell a roasted turkey but with Chinese flavors.  Lines would wrap around the block during holidays.  Chinese five spice, light soy would be the predominant herbs.  Never tried Sam Woo, there roast duck is decent so hopefully this would carry over to a turkey.  Did see a carry out special from Ranch 99 on Culver, it has turkey, some sticky rice dish as condiment.  But not sure if I would get the BBQ there, never tried it as it never looked appetizing. 

Costco sells a herb roasted turkey that is already cooked, just need to heat up, also got all the sides you need as well. 
 
I'll be picking up my sides at Honey Baked this year.  I went in yesterday to sample the sides and I really enjoyed the: creamed spinash, mash potatoes/gravy and the scallop potatoes.  They are having the 3 sides for $18 special, each side is 1 quart. 

I got the apple wood smoked ham from Costco and the turkey will be coming from Capital Seafood  ;D. 

 
My wife and I aren't fans of turkey so we gave up on that tradition years ago.  We usually do a prime rib.  But I guess if you're set on a bird, all the suggestions above are good.  But I'd take Peking duck over turkey any day of the week.
 
OCgasman said:
My wife and I aren't fans of turkey so we gave up on that tradition years ago.  We usually do a prime rib.  But I guess if you're set on a bird, all the suggestions above are good.  But I'd take Peking duck over turkey any day of the week.
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Costco has a seasoned prime rib bone in that's pretty good.  Price is actually decent at $9.99/lb.  Forgot that we are doing that too!

I think we'll be having 40 people over at the new home this year  :o  Darn big asian famiries.
 
Tyler Durden said:
i have always used peanut oil, but might have to change it this year, since the wife invited some people with peanut allergies.
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WARNING: this is not viable medical advice, consult a physician knowledgeable of your condition.

You might want to find out how allergic because technically, refined peanut oil is safe for people with peanut allergies because the heating process used to make it destroys the protein that causes the allergies.  Not sure I'd want to roll the dice on that though.
http://www.foodallergy.org/allergens/peanut-allergy
 
Marie Callendar's and Boston Market offer full meals too.

I have not ordered from MC but have from BM and it starts at $9.29 per person.

That's an entree with 2 sides and cornbread. You can mix the numbers for variety, so for example instead of just getting 20 servings of Turkey, mashed and corn you can do something like:

15 Turkey
5 Ham
10 Mashed
10 Stuffing
10 Corn
10 Green beans

The serving portions are large and not everyone eats a full portion of everything so it works out with enough for everyone.
 
SoCal said:
OCgasman said:
We usually do a prime rib.  But I guess if you're set on a bird, all the suggestions above are good. 
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The link I posted to Honeybaked has prime rib, too (and Angus beef, and pork, etc.) https://ca.honeybaked.com/ProductList.asp?c_id=13
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The best place I've found for prime meat is from this place:

http://www.flannerybeef.com

Not cheap, but to me, well worth the premium.  Flannery delivers 2 day fresh.  Blows away anything I've ever had from any hi end butcher.  If you've never had a rib cap, omg, so tasty.
 
This year we're just having a small gathering so I'm skipping the whole bird and doing roasted turkey breast w/ sides. I'm making everything myself. I use my arsenal of slow cookers and a chafing dish (if needed) to pace myself on the sides and also to make sure everything can be served warm at the exact same time. I make desserts the day prior. This leaves me plenty of time the day of Thanksgiving to do whatever else.

Sometimes I like to do a Standing Rib Roast for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Everybody loves it. It really couldn't be any easier, any idiot can do it. It's a winner.

But, imo, nothing really beats a spiral cut Honeybaked Ham. I always ask for the butt portion.
 
I'm old fashion, I've outsourced to my kids Grandmother's house.

Wisecrack aside is anybody making a heritage bird?  You know one of those pasture raised $180 birds?

We've got a frozen cook in the bag bird from Target to make the on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We know there won't be turkey leftovers from Thursday.  We've be very happily please from the Target brand preseasoned cook in bag turkey as you go from freezer to oven and it comes out brown and moist and done in the 4-4.5 hours they say.  A little expensive at a ~$25 for ~12 pound bird, but hits the low hassle fool proof way to get a nice roast turkey on the weekend without all the prep needed for a regular turkey or refrigerator clutter. 

Afterwards, proper cutting and you can freeze the leftover, keep some for the week and make a turkey tortilla soup based of the Island Tortilla soup recipe.  Very yummy.

 
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