Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26 this year, and the scroll has already started. A video of a glossy turkey, another of a mashed potato bar, a third of a pie crust cracking just right. Somewhere in that pile are the creators whose dishes the internet has already voted on.
Food Network has now put names and recipes to several of them. In a Thanksgiving roundup by Jessica Yonker of Food Network Kitchen, Emmanuel Duverneau’s dry-brined turkey, with a dark brown sugar and coriander rub and a maple-soy glaze, sits beside Jose Xiloj’s Crème Brûlée Sweet Potatoes, finished with a torched sugar crust. Duverneau’s most-watched video has more than 100 million views, Food Network reported.
A Turkey Built on Dry Brine
Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday of November, according to Wikipedia, which is why recipes like these start circulating weeks ahead. A host who wants to try one has time to practice, and a winter herb bed might even supply the thyme for the gravy.
Duverneau’s recipe is called “My Famous Thanksgiving Turkey.” Food Network said it starts with a dry brine of salt, dark brown sugar and coriander, then adds an herby compound butter under the skin. The bird is served with a maple-soy glaze, and the gravy comes from the drippings with soy sauce, porcini mushrooms, garlic, shallots and thyme.
Duverneau told Food Network that a turkey made once a year should be “a stunner.” A dry brine, as Wikipedia describes it, coats meat in coarse salt and rests for several hours, so the salt draws moisture to the surface, dissolves, and is reabsorbed.
The USDA’s food safety chart, published at FoodSafety.gov, lists 165 degrees F as the minimum safe internal temperature for whole poultry. The full recipes sit on Food Network’s site, and whichever way a bird is seasoned, a thermometer reading of 165 degrees F is the line the USDA draws. Nothing in the dry-brine method as described conflicts with that guidance.
Two Potato Dishes From Jose El Cook
A host who keeps the same holiday traditions every year may balk at a torched sugar crust, but a new side dish is an easy way to change the menu without touching the main event. Dinner tables run on stories as much as recipes, a point made in a list of the zodiac signs that tell the best family table stories.
Xiloj, who posts as @jose.elcook, appears twice in the roundup. His French Onion Mashed Potatoes are topped with caramelized onions in gravy and fresh chives, a dish Food Network quoted him calling “a perfectly accessible, upscale classic.”
His Crème Brûlée Sweet Potatoes pair a sweet potato base with vanilla bean paste and a torched sugar crust. He is firm about the topping. Xiloj told Food Network the sugar crust is “the entire point,” which rules out marshmallows and pecans in his version.
The dish borrows its crackle from crème brûlée, the French custard known for its burnt-sugar top, and applies it to a table staple. Casseroles, a category that includes many sweet potato dishes, need to reach 165 degrees F, according to the same FoodSafety.gov chart.
Honey-Garlic Ham and a Scratch Green Bean Casserole
Hosting a spread this size takes gear as well as recipes. Easy-to-use products that simplify everyday life at home cover the basics, and a host with a shedding dog may want to read up on getting the house guest-ready before the first guest arrives.
Gideon General, who posts as @gidsgids, contributed a Honey-Garlic Ham. The glaze uses pineapple juice, brown sugar, honey, soy sauce and black pepper, and Food Network said he first developed it for chicken tenders before adapting it for ham. He described the glaze as “sticky, buttery, sweet and salty, with loads of garlic and just enough heat.”
The USDA chart says a precooked ham can be reheated to 140 degrees F if it was packaged in a USDA-inspected plant, and to 165 degrees F otherwise. Fresh ham needs 145 degrees F and a three-minute rest.
Shereen Pavlides, who runs Cooking With Shereen and has written two cookbooks, brought Green Bean Casserole from Scratch, topped with crispy fried onions. Food Network quoted her telling cooks not to worry about the amount of salt on the green beans.
The casserole has a famous canned ancestor. According to Wikipedia, Dorcas Reilly created the original in 1955 in the home economics department at Campbell Soup Company, and it was first printed on soup cans as “Green Bean Bake.” Campbell’s estimated it was served at 20 million U.S. Thanksgiving dinners a year as of 2020.
A Houston Bakery’s Brown Butter Pecan Pie
Vanessa Louise Miller, who posts as @deliciousnessbakery and owns DeliciousNess Bakery in Houston, made Brown Butter Pecan Pie with Maple Whipped Cream. Food Network described her as a professional pastry chef and quoted her on the appeal of nostalgic recipes: she likes to elevate them without losing what made people love them.
The Rest of the Lineup
Food Network’s story describes seven creators in all. Nonna Gracie, Gracie Geramita, brought her Italian stuffing with soppressata and Pecorino Romano, and Tini Younger, a 2026 Food Network Hot List honoree, brought her mac and cheese with buffalo chicken. Food Network said it invited the creators to its kitchen to make their most-loved holiday dishes for a Friendsgiving menu.
Food Network’s TikTok account also shared video from the project, such as this clip on its page.
Taken together, the menu is a dry-brined bird, two upgraded potato sides, a glazed ham, a from-scratch casserole and a bakery pie, each from a creator Food Network credited by name.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Horacio Cambeiro – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons
