[Kroy]

My close friends and I are having a thanksgiving get-together. Anyone have suggestions on good pre-made complete thanksgiving feasts we can buy in SoCal? I don't mind heating it up but I want something that has all the fixings.

Right now my options so far are:

1. Marie Calendars or supermarket. But I want a better feast than that. And Marie Calendar sides don't impress me. Missing things like green bean casserole.

2. Order a turdunken online and buy sides from another source. Not really sure where to get the sides.

3. Non-traditional meal catered from Lucilles or something. I don't like this option though; want my turkey.

4. Fried turkey? I've heard people talk about it but haven't tried it. Not sure where to purchase a good one either.


TIA for the help.
NWS Payment below
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[CollinsE90]

Fried turkey is good if cooked correctly and not dry. You being in SoCal will be hard to find traditional food like ham, turkey, chicken to be catered. Well at least I think so, down in my parts southern restaurants will cook 100's of turkeys and sell them on Thanksgiving. All else fails buy a couple buckets of KFC and some mashed potatoes, and bake a turkey over night, shouldn't be too hard.

[infinitekidM2C]

Go check out whole foods...last time i was buying some beer they had this little booth selling turkeys and whatnot...

And don't try to fry a turkey Kroy..you'll kill yourself.

[CollinsE90]

Yea frying a turkey takes experience, baking is much easier and tastes good too. Buy a ham and make a ham, not hard to make those either. The sides would be more difficult, so out source to KFC for their sides if you need to.

[NYCGP]

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

Yea frying a turkey takes experience, baking is much easier and tastes good too. Buy a ham and make a ham, not hard to make those either. The sides would be more difficult, so out source to KFC for their sides if you need to.

THIS!!!!!

Make a fucking ham. SO delicious and so much easier than a turkey.

[Kroy]

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

Go check out whole foods...last time i was buying some beer they had this little booth selling turkeys and whatnot...

And don't try to fry a turkey Kroy..you'll kill yourself.

I'm not going to fry a turkey myself lol. I don't have the equipment for one. If I went that route, I'd just buy one that's hot and fried.

May look into whole foods. But none around me. Closest one is 30 miles away I think.

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

Yea frying a turkey takes experience, baking is much easier and tastes good too. Buy a ham and make a ham, not hard to make those either. The sides would be more difficult, so out source to KFC for their sides if you need to.

I'm really hoping for a nice turkey dinner. Not likely to go the KFC route; this is my first time really planning a thanksgiving feast so I want a really nice meal. If possible, I want to include all my favorite thanksgiving sides along with a turkey and/or ham. We have a budget of $100-200.

And for the record, if possible I don't want to actually make the food. I want to buy hot food or food that is pre-made and I need to heat up. I just don't want to spend 2 days to make everything from scratch.

[NYCGP]

Originally Posted by Kroy

I'm not going to fry a turkey myself lol. I don't have the equipment for one. If I went that route, I'd just buy one that's hot and fried.

May look into whole foods. But none around me. Closest one is 30 miles away I think.



I'm really hoping for a nice turkey dinner. Not likely to go the KFC route; this is my first time really planning a thanksgiving feast so I want a really nice meal. If possible, I want to include all my favorite thanksgiving sides along with a turkey and/or ham. We have a budget of $100-200.

And for the record, if possible I don't want to actually make the food. I want to buy hot food or food that is pre-made and I need to heat up. I just don't want to spend 2 days to make everything from scratch.

100-200 will not be enough to buy the whole meal for say 10 people... I just noticed you never said how many people you are feeding. I would really recommend making your own sides. The sides are the easiest part and they are always more delicious if you make them yourself. Boil some potatoes/sweet potatoes. You can saute or even bake/roast some string beans with a little olive oil and garlic. Just look up some recipes online and you will see how easy it will be.

If you want to do it... then do it the right way. Except for the turkey.. fuck that. I will never attempt to make a turkey again.

[Kroy]

Originally Posted by NYCGP

100-200 will not be enough to buy the whole meal for say 10 people... I just noticed you never said how many people you are feeding. I would really recommend making your own sides. The sides are the easiest part and they are always more delicious if you make them yourself. Boil some potatoes/sweet potatoes. You can saute or even bake/roast some string beans with a little olive oil and garlic. Just look up some recipes online and you will see how easy it will be.

If you want to do it... then do it the right way. Except for the turkey.. fuck that. I will never attempt to make a turkey again.

Feeding 5-8 I think. We're budgeting around $25/person. I'd love to make this all myself, but just thinking of all the mise en place makes me cringe. I'd want to do it the right way if I made it myself. Way too much prep and clean up. Especially if we end up doing it at my house. I don't want to deal with the aftermath.

I'll give making the sides myself some more thought...


Edit: Just found out we'll be doing this the Saturday after Thanksgiving too. Will this pose any problem for me on the catering side?

[O-cha]

Frying a turkey isn't that hard... I would even say it's easy and it's way quicker and more delicious then bakeing . Plus you get to fry all sorts of random stuff with the leftover oil, although it all tastes a bit like turkey.

steps to fry a turkey, put turkey in giant pot, fill with oil over top of turkey, take turkey out and heat oil, but turkey back in slowly.... Seriously, not that hard.

If you;re retarded and fill the pot up all the way then think it's not going to spill over when you put the turkey in, well you're just dumb.

[NYCGP]

Originally Posted by Kroy

Feeding 5-8 I think. We're budgeting around $25/person. I'd love to make this all myself, but just thinking of all the mise en place makes me cringe. I'd want to do it the right way if I made it myself. Way too much prep and clean up. Especially if we end up doing it at my house. I don't want to deal with the aftermath.

I'll give making the sides myself some more thought...

I made all the sides with my sister last year and we picked up a turkey that we ordered a week or two ahead of time. Since we only had 1 oven it worked out perfectly. Cooking the turkey takes up the entire oven for hours and hours. Can probably prep and cook the sides you want in under 2 1/2 hours from start to finish with clean up included. Believe me the recipes are so simple.

[NYCGP]

Originally Posted by O-cha

Frying a turkey isn't that hard... I would even say it's easy and it's way quicker and more delicious then boiling. Plus you get to fry all sorts of random stuff with the leftover oil, although it all tastes a bit like turkey.

steps to fry a turkey, put turkey in giant pot, fill with oil over top of turkey, take turkey out and heat oil, but turkey back in slowly.... Seriously, not that hard.

If you;re retarded and fill the pot up all the way then think it's not going to spill over when you put the turkey in, well you're just dumb.

And this is why I have always loved O-cha.. keeps things simple and to the point...

However, I have seen/heard enough turkey frying horror stories to be fearful of the results of frying turkey... Who the fuck has a pot that can fit a turkey!?!? Need a friggin cauldron.. hah

[O-cha]

Originally Posted by NYCGP

And this is why I have always loved O-cha.. keeps things simple and to the point...

However, I have seen/heard enough turkey frying horror stories to be fearful of the results of frying turkey... Who the fuck has a pot that can fit a turkey!?!? Need a friggin cauldron.. hah

It's a pot just for that purpose, usually even comes with its own propane burner. More importantly is where the fuck you find, and how much 5-10 gallons of peanut oil or w/e you use to fry it.

[MadDog]

Originally Posted by O-cha

Frying a turkey isn't that hard... I would even say it's easy and it's way quicker and more delicious then bakeing . Plus you get to fry all sorts of random stuff with the leftover oil, although it all tastes a bit like turkey.

steps to fry a turkey, put turkey in giant pot, fill with oil over top of turkey, take turkey out and heat oil, but turkey back in slowly.... Seriously, not that hard.

If you;re retarded and fill the pot up all the way then think it's not going to spill over when you put the turkey in, well you're just dumb.

No. No. No. Now your turkey is covered in oil, and will taste oily when fried. You never want to put a turkey in cold oil. You measure the amount of oil you need by using WATER, and making a mark where to fill the oil up to. Ensure you dry the turkey before putting it in the hot oil And it's recommended to turn off the burner when putting the turkey into the oil, just in case it overflows.


I've deep fried turkeys for the last 5 - 6 years, both at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[MadDog]

Originally Posted by O-cha

It's a pot just for that purpose, usually even comes with its own propane burner. More importantly is where the fuck you find, and how much 5-10 gallons of peanut oil or w/e you use to fry it.

More like 2 gallons. We only use 1 1/2 gallons for a 10 lb. bird.

EDIT: Sorry, make that 2 1/2 gallons for the 10 lb. bird.


This is close to the fryer I have:

[lopealle]

My wife's Mexican so we will be having Mole (turkey legs and wings) Its fuckin delicious we are pretty much having a Mexican Thanksgiving this year. Last year we did Jamaican food of course because I'm jamaican. Who knows we might mix it up this year.

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by MadDog

More like 2 gallons. We only use 1 1/2 gallons for a 10 lb. bird.


This is close to the fryer I have:

Do you deliver MadDog?

[MadDog]

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

Do you deliver MadDog?

If I was down in SoCal I definitely would. However, being in Norcal makes it a little too far to drive.


EDIT: There used to be people around this area that would deep-fry your turkey for you. They'd have 10 -20 setups in their garage, and you'd schedule a time for your turkey to be fried. Perhaps someone in LA is doing the same thing?

[Bobble]

The Marie Callendars meal is not that bad, my in-laws do that becasue their lames asses can't plan beyond a 4 hours window, Basic sides. Some BBQ restaurants also do Turkey dinners as do some Soul Food restaurants, not sure where in LA you are. The Supermarket ones are soso but you might try the higher end markets like Gelsons for a better quality meal.

As far as the green bean casserole goes, that's the easiest thing in the world to make if need be.

MadDog has the frying option down, done that a few times at the desert when out riding over the holidays, do as he described and no incidents but you do need a big ass fryer for a decent sized bird.

[matthewk]

This isn't hard. Serves 8 people

8 Rib standing roast, take out of the fridge for at least two hours to being to room temp, then salt, pepper, chopped rosemary, 375 deg oven, couple hours for mid-rare, when done let it rest for 20min. slice and serve with 1 part horseradish mixed into 2 parts mayo..

10 sweet potatoes, skinned, chopped, boiled for 20 min, drained, mash in a bowl with 1-2 sticks butter, 1 pint heavy cream, salt and pepper.

20 Thick asperagus, put in a deep dish, pour on some olive oil, salt and pepper, let stand for an hour until their room temp, grill them for 5 min flipping once.

Want a salad? Two containers pre-washed spinach one pound of bacon.. Dice all bacon, over med heat, cook all bacon until crispy, don't burn, remove bacon , leave fat in pan, turn heat way down, right before serving add salt, pepper, couple pinches of red chili flake (pizza peppers) and three teaspoons of dijon mustard, increase heat whisk rapidly until it's emulsified. toss fat, bacon, (perhaps a chopped hardboiled egg if you have it), in a bowl and poor the hot bacon fat mustard over it, keep tossing..

there you go. most difficult thing your going to do is the salad.

All in less than $200, serves 8

[Gregxi]

^^^^
1 part horseradish mixed into 2 parts mayo.
That sounds disgusting, but I hate Mayo
I use sour cream instead

[Kroy]

ended up getting my meal from whole foods. hope it turns out well!