How much food do you need for Thanksgiving?
Plan on 1 to 1½ pounds of whole turkey per person, toward 1½ if you want leftovers. For 12, that’s a 12- to 18-pound turkey. For the sides, a rule of thumb is about half a cup of each per person when there are four or more, and a 9-inch pie cuts into 8 slices.
The Thanksgiving grocery list, by aisle
Meat
- 1 whole turkey, 15 to 18 lb: 1½ lb a person, with leftovers
- 1 lb breakfast sausage, if your stuffing has it
Produce
- 5 lb potatoes, Yukon Gold or russet
- 4 lb sweet potatoes
- 2 lb green beans
- 3 yellow onions
- 1 bunch celery
- 1 head garlic
- Fresh sage, thyme and rosemary, a small pack each
- 12 oz fresh cranberries
- 1 orange, for the cranberry sauce
- 6 to 8 baking apples and 1 lemon, for the apple pie
Dairy and eggs
- 1½ lb (6 sticks) unsalted butter
- 1 quart heavy cream, for the potatoes and the whipped cream
- 1 quart milk
- 1 dozen eggs
Bread
- 1 large loaf of sturdy bread, or a 12 to 14 oz bag of stuffing cubes
- 2 dozen dinner rolls
Pantry and baking
- 2 quarts low-sodium chicken or turkey broth
- 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin purée
- 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
- 3 pie crusts: two for the apple pie, one for the pumpkin
- Granulated sugar and brown sugar
- All-purpose flour, for the gravy and the pies
- Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup and 1 container (6 oz) crispy fried onions, for green bean casserole
- Maple syrup or mini marshmallows, for the sweet potatoes
- Salt and black pepper
Drinks and the rest
- Sparkling cider, and coffee for dessert
- A roasting pan with a rack, if you don’t have one
- An instant-read meat thermometer
- Heavy-duty foil, and containers for the leftovers
Cooking for 6 to 8? Buy a 10- to 12-pound turkey and halve the produce and the dairy.
When should you buy and thaw the turkey?
- A week or two before. A frozen turkey, the pantry and baking aisle, and the drinks.
- The Sunday before. Move a 16-pound frozen turkey to the fridge. Thawing in the fridge takes about a day for every 4 to 5 pounds, so count back from Thursday for yours.
- Tuesday or Wednesday. A fresh turkey, which is best bought 1 to 2 days before you cook it, then the produce, the dairy and the bread.
- Thursday. Roast it until a thermometer reads 165°F in the thickest part of the breast and the innermost part of the thigh and the wing.
The thawing and roasting times are the USDA’s. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, November 26.
Plan Thanksgiving in Foodoodle
Put the turkey and each side on Thursday’s dinner: a night can hold more than one dish. Set the servings to who’s coming, and the grocery list adds it all up, scaled, minus what’s already in the house. Two recipes that need butter make one line.
Every dish is checked against everyone’s allergies, and the dishes after dinner take turns. With a subscription, everyone votes on the sides from their own phone.
Connected Claude or ChatGPT? Paste this list and ask it to put everything on Foodoodle’s grocery list in one go. How to connect.
