Amid a turkey shortage and rising food costs, we asked local chefs for Thanksgiving alternatives

This year, on American Thanksgiving, like the scores of Thanksgivings that have come before it, millions of Americans will gather. They will drink. They will eat. They will laugh, and they will fight, and they will form memories. Some of those memories will be good, and some will be bad. But for some of these households, it will feel as if memory has failed them because the spread will look slightly different.

The economy is in ill health: inflation has driven up the price of household grocery bills, and the turkey supply chain has been disrupted by an outbreak of avian flu. There aren’t enough turkeys to go around this year, and the ones that are available will cost more than a little extra. Consideration for sides themselves could force the holiday eater to economize — so planning the Thanksgiving dinner could require creativity and resourcefulness. To get an assist on reworking the Thanksgiving feast, we talked to some of the local folks whose life's work is built on being creative and resourceful: chefs. From fun turkey parts to pork to maximizing leftovers, here's what they said.

James Beard-nominated Chef Douglass Williams, of restaurants MIDA and Apizza, has feelings about turkey that are far stronger than its (allegedly, to some) bland taste. “The turkey is the lure in the water trying to get the fish, and the fish is whatever family you can muster up,” he says. But the lure can be anything — to hell with the Rockwellian ideal of turkey if no one is actually into it. Because, honestly? Roasting a whole bird might not be worth your effort or worry.

Williams suggests procuring a whole turkey breast, or leg quarters. It’s going to be cheaper, and it’s going to be more available. No one is asking for them, for one of two reasons: 1) you’re “supposed” to roast a whole turkey whether you like it or not, according to tradition, or 2) a butchered bird just doesn’t look as pretty on your Instagram grid. But operating in turkey parts is freeing, to great reward.
“Cooking the breast is fun — you would cook [the breast in] a very similar way, but in way less time, and it's way juicier,” Williams pointed out. “And turkey legs, you can literally do any [way,] you can put them on the grill, you could smoke them, you can roast them, you can confit them — you can do whatever you want and they're always available.” He isn’t an advocate of ditching turkey outright, but instead for “staying within the realm and finding options to be creative,” in order to suit your taste. Ground turkey? Make a lasagna. Tacos. Pierogies. Chili. Shepherd’s pie. “The ground meat is in every culture,” he says. “It is applicable to every continent, to every mountain region, to every location. Like, it doesn't matter where you want to go. And you can seize it with anything. The options are limitless.”

David L. Ryan Boston Globe via Getty Images

Remember that Thanksgiving is a holiday of tradition, and the turkey represents an idea and an activity. It’s the time of year that we break out a central thing to carve up and share. It doesn’t need to be turkey. It could be a crown roast, but not all of us have roast money. That’s where pork comes in.

“Pork shoulder is just a glorious thing,” says Trevor Smith of Newton’s Thistle and Leek, which he runs in partnership with his wife, Kate Smith. “It's got a good amount of fat, so it's going to be probably juicier than the average person's turkey, which is in and of itself extraordinary. You can prepare it in many different ways, whether it's just straight roasted in the oven or thrown on your backyard smoker. It's a very versatile piece of meat.”

It’s also cheap — pork lacks the prestige of beef and large birds like turkey, and when pork is picked, the shoulder is overlooked. “Most of the time people will go for the loin or the chop, these sort of easier, more familiar cuts," observed Kate. “I think the great thing about the pork shoulder, is it's still sort of underappreciated and it's not the first cut of meat that someone's going to go to. It's still fairly affordable compared to a lot of the other meat you can get.”

But how will this food work for you on Friday and Saturday, and into next week? Irene Li, co-founder of Mei Mei and a James Beard award-winning chef, has had her experience with commercial turkey, and heritage birds, and imported dry-cured hams. But while talking to her, the excitement was evident in the parts of our conversation about how to really stretch those leftovers.

“Imagine just taking $100 out of your wallet and throwing $40 of it in the trash,” says Li. “That's basically what we as a country do on a regular basis with our food waste. So in terms of Thanksgiving, I would recommend that people think of it not as just a kind of big one-day affair, but a whole week of getting to plan out what you eat and kind of meal prepping for the first meal and then thinking about what you want to eat the day after that and the day after that and the day after that.”

For example, Li’s family will take the remainder of the turkey and use it as the base for a congee. But you can also just use the carcass and make your own turkey stock. Fridge it, freeze it or use it as a base for soups to get you through the winter. The bones in the simmering stock can be cooked to oblivion — the more brittle they emerge, the more collagen and nutrients you can be assured were extracted.

Using leftovers is Li’s specialty. Dumplings, which she packs with the flavors of an earlier dinner, is a collaborative culinary affair. Not to mention the potato creativity, which she attributes to her sister. “All of the peels she tosses with olive oil and salt and parmesan cheese and those roasts in the oven along with whatever else we have cooking,” says Li. “And then we have a nice little sort of snack for the kitchen.”

The kitchen is your laboratory, and even more so on Thanksgiving this year. Despite the admonitions of your elders to not experiment on this venerated day, sometimes you have to.