Who needs gravy when you have hot sauce? Or, better yet, hot sauce IN gravy. Now, THAT’s a spicy Thanksgiving! Sorry to grandma and everyone at the kid’s table, because we’re spicing up Turkey Day this year. Take your spicy stuffing recipes, turkey, and other Thanksgiving fixings up a notch with these ideas and recipes with hot sauce.
1. Not Your Mama’s Gravy
If you’ve never put hot sauce in gravy, it’s guaranteed to become a Thanksgiving fave. Be sure to add it to your go-to gravy recipe or take that packet of gravy mix up a notch. Stuck on which hot sauce to use? Garlic sauce (think Garlic Reaper or Oh My Garlic™!) adds some creamy, garlic flavor, while Reaper sauce is for those of you who want an extra-spicy Thanksgiving.
2. Sweet-n-Spicy Turkey
Go big or go home with a spicy turkey!
- 1 Tablespoon each of onion powder and paprika
- 2 teaspoons each of dry mustard and ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoons cayenne
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 Tablespoons salt
- 1-2 Tablespoons hot sauce*
- 2 Tablespoons honey*
- 3 cups water
- 12 lb. whole turkey
What You’ll Do
- Mix the salt, spices, and brown sugar together. Reserve 2 Tbsp.
- Mix the honey, hot sauce, and 1 Tbsp. oil in a separate bowl. *Instead of honey and hot sauce, you can make a crazy-spicy Thanksgiving turkey with Honey Badger.
- After removing all the gunk from your turkey, pat dry and carefully space your spice mixture over and under the skin. Drizzle with oil and rub in the rest of your mixture. Tie its legs with kitchen twine and let stand room temp for 1 hour. Or, you can let this act as a dry brine and chill it in the fridge for 12-24 hours. (If you dry brine it, it must come back to room temperature after, before cooking. So, let it stand at room temp. again for about 1 hour.)
- Place rack in roasting pan and coat rack with cooking spray. Put your turkey on the rack, place it in a preheated (375°F) oven, and add the water to the pan. Bake for 1 hr. 15 min., then rotate pan and brush the turkey with half of the honey mixture.
- Bake for 30 minutes, remove it, brush with the rest of the honey, and let it stand for 30 minutes.
3. Spicy Stuffing
We’ve made it to your favorite part. The more spicy stuffing recipes for Thanksgiving, the better. Peep our Savory Garlic Stuffing, Mom’s Spicy Stuffing, or go all out with the recipe below. It can even be stuffed into your bird for a spicy Thanksgiving turkey.
Ingredients
- 12 cups dry bread cubes
- 3-4 celery ribs diced
- 2 small yellow onions diced
- ⅔ cup butter
- ¼ cup of medium hot sauce (Tingly Sauce, Sultry Sauce™ are good, but a super hot sauce here would be too much!)
- 2 ½ -3 cups chicken/veggie broth
- ½ teaspoon ground sage or 1 ½ teaspoons poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme or rosemary
- Salt & pepper to taste
What You’ll Do
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the celery, onion, and herbs. Turn the heat down and cook for 10 minutes.
- Combine the bread, hot sauce, and that delish celery mixture in a bowl.
- Pour the broth in one cup at a time. You may need more or less.
- Season with S & P, pour it in a baking dish, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10 more.
Spicy Thanksgiving Turkey & More of the Good Stuff
Pro tip: You can add hot sauce to ANY fixin’. BBQ sauces for the mac & cheese. Sauces featured on Hot Ones to go on that boring green bean casserole. Turn up the whole fam’s taste bud thermostat with Torchbearer Sauces!
Andy – the Marketing & Sales Manager | Sauce Wizard, full-time foodie, and lover of all things hot sauce. He’s got a serious thing for flavor and spice, which is why he’s been on his own personal mission to crown the best hot sauce EVER (though his indecisiveness really keeps getting in his way). Some of his current favorite Torchbearer Sauces include Son of Zombie, Garlic Reaper, and Mushroom Mayhem, but ask him next week and the answer might change. He also hopes to be on First We Feast’s Hot Ones one day, if Sean would finally just answer his emails…
