AAaaaaaahhh turkey dinner with all the trimmings!! Delicious yes, convenient for a weeknight dinner, not so much. UNTIL NOW! Allow me to show you with Individually Baked Turkey Dinners!
Individually Roasted Turkey Dinners
So we all know and love (well, most of us) those big celebratory turkey dinners with all the sides and trimmings. Yummy! But SO much work.
Too much work to put together for a weeknight dinner – especially when the kids need to go to soccer or dance class!
Guess what? These turkey dinners give you all the flavors of a big roasted turkey dinner, but without ALL THE WORK!
Well, you have to do a bit of work upfront, but the time-saving qualities alone make it soooo worth making these delicious and easy weeknight dinners.
They’re similar (in a way) to those typical ‘tv dinner’ frozen meals, but they are a MILLION times tastier! (not to mention SO MUCH CHEAPER THAN STORE BOUGHT!!). Plus, you don’t have to roast an entire turkey!!
Wait.. what?? YESSSS!!! I know right?
Making Individually Roasted Turkey Dinners:
What do I need to make these make-ahead meals? Well, somewhat sort of similar to your regular turkey dinner but with some shortcuts. Here’s what I used:
Ingredients:
- Ground Turkey
- Boxed Stuffing
- Celery and Onion
- Can of whole Cranberries
- Turkey Gravy packet
- Seasonings
Supplies:
I used these 5″ x 1.5″ foil containers. You can get them with lids, but I didn’t have that option when I was buying them, so I just used foil as my lids.
These make-ahead turkey dinners are perfect because they’re individually frozen. So let’s say you get home and the kids are going to a weekly activity that evening. You need to eat FAST, but nutritiously. No golden arches tonight!
You can grab a few of these frozen turkey dinners out of your freezer, pop them in the oven (or even toaster oven!) and heat them, eat and go!
Aaaaaaand, what if the kids whine and cry about having a super tasty turkey dinner?? (you know how kids can be! lol). Well, if you follow and make my recipe for Individually Baked Spaghetti Dinners, YOU can have the turkey dinner, and they can have the spaghetti and everyone’s happy as pie!
Mmmmm………………………… pie! (I think I need to make individual small hand pies too now!)
How Long Will It Take Me To Make These Freezer Meals?
That’s what’s beautiful about these meals. If you have everything you need prepped and ready for you to use, then I would say you can EASILY have these dinners put together and ready for the freezer within 30 minutes.
Let’s think about that for a moment – 8 make-ahead turkey dinners made in 30 minutes??? What a time-saver, right!?!?! A little bit of work upfront to save LOADS of time later on.
Ok, so yes, are you cooking a huge whole turkey? NO. Is ground turkey a great replacement? Yes, because we season the turkey so that it has those same flavors of a roasted turkey, and it’s just as nutritious as whole turkey meat.
Can I Make These Meals Using A Whole Turkey?
My goodness, yes! Now, if you have time to be roasting a whole turkey to make these meals, that’s fantastic, but I suggest an east shortcut.
If you wanted to use whole turkey meat, you could buy a turkey breast roast and use that meat to compile the turkey dinners. You could also purchase a few turkey legs and thighs from your butcher and roast those instead of the breast meat if you prefer dark turkey meat.
Also, you can consider making up some of these meals from the leftovers of a full-fledged turkey dinner you may have made! Incidentally, if after making these make ahead freezer meals you have leftover turkey meat, here are a few recipes to use it up!
Take the turkey bones and leftover meat and make this delicious bone broth to use for sipping or many other recipes!!
You could make this Basic Chicken Noodle Soup (but of course just use turkey)
Or this Crockpot Cream of Chicken and Rice Soup
You could serve these Buffalo Chicken Boats (using turkey) for lunches
For a super-duper easy, one-pan meal, you could make this Chicken (turkey) Ranch Potato Bake! (soooo delicious!!)
How about some Turkey Caesar Stuffed Sweet Potatoes from Simple Roots? Yum!!
What To Serve As A Side To These Roasted Turkey Dinners
Personally, I would add a nice salad and a green or yellow vegetable. So for instance, you could make a basic green salad, and add some niblet corn. (if you wanted to get really fancy, serve some corn on the cob!)
Today, I paired the individual freezer meal with peas. I used frozen peas because that’s what I had, but fresh peas would be an awesome choice. Or, some steamed asparagus would be amazing.
You could serve some mashed potatoes if you had the time to make them, but the stuffing included in the freezer meal really stands in for the starch for the potatoes as well.
But hey, if you like some spuds with your turkey, knock yourself out! You know how well potatoes and gravy are best friends!
Do I have To Use Canned Cranberry Sauce?
Listen, I don’t want you to use anything you don’t want to. So if you’d rather make some cranberry sauce from scratch, and then use it in the turkey dinners, perfect! Feel free to add or omit anything you might not want or like in the assembly of the dinners.
Also, if packet gravy is not your thing, you could also use some chicken or turkey bone broth, and thicken it making a rue when you are making the meals. Freeze the gravy in an ice cube tray and when you’re serving, you could easily heat a portion or two of gravy up as well.
Reheating These Individual Turkey Dinners
Super easy to do! Here are some methods:
Take them out of the freezer in the morning and let them thaw in the fridge. Or, if you’re pressed for time, you can reheat them from frozen, but you’ll have to allow extra time to do this.
THAWED:
Oven: Remove the foil, remove the plastic wrap, and replace the foil again. (If your foil containers came with plastic lids, remove the lid and cover with foil.) Place them in a preheated 350 oven for 20 – 25 minutes. You can remove the foil near the end for a little crispiness on the dressing if you wish.
**While the dinners are reheating, make your packet gravy to pour over the top of the dinner when it’s heated through.
Toaster Oven: Remove the foil, remove the plastic wrap, and replace the foil again. (If your foil containers came with plastic lids, remove the lid and cover with foil.) Place them in a preheated 350 toaster oven. Start checking the dinners around the 20-minute mark. Because it’s a smaller oven it may reheat them a bit faster.
**While the dinners are reheating, make your packet gravy to pour over the top of the dinner when it’s heated through.
Microwave: Remove the contents out of the foil containers and place them on a plate or in a bowl. Reheat them for 2 – 3 minutes.
**While the dinners are reheating, make your packet gravy to pour over the top of the dinner when it’s heated through.
FROZEN:
Oven: Remove the foil, remove the plastic wrap, and replace the foil again. (If your foil containers came with plastic lids, remove the lid and cover with foil.) Place them in a preheated 350 oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.
**While the meals are cooking through, in the last 15 minutes of cooking, begin to make your packet gravy according to the envelope instructions.
Toaster Oven: Remove the foil, remove the plastic wrap, and replace the foil again. (If your foil containers came with plastic lids, remove the lid and cover with foil.) Place them in a preheated 350 toaster oven and cook for 35 – 40 minutes. **While the meals are cooking through, in the last 10 minutes of cooking, begin to make your packet gravy according to the envelope instructions.
Microwave: Remove the contents of the dinner into a microwave safe plate or bowl. Reheat for 4 – 5 minutes. **While the meals are heating through, prepare your gravy according to the directions on the packet.
So you see, the turkey dinner can be a convenient option for a hearty, filling meal that usually takes hours to make.
I just know you won’t regret making these incredibly cute and handy make-ahead frozen turkey dinners!
When you make these individual freezer meals, I’d love to hear from you! Did you substitute anything? Did you put a twist on my recipe? I’m always looking to hear about different ways of ppl making things, so please reach out and let me know how it went!
And as always, thanks so much for stopping by The Salty Pot today, and I hope you have a really fantastic day!
MAKE AHEAD MEALS: Individually Roasted Turkey Dinners
These super delicious Individually Roasted Turkey Dinners are perfect for busy weeknights! They give the flavors of a traditional turkey dinner, but are really simple to make, save you time, and are much cheaper than buying those commercially prepared tv dinners!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey (see notes)
- 1 boxed stuffing
- 1 can whole cranberry sauce
- 2-3 ribs celery, sliced
- ½ large onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- as desired, salt and pepper
- butter for sauteing
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the ground turkey, garlic and onion powders, the poultry seasoning and salt and pepper.
- Place in a frying pan and fry the ground turkey, breaking it up and cooking till it's browned and thoroughly cooked. Remove into a bowl and set aside. (see notes).
- In the same frying pan, melt the butter and saute the onion and celery until soft and the onion is translucent. Add the box of stuffing and continue on to prepare it according to the directions on the back of the box. When the stuffing is made, set aside.
- Open the cranberry sauce and in a bowl, break it up with a spoon so it's not in one large clump.
- In your foil containers, (or any other freezer container you're using), divide the meat equally up into four containers (sometimes I have enough to split into five, but you can use your judgment here). (See notes)
- Add the cranberry sauce on top of the cooked turkey in the amounts you prefer.
- Top with the stuffing mixture. Having the cranberry sauce in between the layers helps the stuffing stay atop the entire dinner.
- Cover with plastic wrap and then foil (or a lid if your foil containers came with lids).
***FOR REHEATING INSTRUCTIONS, REFER TO THE BODY OF THE BLOG POST FOR BOTH THAWED AND FROZEN DIRECTIONS.
Notes
If you're using leftover turkey meat, or a turkey roast in place of ground turkey, simply skip the first step of the instructions and begin with making the stuffing.
The amounts used here are a basic guideline. If you would like more meat in your turkey dinners, feel free to increase the ground turkey to 1 ½ or 2lbs of ground turkey (or use more of the cooked turkey breast roast) in each.
***FOR REHEATING INSTRUCTIONS, REFER TO THE BODY OF THE BLOG POST FOR BOTH THAWED AND FROZEN DIRECTIONS.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 552Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 155mgSodium: 264mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 1gSugar: 23gProtein: 35g
**DON’T FORGET TO PIN THIS MAKE AHEAD INDIVIDUAL TURKEY DINNERS RECIPE TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD TO USE FOR LATER!! **
Jill says
Thanks for this recipe, sounds yummy! How do you reheat them when ready to use? In the oven? What temp? And for how long? Thanks!
Joanne says
Hi there Jill!! You’re so welcome for the recipe, and they ARE yummy! They’re so perfect for when you want that traditional turkey dinner flavor, but without the HUGE dinner effort.. lol! Ok, so thank you for reminding me to include that in the post. When I want to reheat them – I’ll do it one of two ways. I’ll take it out in the morning and let it thaw in the fridge (remove the foil). Or, you could also simply reheat them from frozen but of course, this will take more time. Thawed, – reheat them in a 350 oven for 20 – 25 minutes. From frozen, I’d double that time. Also, you don’t have to use an oven, you can use a toaster oven (which would be more convenient and less hassle than heating up the oven), or if you thaw them, you can transfer it to a plate and heat it in the microwave. However, the microwave might be the less desirable method, but it’s still an option. 🙂