Your Thanksgiving Dinner Can Be Made by an Award-Winning Chef This Year

If you are facing down Thanksgiving with dread in your heart, unsure of how to cook the meal and get it all on the table for your family, take a deep breath. Because this year? You have an assistant in the kitchen, and he just happens to be a James Beard Award-winning chef.

Chef Edouardo Jordan, whose restaurants in Seattle have garnered him international acclaim, is partnering with Blue Apron meal kit delivery service to offer make-at-home Thanksgiving dinners that have all the bells and whistles. Bringing his Southern flair to the recipes, Jordan created a version of the menu he cooks at home for his family, and the love and soul are in every bite.

"This menu is a reflection of my roots, my stories and my history," Jordan says. "Inspired by my Southern roots and the cuisine of the African diaspora, I created these simple recipes, in collaboration with Blue Apron's culinary team, to encourage home cooks to have fun in the kitchen and celebrate over a great meal."

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Whether you are cooking for just two of you, or a small gathering of six to eight, everything you need arrives fresh and pre-portioned in the cooler, with really easy step-by-step recipes. It is a menu the whole family will love, and even better, the whole family can participate in creating it together! The recipes are kid friendly and laid out simply with timings that get the whole meal on the table with ease.

I had a chance to test-drive the kit and was really impressed by the quality of ingredients and the ease of the recipes. Every one of them was maximum flavor for minimal effort. I loved that the ingredients were so thoughtfully pre-portioned, so that you don’t need to invest in a whole bottle of an expensive pantry item when you only need a tablespoon.

Here's the Thanksgiving Meal Prep Feast, which costs $134.99 and feeds 6-8 people:

• Spiced Roasted Turkey Breast
• Pimento Cheese-Style Mashed Potatoes
• Sage Gravy & Cranberry Relish
• Roasted Carrots in Ginger Syrup
• Mushroom Braised Collard Greens
• Cheesy Cornbread
• Peanut-Glazed Apple & Persimmon Crumble with Maple Syrup and Quatre Epice

Blue Apron is also offering a two-person (2P) core menu Thanksgiving for $69.99:

• Spiced Pork Roast
• Pimento Cheese Style Mashed Potatoes
• Gravy, Cranberry Relish
• Roasted Carrots in Ginger Syrup & Mushroom Braised Collard Greens ($6 upcharge on the core menu, or 25.98 total price)
• Peanut-Glazed Apple & Persimmon Crumble with Maple Syrup and Quatre Epices (no upcharge)

These flavorsome twists on classics seem ideal for right now, when everyone is reimagining what the holiday is, and a terrific way to embrace the ability to just cook a version of the holiday meal that is special for your household. I loved the amped up take on a mashed potato (the cheese and pimentos added terrific punch), and the gingered carrots were a surprising and fresh swap in for the traditional sweet potatoes. I have to say I loved that they were so much lighter than sweet potatoes and look forward to making them again on the holiday. The whole meal was so clearly thoughtfully designed to work in harmony; everything just blended beautifully on the plate. And even the two-person version was generous and had plenty of leftovers.

I got a chance to chat with Chef Jordan about his partnership with Blue Apron, which extends to three more menus over the weeks following the holiday. After all, he could have just sold versions of the meal for delivery himself instead of creating the recipe kit. His answer was simple.

“I partnered with Blue Apron because I have been intrigued by them for a long time,” he says. “A good friend of mine has been working with them for years, and I love their commitment to making people happy through food, because that is what my whole career is devoted to. The ability for my food to be a part of celebrating family around the country was a chance I could not pass up.”

One of the special things about this partnership is that there is also a charitable portion. Blue Apron and Chef Jordan will be giving 200 of the boxes to families in need for their holiday meals. Jordan is passionate about the issue of food insecurity, especially in his area where it can be a significant problem. “Families get together through food, so it is very hard on the soul when you don’t have that opportunity to feed your family the way you want. So, for me, the philanthropic part of this partnership was really important, to put a little ease on people. I’m just trying to do my part, helping where I can. During these difficult times, as a restaurant owner, I am just like everyone else doing what they can to survive. So, if I could take a small burden off them, give them a meal that is a full-on celebration, that was the best thing I could do.”

To order the full Edourado Jordan Thanksgiving menu, you’ll need to be a member of Blue Apron (maybe this pandemic winter is the perfect time to join). Check it out here.