Complete Traeger Thanksgiving Timeline

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Your Complete Traeger Thanksgiving Timeline

Timing is everything when it comes to cooking up a Thanksgiving feast. Between prepping the food, managing grill space, and dealing with hungry guests, it can be a serious challenge. Luckily for you, we’ve created a complete Traeger Thanksgiving timeline to help you plan out your schedule and stay on track throughout the day.

With a little prep and planning, you can make cooking an incredible wood-fired feast look effortless to your guests.

Make a Menu

While you can find a variety of epic Thanksgiving recipes on our website, to make things simple, we are going to just focus on a few of our staple Traeger Thanksgiving dishes:

You can also find alternatives to these recipes by exploring our top Thanksgiving dishes:

This timeline is also based on a 3 pm serving time. If you plan on serving dinner earlier or later, just be sure to adjust all the listed times accordingly.

Thanksgiving Prep

The best way to ensure you have an epic Thanksgiving is to make sure you’re prepped and ready to go. From a month before the holiday to the day of, there’s a lot of planning and prep to get done.

Month Before

If you’re not early, you’re late. Get your Thanksgiving prep done about a month before the day – that means getting a headcount, planning your menu and grocery list, getting your turkey wood pellets, and picking out and ordering a turkey. Before the big day, there’s a whole lot to do before you ever fire up the Traeger. Obviously, you’ll want to buy all your ingredients ahead of time so you’re not scrambling to find a grocery store that’s open during the holiday

You’ll also need to double-check your equipment. Take a good look at your pellet grill to make sure it’s working properly and ready to go and look at any BBQ tools (especially your wireless internal meat thermometer) you need to get or replace. Take a look at our grill care articles below so that you can be ready to go by Thanksgiving day:

Night Before

Beyond that, there are a few things that you can prep ahead of time to clear up the extra grill and kitchen space on turkey day:

Pies can be made the day before and then popped in the oven for a quick reheat before dessert (or, in the case of pumpkin pie, just served cold). Casseroles are another great candidate for prepping the day before – they’ll spend less time on the grill the day of. Remember, even little tasks quickly add up, so every advantage counts.

Another good side to take care of is your cranberry sauce since it can be served chilled.

Morning Of

The early bird gets the worm (or in this case, the turkey):

7:30 AM - Make/prep the dough for pie (if you're not using premade). Combine all ingredients for the filling (assuming you didn’t make it the day beforehand).

7:45 AM - Time to fire up the grill. Make sure the hopper is full of pellets and preheat to 325°F.

8:00 AM - Place pumpkin pie on the grill. Check about 30 minutes in by shaking it and looking for the center to be set. Overcooking will result in cracking.

8:15 AM - Start prepping the turkey. Remove from brine, pat completely dry, place aromatics in the cavity, season the exterior and place in a roasting rack. Place more aromatics, neck, gizzards and a small amount of stock in bottom of roasting pan. Set aside. 8:50 AM - By now the pie should be done. Remove and let it cool in kitchen. Reduce grill temp to 300°F.

9:00 AM - It’s the bird’s turn. Put the turkey on the grill at 300°F.

10:00 AM - Go ahead and set the table. Yeah, it feels weirdly early, but you’ll be glad you did when you realize it’s one less thing to do later.

Pro Tips: If you didn’t prep your vegetables the night before, these gaps in between steps are the perfect time to do it. Especially with your potatoes.

Afternoon Cooking Thanksgiving Timeline

10:00 AM - 1:00 PM - Now it’s time to do some serious prepping for your sides.

FOR MASHED POTATOES: Chop garlic 2. Scrub potatoes
FOR GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE: Trim and blanch green beans 2. Place beans in a pot of boiling water for 5-7 minutes, until tender. Strain and place in ice bath. Drain and dry thoroughly 3. Cook and chop bacon 4. Dice bell pepper
FOR STUFFING: 1. Brown sausage in pan 2. Dice celery and onion 3. Chop sage and mince thyme - 1:00 PM - Remove turkey from grill once internal temp reaches 160°F (will rise to 165°F while resting). Turn grill up to 350°F.

1:05 PM - Place stuffing, cleaned potatoes, and cream for potatoes on the grill. This is also not a bad time to crack a beer or pour a glass of wine to help you through the final stretch. 1:20 PM - Remove cream for potatoes from grill and keep warm. Start gravy by straining drippings and skimming fat before finishing on stove. Keep warm until serving.

1:50 PM - Remove stuffing from grill and keep warm.

2:00 PM - Place green bean casserole on grill.

2:05 PM - Remove potatoes and take inside to finish.

2:15 PM - Mash potatoes with food mill or by hand and combine with cream mixture. Set aside in serving dish to keep warm.

2:45 PM - Remove green bean casserole from grill and set aside. Initiate grill shutdown cycle. Transfer all finished dishes to the table.

Turkey Carving Time

Now that you’re done cookin’ up your bird, it’s time to show off those carving skills. Carving a turkey takes about 15-20 minutes (even shorter if you made a spatchcocked turkey). But remember, you’ll need to let the turkey rest for about 30-45 minutes.

We suggest doing all of this in the kitchen since it can be messy (and who wants an audience?). Carve at around 3:00 PM, but present at 1:30 PM.

Whether you’re following this timeline exactly or just using it as a general guide, it will give you a good feel for the prepping, planning, and timing needed to make a Traeger Thanksgiving feast come together perfectly.

Head to our Thanksgiving hub to build your own custom menu, learn turkey tips and tricks, and find recipes for everything from side dishes to drinks and desserts.