Thanksgiving is coming up, and if you are like me, you are planning a Thanksgiving meal with the family, and a Danksgiving meal with friends. I will never forget when my friend Josh first introduced me to the concept of Danksgiving about 15 years ago. Today cannabis edibles are everywhere, but back then they were much less common. Danksgiving celebrations back then usually consisted of just a tray or two of brownies or cookies, and a bunch of us puffing down and playing video games.
These days Danksgiving has become a national phenomenon, with people making really elaborate multi-course meals. I am in the process of rounding up recipes for this year, and figured I would pass along the recipes I am going to try to make. If you have a recipe that you are making, feel free to put it in the comments section so that others can benefit from your knowledge. For most of the recipes below, I am using cannabis butter (cannabutter), which can be made in a variety of ways. Pick the method that is best for your situation.
Cannabis Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe
The turkey is obviously the focal point of the meal, unless of course you are a vegetarian or vegan, at which point I apologize in advance for this part of the article. Making a cannabis infused turkey is actually easier than one might think, provided that they are already familiar with how to make a Thanksgiving turkey. Below is the recipe I am using, which basically uses cannabutter as a rub on the outside of the turkey, and in the marinade that is injected into the turkey. It also incorporates some cannabis flower (taken from the YouTube video here):
Turkey ingredients:
12 lb turkey
½ cup cannabutter
Salt and pepper
Marinade ingredients:
1/4 oz. cannabis flower
3 tablespoons cannabutter
⅔ cup chicken stock
⅓ cup maple syrup
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, diced up
Salt and pepper
Steps
1. Combine marinade ingredients and heat in a saucepan on low for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and let it cool.
2. Rub the turkey with cannabutter, salt, and pepper.
3. Inject the marinade throughout the turkey in equal amounts.
4. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
5. Pour two cups of broth or water into the roasting pan, place the turkey in the oven and turn down the heat to 350°F.
6. The rule of thumb for cooking a turkey is 13 minutes per pound. Our 12 lb turkey took about 3 hours to cook. It’s done when the temperature measures 180°F in the thigh and 165°F in the breast.
7. Every 45 minutes, remove the turkey from the oven and baste with the rest of the marinade.
8. Rest the turkey for 15 minutes before carving.
Cannabis Stuffing Recipe
You can’t have a Thanksgiving turkey without the stuffing, at least in my opinion. Below is a recipe for stuffing, which also requires a cannabis oil, a recipe of which can be found below (taken from the YouTube video here):
Cannabis oil ingredients:
1 cup olive oil
¼ oz ground cannabis
Steps
1. Add ground cannabis and olive oil to saucepan and cook on low to medium heat for 3 hours.
2. Pour the oil into a glass container, using a cheesecloth to strain out all ground cannabis from the olive oil mixture. Repeat this step as necessary to strain all of the oil from the ground cannabis , and discard the remaining cannabis.
Stuffing ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 pear, chopped
½ cup dried fruits (cranberries, cherries, and apricots)
½ cup roasted pistachios
1 bunch of thyme, chopped
1 bunch of sage, chopped
1 package of cubed bread stuffing
1 quart chicken stock
Steps
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Add onions and garlic to the cannabis olive oil and cook until soft, then add the celery, pear, dried fruits, nuts, herbs, and cubed bread stuffing.
3. Add the chicken stock and stir until mixture is fully combined.
4. Transfer to a greased 8″x8″ or similar baking dish and bake for 40 minutes.
Cannabis Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Cannabis mashed potatoes are extremely easy to make. It’s basically just regular mashed potatoes, but with cannabutter instead of regular butter. I use the following recipe (stolen from my grandma!), but as with regular mashed potatoes, you can always zest it up with additional ingredients, or use a little more butter to make it creamier. If you really want your potatoes to pack a punch, you can substitute cannabis milk for regular milk, a recipe of which can be found in the green been casserole section lower in this article:
Mashed potato ingredients:
salt
6 large Yukon Gold potatoes
4 tablespoons cannabutter
⅓ cup whole milk
Steps
1. Peel and quarter potatoes.
2. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil over high heat.
3. Add potatoes to boiling water and boil about 15 to 20 minutes (until you can stab them with a knife and the potato falls off, but doesn’t lose its form).
4. In a saucepan heat cannabutter and milk together until cannabutter melts and mixture steams.
5. Drain the potatoes well and return them to the pot.
6. Using a potato masher, mash hot potatoes until smooth.
7. Lightly mix in about half of the cannabutter/milk mixture, until blended.
Cannabis Green Bean Casserole Recipe
Some people love green bean casserole, some people absolutely hate it. If you are like me, you used to hate it as a kid, but now as an adult consider it to be a Thanksgiving Day staple. Below is the recipe I am using, which incorporates cannamilk and infused bacon fat (yes, cannabis infused bacon fat, it’s a thing), the recipes of which can be found below (taken from the YouTube video here):
Cannamilk ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
¼ oz ground cannabis
Steps
1. Heat 2 cups of milk (plus a tablespoon extra) in a saucepan on low to medium. Do not let the milk come to a boil.
2. Add ground cannabis to the hot milk and simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. Never let the mixture come to a boil.
3. Pour the hot cannamilk into a glass container, using a cheesecloth to strain out all ground cannabis from the milk. Repeat this step as necessary to strain all of the milk from the ground cannabis, and discard the remaining cannabis.
4. Cover the container with a lid and place in the refrigerator to allow the cannamilk to cool.
Note: you will only use 1 cup of cannamilk in the Green Bean Casserole. The other cup can be used to make mashed potatoes, or another dish of your choosing.
Cannabis-infused bacon fat ingredients:
2-3 lbs. thick-cut bacon
¼ oz ground cannabis
Steps
1. Add the slabs of bacon to a skillet and cook over medium heat until crispy.
2. Remove the bacon and keep the grease in the pan.
3. Add ground cannabis to the pan and simmer on low heat for at least 20 minutes. The longer you simmer, the more potent the extraction will be.
4. Pour the hot grease into a glass container, using a cheesecloth to strain out all ground cannabis from the bacon fat mixture. Repeat this step as necessary to strain all of the fat from the ground cannabis, and discard the remaining cannabis.
Green bean casserole ingredients:
3 slices of thick-cut bacon, chopped (you can use some of the bacon that you used to make the cannabis bacon fat extraction)
½ cup onion, chopped
1 cup crimini mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 tablespoons cannabutter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup cannamilk
½ cup half-and-half
½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
3½ cups green beans, trimmed and blanched
½ cup French fried onions
Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Add the onions and mushrooms to the bacon-cannabis grease in a skillet and cook until soft. Be sure to cook on low heat, so as not to destroy the THC.
3. Add garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Set aside.
5. Melt the cannabutter in the pan and whisk in the flour to make a roux.
6. Whisk constantly for another 2 minutes while gradually stirring in the cannamilk, then slowly whisk in the half-and-half. Add the cheese and whisk until melted.
7. Transfer the onion, mushroom, bacon and garlic mixture back to the skillet with the sauce. Stir everything together and let the sauce simmer for a few more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Remove pan from the heat and stir in the green beans.
9. Transfer the green bean mixture to a greased 8″x8″ or similar casserole dish and sprinkle with fried onions.
10. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling around the edges.
Sweet Potato Cannabis Casserole Recipe
Sweet potato casserole is one of my favorite things to eat on Thanksgiving. I really wish it was customary to eat it more often. I don’t usually eat any pie on Thanksgiving because I focus all of my dessert energy on sweet potato casserole. Below is the recipe I am going to try this upcoming Thanksgiving:
Filling ingredients:
4 tablespoons of melted cannabutter, plus a little bit for buttering the baking dish
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup cannabis milk (recipe of which can be found in the green bean casserole section of this article)
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
Topping ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4 tablespoons melted cannabutter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup chopped pecans
Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter (using cannabutter) a 2-quart baking dish.
3. Whisk together the filling ingredients in a large bowl, then transfer the mixture to the buttered baking dish.
4. Combine the flour, brown sugar, cannabutter and salt from the topping ingredient list in a medium bowl until moist and the mixture clumps together, then stir in the pecans.
5. Spread the topping mixture over the top of the filling mixture in an even layer.
6. Put it in the oven and bake it for 25 to 30 minutes (the top should be golden).
Cannabis Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
Some people think that macaroni and cheese is unacceptable as a Thanksgiving Day dish. I am not one of those people. I think any day is a good day for macaroni and cheese, especially when it is infused with cannabis. Below is a recipe that my uncle is using on Thanksgiving (I outsourced the task to him, taken from the YouTube video here):
Ingredients:
1 lb. macaroni
¼ cup cannabutter
¼ cup flour
2 cups half & half
1/2 cup of each cheese – gruyere, smoked cheddar, and smoked gouda
8 oz cream cheese
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
Steps
1. Heavily salt a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for about 7 minutes, or until slightly less than al dente. Drain in a colander and let cool.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F.
3. Grate or chop the gruyere, smoked cheddar, and smoked gouda cheeses into cubes and set aside.
4. Add the cannabutter to a large pot and melt over low to medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 3-5 minutes.
5. Add the flour to the cannabutter, onion, and garlic mixture and stir constantly over low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until the mixture starts to turn a slightly darker color.
6. Whisk in the cream, then add the gruyere, smoked cheddar, and smoked gouda, stirring constantly until the cheese is melted.
7. Add the cream cheese, paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce appears silky and smooth.
8. Add the cooked macaroni and stir to combine thoroughly.
9. Transfer to a deep casserole dish (8″x8″ or similar) and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges are bubbly and the top is golden brown.
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I also am debating on making a cannabis cranberry sauce, but the recipe I found involves booze, and a trip to the liquor store during the holidays is often too overwhelming for my preferences. We shall see. A number of things can be made better with cannabutter, such as corn and rolls. You can just simply substitute cannabutter for regular butter on things like that, although it makes the taste of the cannabis in the butter standout more on things like that based off of my experience. I don’t mind it, but if you do, consider making cannabis butter that doesn’t taste as much like cannabis via a recipe from my buddy Jeff the 420 Chef.
A word of caution – if everything you are eating has cannabis in it, it doesn’t take much for you to become extremely high. If you are a veteran cannabis consumer like me, that is a desirable thing. But if you are not a frequent cannabis consumer, go slow and only eat a little bit of each item and let others enjoy the rest. Or, consider making cannabis butter, milk, etc. and diluting it with its regular counter part. By that, I mean take a cup of cannabis butter and combine it with a cup of regular butter. By doing so you reduce the potency by half. If you want to dilute it even further, up the ratio of regular butter to cannabis butter.
It’s OK to reduce the potency on each dish because you will get a lot of cannabis in the end. You will get a handful of milligrams of cannabis in each dish, and all of it adds up. That’s a concept known as layered micro-dosing, which I first heard about from the previously linked to Jeff the 420 Chef. I will likely have a bunch of desserts at my Danksgiving celebration, such as brownies, cookies, and maybe even a pie or two. One of the best resources for cannabis dessert recipes is Cannabis Cheri’s website. She also has a stellar recipe for a cranberry glazed cannabis ham, if you like that instead of turkey (or in addition to!). I still haven’t decided exactly which desserts I want to do, but I will definitely be pulling them from her site! Happy Thanksgiving/Danksgiving!!