When we asked chef Erick Williams of Virtue Restaurant in Chicago to curate a Thanksgiving menu for Epicurious, he revealed a couple of surprising facts about himself. First, the chef offered some controversial opinions about mac and cheese; second, he told us about his annual tradition of celebrating the holiday with…a bowl of cereal. (More on both of those revelations here.) Beyond those outlier positions, Williams's take on Thanksgiving is classic and exacting. Here, he's curated a menu that's based on memories of his family's Thanksgiving celebrations, but informed by decades of cooking French, Italian, and American Southern food in restaurants. At the heart of the menu? A brand-new recipe for a mac and cheese that even a chef like Williams can love.
The turkey
The turkey is the one dish that Williams cooks at his family's Thanksgiving every year. “The reasons my turkeys aren’t dry is because they’re brined for 24 hours, and I pull it out of the fridge at least an hour before it ever goes into an oven. It’s also turned. It always starts on the breast, always ends up upright. And my best turkeys are always stuffed with onion, apple, celery, and carrots. Because those things, as they warm, they give off aroma and flavor. So even though nobody eats those vegetables, because they all get discarded, those aromatics have a role to play.”
The mac and cheese
It took Williams a long time to come around to mac and cheese. “I don’t like cheese charred,” he says. “I don’t like crunchy edges on the macaroni and cheese.” His Thanksgiving Mac and Cheese has texture, but the texture comes from the al dente pasta; the silky cheese sauce that envelopes the pasta; and two layers of cheddar, one that runs through the middle and one that goes on top.
The beans
“The green beans are simmered in stock, and for a while. Sometimes potatoes are added to it. These things are soft; some of them have split. Any French person would sign off on these beans as French country cooking. There's none of that al dente stuff.”
The greens
Collard greens are “mandatory in our home,” Williams says, but mustard greens and turnip greens are also welcome. Sometimes the mustard and turnip greens have a little spinach thrown in, but never the collards. “Collards are by themselves. Mustards, turnips, and spinach are together.”
The dressing
Ignore, if you can, the fact that this recipe has the word “stuffing” in it. In the Williams household, “it’s called dressing, because we believe it dresses the turkey. That dressing always has cornbread. It's like 90 percent cornbread and a very, very trace amount of day-old white bread. The turkey neck gets roasted right on the top of the dressing. And sometimes cornish hens as well.”
The gravy and cranberry sauce
“You have to have cranberry sauce for those that want to partake,” Williams says. “But for us, it's all about the giblet gravy. The giblets go into the gravy and add texture, and it's hot fire.”
The desserts
"When I was a kid there would be as many options of baked goods as there would be pots on the stove. It was crazy. Pies. Cakes. Cobbler. I mean, it was nuts. In my teenage years I started seeing cheesecake; they just wanted to throw something into the mix. My family did peach cobbler, but that was one of the recipes that went away with my grandmother, so we don’t see it anymore. When I was younger there would be cakes, but we stopped eating cake as time progressed. But sweet potato pies are a must. So is banana pudding."
