A gluten-free Thanksgiving menu, with a day-by-day timeline

Updated November 4, 2026

The menu

Every dish here is gluten-free and dairy-free as written, so one menu covers both. Many of the recipes are written for a small table, so check the servings and scale up for a crowd.

Two more that fit the same table: gluten-free cornbread stuffing and apple crisp. If nobody needs to avoid dairy, our crescent rolls, corn casserole and pumpkin cheesecake use butter and cream cheese. There’s more on the gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes page.

Your timeline

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26 this year. Work back from there.

Now

• Ask each guest what they can’t eat, and write it down. It’s easier to change the menu now than on Thursday.
• Shop for what’s hard to find late: a gluten-free flour blend, gluten-free bread, gluten-free stock and a turkey without a basting solution.
• Make the pie dough and freeze it.

The weekend before (November 21–22)

• Move a frozen turkey to the fridge. The USDA says to allow about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds, so a 12-pound bird needs about three days and a 20-pound bird needs up to five. It keeps for one to two more days once thawed.
• Scrub the pans, boards and spoons you’ll use, and pick a colander and a board for the gluten-free cooking.

Tuesday

• Make the cranberry sauce.
• Cut and toast the bread for the stuffing, and keep it in a sealed bag.

Wednesday

• Bake the pies, then the rolls or cornbread.
• Mash the sweet potatoes. Make the mushroom sauce for the green beans.
• Set out one serving spoon for each dish.

Thursday, for dinner at 4:30

• 11:30: a whole 12- to 14-pound turkey goes in at 325 °F. The USDA’s guide is 3 to 3¾ hours for that size, unstuffed. For our turkey breast, start at 1:30 instead. Either way, it’s done when a thermometer reads 165 °F in the thickest part of the breast and the innermost parts of the thigh and wing.
• 2:45: mix the stuffing. Peel the potatoes.
• 3:15: turkey out to rest. Stuffing and casseroles go in, and the stuffing needs to reach 165 °F in the center too. Boil the potatoes.
• 4:00: make the gravy from the drippings, mash the potatoes and warm the rolls.
• After dinner: leftovers go in the fridge within two hours.

The labels to read

These are the places gluten hides in a Thanksgiving dinner. On packaged food, “gluten-free” on the label is the claim to look for: the FDA requires under 20 parts per million of gluten for it. “Wheat-free” doesn’t mean gluten-free, because barley and rye have gluten too.

Keeping it safe in a shared kitchen

For someone with celiac disease, a small amount of gluten matters. If the whole dinner is gluten-free there’s little to mix up, and these habits cover the rest. Tell your guest what you made and how, because they know what they’re comfortable with.

• Start clean. Wash boards, pans and spoons in hot soapy water first. Colanders and scratched boards are hard to get clean, so use a new or dedicated one.
• Keep wheat flour away. Flour stays in the air and settles on surfaces. If anyone is baking with wheat, do it after your gluten-free dishes are covered.
• One spoon per dish. A serving spoon that wanders carries crumbs from one dish to the next.
• Ask guests to bring something sealed. Wine, flowers or a labeled box of chocolates, or give them a dish from this menu with the recipe. If someone brings a dish with gluten, put it at the far end of the table with its own spoon.

When someone else at the table eats differently

• Dairy-free: this menu already is.
• Egg-free: the stuffing, pies, rolls and cornbread use eggs. The turkey, gravy, mash, both casseroles and cranberry sauce don’t.
• AIP: the cranberry sauce fits as written. For the main, try sage turkey with sweet potato stuffing bake or herb-roast turkey tenderloins. The AIP food list has the rest.
• Everyone at once: add your guests to the Gluten app with their allergies and diets. It checks each dish for each person and tells you what to change for anyone who can’t eat it as written.