The weather is turning chilly. The leaves are falling. And it’s time to start planning for Thanksgiving.
That means plotting for menus with all the fixings. But space gets tight in an RV, which could make a massive Thanksgiving meal a tall order to pull off.
Luckily, we’ve got some ideas and tips so you can pull off a fantastic RV Thanksgiving dinner.
How to Enjoy Thanksgiving in Your RV
You don’t need a big kitchen or house to enjoy a grand Thanksgiving dinner. All you need are the people that you love in one place, even if that place is a small RV. Doing Thanksgiving in an RV is all about planning.
You’ll need to plan how to cook, how to seat everyone, how to set out a table when you have limited counter space.
But if you do your due diligence ahead of time, you can create a cozy Thanksgiving at home in your RV.
What You Need to Make Thanksgiving Dinner in Your RV
In all honesty, you can make a Thanksgiving meal using whatever you have in your RV, even if that’s just a hot plate. Of course, that will limit your possibilities a bit.
So if you’re looking forward to making a complete Thanksgiving meal in your RV, having all the tools definitely gives you more options.
While you can make a fantastic family meal with just a stove and an oven, adding an Instant Pot and slow-cooker makes life a lot easier for cooking and cleanup alike.
7 Great RV Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas
You won’t be missing out on anything with this Thanksgiving menu. Here are seven great RV Thanksgiving dinner ideas that cover all the Turkey Day requirements, including turkey.
#1 Slow-Cooker Turkey
Slow-cooker turkey only requires eight ingredients, seven of them being spices and one of them being a six- to seven-pound turkey breast. Keep in mind that every four pounds of turkey need 24 hours of thawing time.
This recipe requires only five or six hours from start to finish. You’ll know it’s done by the wonderful smells coming from the cooker. But to be certain, use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature.
Feel free to spruce this recipe up a bit with different spices. For example, try lemon and garlic, or thyme and basil, or whatever your taste buds call for at that moment.
#2 Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
Yukon Gold or Russets are the potatoes of choice to make this recipe the best. And for those who love skin-on mashed potatoes, go for the Gold. All you need for this are potatoes, water, salt and pepper, milk, butter, and the magic ingredient of sour cream.
With the Instant Pot, potatoes take about 10 minutes. Mash them to your liking. If you like more dense potatoes, use a hand masher. If you’d prefer them smooth and creamy, use a handheld electric mixer.
After that, the key is the dairy. Heat the milk and sour cream separately from the potatoes. Once you mash them, mix in the warm dairy for creamy goodness, ensuring your potatoes are still nice and hot.
#3 Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
You can easily make this six-ingredient simple recipe in a traditional oven. Or you can make it quicker by cooking the potatoes in an Instant Pot and finishing it all off in the oven when it’s ready for the table.
All you need are sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, orange juice, cinnamon, and marshmallows. You can add other spices and nuts like pecans to the topping if you’d like, but for me, the simpler, the better.
Once the sweet potatoes are mashed, and the topping is mixed, the oven perfectly browns this traditional dish. The secret? Add a few more marshmallows and a tad bit more butter to get that sugary, buttery taste really going.
#4 Slow-Cooker Stuffing
Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without stuffing, and it’s super easy to make when a slow-cooker does all the work. This traditional stuffing recipe calls for celery, bread crumbs, seasonings, and broth.
But instead of taking up stovetop space, once you mix it, you can leave it in the slow-cooker to do its thing.
In the five hours when it’s soaking up all those flavors, it’ll fill your RV with wonderful smells.
#5 Air Fryer Corn on the Cob
Fresh corn on the cob makes any meal better. Add some extra butter and salt, and this flavorful, easy corn-on-the-cob recipe makes a perfect side to any Thanksgiving meal.
Trim the ears to fit your air fryer. Spray the husked corn with cooking oil. Save the butter until the end to prevent burnt corn. Season with salt and pepper. In about 15 minutes, you’ll have perfectly roasted and toasted corn on the cob.
#6 Slow-Cooker Green Beans
Green beans become a vegetable dish you’ll look forward to when cooked in the slow-cooker. Packed with flavor and nutrients, this quick recipe will complement any Thanksgiving meal perfectly.
By adding olive oil, onion, and garlic to fresh green beans, you’ll be drooling over this healthy dish in less than five hours. And you won’t have to do any of the cooking.
That’s the joy of a slow-cooker.
#7 Instant Pot Cranberry Relish
Requiring only cranberries, ground ginger, sugar, orange zest, and water, this simple recipe is a must when it comes to Thanksgiving. Starting with the cranberries, water, and ginger, you’ll cook it for only two minutes in the Instant Pot.
Once done, you’ll mix in sugar and orange zest and cook for another five to eight minutes. That’s it. All it needs now is to chill and set for a few hours.
Your table will look absolutely beautiful with this gorgeous red cranberry relish ready to top off biscuits and desserts.
Or eat it on its own.
Bonus Dessert: Campfire Apple Pie Packets
Made in foil and cooked in the oven or over a grill or campfire, these apple pie pockets will complete your RV Thanksgiving dinner. Granny Smith makes the best apple pie packets, but Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Braeburn, and even Red Delicious apples will also work just fine.
The great thing about this recipe is that you can leave the apple peels on. After you’ve sliced up a few apples, mix them with lemon juice, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch to thicken up the mixture a bit. Then divvy them up into a few foil packets.
Oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter make up the topping. Add all of those ingredients directly on top of the apple mixture. That’s it. The hardest part will be waiting the eight minutes or so that it takes to cook.
Thanksgiving Dinner Can Bring the Whole Family Together
Big fancy kitchen or small RV kitchen, Thanksgiving brings the whole family together. And with food like air fryer corn on the cob, Instant Pot mashed potatoes, and campfire apple pie, it’s not just an RV meal; it’s a full Thanksgiving meal.
Wherever you park the RV for Turkey Day, you’ll definitely have to make room for guests with this menu.
What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Discover the Best Free Camping Across the USA
To be honest with you, we hate paying for camping. There are so many free campsites in America (with complete privacy).
You should give it a try!
As a matter of fact, these free campsites are yours. Every time you pay federal taxes, you’re contributing to these lands.
Become a FREE CAMPING INSIDER and join the 100,000 campers who love to score the best site!
We’ll send you the 50 Best Free Campsites in the USA (one per state). Access the list by submitting your email below: