You don’t have to overeat to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. Really, you don’t.

EVANS CAGLAGE/DMN

Oven Roasted Turkey with Pan Gravy

But it’s a holiday when even the normally health-conscious can give themselves a pass if they indulge in unusually sinful culinary pleasures.

Even when turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes with giblet gravy plus three sides and two buttered rolls are followed by a slice of chess pie (followed by, OK, just a smidge of sweet-potato pie), somehow none of it counts against your moral fiber at Thanksgiving.

Your strategy should be to load a taste of everything onto one big dinner plate. That way, you can virtuously claim: I only had one helping!

Traditionally, Thanksgiving is about getting together with family and friends to count our blessings. It’s a good time to swap stories and exchange family recipes.

Here, an array of chefs from the Dallas-Fort Worth area share favorite family-style recipes, dishes that often have been made for generations.

There’s nothing too fancy or complicated in this Thanksgiving menu. It’s about the deep-down, simple, essential goodness of home.

Neiman Marcus executive chef Kevin Garvin says Thanksgiving is the rare occasion when buying the main dish frozen is better than buying it fresh.

"Fresh turkeys tend to be too dry," he writes in the new NM centennial cookbook, Neiman Marcus Taste: Timeless American Recipes (Clarkson Potter, $45). "So buy a frozen bird and allow a couple of days for slow thawing in the refrigerator."

To be safe, the chef advises placing a frozen turkey in the refrigerator on the Monday night before Thanksgiving. This gives an average-size, 14-pound bird more than 48 hours to defrost before brining, seasoning and stuffing it.

Chef Garvin prefers bread stuffing made from a day-old French baguette, but his pan gravy will complement just about any stuffing or dressing that a turkey-basting cook can imagine. Not to mention how pan gravy enhances that side dish of mashed potatoes.

1 (14-pound) defrosted turkey

8 1/2 cups chicken broth (divided use)

5 dried bay leaves

4 sprigs fresh thyme (divided use)

1 cup kosher salt

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened, unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 celery ribs, sliced

6 garlic cloves, sliced

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

On Thanksgiving morning, rinse turkey well in sink. Remove giblet package and neck from cavity; discard gravy package if included. Discard liver from giblet package. Place turkey neck and remaining giblets in small saucepan.

Add 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, bay leaves and 1 sprig of thyme; bring to simmer. Gently simmer for 30 minutes; remove from heat. This mixture will be the basting liquid for the turkey as it roasts.

After rinsing turkey inside and out, fill sink with water to cover and pour in cup of kosher salt. Let bird rest in salted water for 1 hour. Drain water but do not rinse bird again. Season turkey inside with salt and pepper before adding desired stuffing. (Stuff while bird is still in sink, for easier cleanup.) Do not pack bird too tightly with stuffing.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Transfer stuffed turkey to wire rack placed in large roasting pan. Rub outside of bird with softened butter; season again with a little salt and pepper. Pour olive oil around turkey; add onion, carrots, celery, garlic and 3 remaining thyme sprigs to pan.

Roast about 4 1/2 hours, or about 20 minutes per pound. After first hour, pour 1 cup of reserved basting liquid over bird; repeat 1 hour later.

After about 2 hours, cover turkey with foil if it is becoming too brown. After 3 hours, insert meat thermometer into turkey breast just above spot where wings attach. Remove bird from oven when internal temperature reaches 160 F.

Remove turkey from pan and set bird aside to rest on large serving platter. Place roasting pan with basting juices on stovetop over medium heat, straddling two burners if necessary. Add remaining 6 cups chicken broth and bring to simmer.

Deglaze pan by scraping bottom with wooden spoon to loosen cooked-on bits of turkey and vegetables. In bowl, mix flour with 1 1/2 cups water and stir to form whitewash, or smooth paste.

Whisk half of whitewash into simmering stock and, once absorbed, add remainder. Mixture will thicken; continue whisking for 5 minutes. If gravy seems too thick, add stock; if too thin, add whitewash.

Strain gravy through medium strainer into clean saucepan; check seasoning, add more salt and pepper as necessary. Keep warm until serving.

Makes 8 servings.

PER SERVING: Calories 1,088 (46% fat); Fat 53 g (17 g sat); Cholesterol 444 mg; Sodium 3,140 mg; Fiber 1 g; Carbohydrates 10 g; Protein 133 g

SOURCE: NM executive chef Kevin Garvin, in Neiman Marcus Taste: Timeless American Recipes (Clarkson Potter)

Chef Jake Duplantis, who heads the kitchen at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, is proudly New Orleans born and bred. And at Thanksgiving in Louisiana, he says, "There are two traditional stuffings people use: oyster bread, and then, for those who don’t like oysters, dirty-rice stuffing."

Dirty rice "gets its name from the color," adds Mr. Duplantis, who goes by the name Chef Jake. "You use vegetables that you cook till they get all caramel brown and nice, and then you add the browned ground beef, and then the rice. Some people also like to use livers and gizzards." Dirty-rice stuffing can be used either as turkey stuffing or as a separate casserole.

Chef Jake says that Louisiana dirty-rice stuffing always turns up on the Duplantis family’s Thanksgiving table along with oyster stuffing and at least three side dishes made from vegetables such as squash or eggplant.

With its true Creole origins, this stuffing brings a little New Orleans pizazz to the feast. Plus, Chef Jake says, "It’s so easy to make, even if you’ve never made it before."

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced onions

1 cup diced bell pepper

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons chopped fresh garlic

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

2 ounces butter

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 pounds browned lean ground beef

1/2 pound cooked, long-grain wild rice

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Sauté all vegetables in butter until light golden brown. Add spices, Worcestershire sauce, meat and rice to vegetable mixture and stir till heated through. Put in casserole dish or stuff into roasted turkey. Bake 20 to 25 minutes (for casserole) until hot. Makes 8 servings.

PER SERVING: Calories 346 (49% fat); Fat 19 g (9 g sat); Cholesterol 113 mg; Sodium 459 mg; Fiber 2 g; Carbohydrates 11 g; Protein 32 g

SOURCE: In the Kitchen With Chef Jake (2007) by Jake Duplantis, executive chef of Lone Star Park

When chef Sharon Van Meter and her family lived in Chicago some years back, she began to experiment with making appetizers based on sweet-potato cakes.

Why? "I’m a big sweet-potato nut," she explains. "My perfect meal is just a sweet potato."

Her kids would top mom’s sweet-potato cakes with anything that came out of the refrigerator, says chef Van Meter, who is executive director of the Milestone Culinary Arts Center in Dallas. "But I think shrimp goes great with sweet potato.

"And combining the ginger and shrimp with pepper, it all takes on a little Asian flavor."

Chef Van Meter recommends marinating raw shrimp that are sized at 31 to 40 per pound. She also prefers the shrimp to be peeled and deveined but tail-on.