Holidays & Cultural
Thanksgiving Dinner Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering cooks the full American Thanksgiving table for families, friends and teams who are spending the fourth Thursday of November far from home. Our kitchen in Medellín has roasted turkeys for this holiday every year since 2019, and our bilingual coordinators know the difference between cornbread dressing and sage stuffing without needing an explanation.
Most of our Thanksgiving orders come from US and Canadian expats in El Poblado and Envigado, remote workers hosting a 'Friendsgiving' in a rented apartment, and American companies feeding their Medellín staff. Some want a carved turkey dropped at the door; others want a staffed buffet for 40 with someone else doing the dishes.
Turkey is not an everyday bird in Colombia, and cranberries and canned pumpkin are imports. Over the years we have built a supply routine that gets the right size bird to your table and fills the gaps with Andean ingredients that taste like home.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Thanksgiving Catering
We cater Thanksgiving three ways: a complete dinner delivered hot or ready to reheat, a turkey or a set of sides to fill the gaps in your own cooking, and a staffed buffet or plated dinner at your home, a rooftop or an event room. Every option uses the same recipes, so a delivered dinner for 8 tastes like the served one for 60.
The menu is classic American rather than a Colombian take on it. Think herb-butter turkey, gravy made from the roasting juices, bread stuffing with sage and celery, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole and pie.
Families who also want Colombian dishes on the table can add a tray of buñuelos or a pot of ajiaco, which many mixed households now treat as part of their own tradition. For the December holidays that follow, our Christmas dinner catering uses the same turkey supply.
A Workday in Colombia
Thanksgiving is a regular Thursday in Colombia: offices, schools and banks are open, and traffic is as heavy as any other weekday. That shapes when people eat, so about half of our Thanksgiving hosts move the dinner to Friday night or Saturday afternoon.
If you keep the Thursday, plan for a later start. A 7:00 p.m. dinner gives guests time to leave work in Ciudad del Río or the Milla de Oro and cross the city at rush hour, and it lets us deliver after the worst of the evening traffic.
Late November also falls inside Medellín's second rainy season. Heavy afternoon showers slow every route out of our kitchen, so we load the van with a 30 minute buffer and carry hot dishes in insulated Cambro carriers that keep them above 60 °C on arrival.
The Traditional Menu, Sourced Locally
Most of the Thanksgiving table can be cooked from Colombian ingredients, and the rest needs planning. We order turkeys from local poultry suppliers four to six weeks ahead, because Colombian farms raise most of their birds for Christmas and stock is thin in November.
Cranberries are not grown here, so we offer two sauces: an imported cranberry sauce and our own made from agraz, a small tart Andean blueberry that grows in the highlands of Antioquia and Boyacá. Many guests prefer the agraz version, which is brighter and less sweet.
Pumpkin pie is made with roasted ahuyama, the orange squash sold at every Medellín market, because imported canned pumpkin is scarce and inconsistent. Sweet potatoes are local batata, green beans are habichuelas from the eastern highlands, and pecans for the pie topping are imported in October.
| Dish | How we make it | Local or imported |
|---|---|---|
| Roast turkey | 24-hour brine, herb butter under the skin, combi-oven roasted until the thigh hits 74 °C | Local bird, ordered weeks ahead |
| Gravy | Roasting juices, turkey stock, a little flour | Local |
| Stuffing | Bread, sage, celery, onion; cornbread version on request | Local |
| Cranberry sauce | Imported berries, or agraz sauce | Both |
| Sweet potato casserole | Batata with brown sugar; pecan or marshmallow top | Local, imported pecans |
| Pumpkin pie | Roasted ahuyama, spices, butter crust | Local |
Whole Dinner, Turkey Only or Sides Only
You can order the full meal, just the bird or just the sides, and each package is portioned by guest count. Most families order the whole dinner; experienced home cooks who want to roast their own turkey often order sides only, because five side dishes and two pies are the real work.
| Package | What is in it | Serves |
|---|---|---|
| Whole dinner, delivered | Carved turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, cranberry or agraz sauce, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie | 8, 12 or 16 |
| Turkey only | 6 to 7 kg roasted turkey, whole or carved, with gravy and sauce | 10 to 12 |
| Oven-ready turkey | Brined, trussed raw turkey with roasting notes | 8 to 12 |
| Sides only | Five sides, rolls and one pie per 8 guests | 12 or more |
| Staffed buffet or plated dinner | Full menu, servers, tableware, setup and cleanup | 15 or more |
Delivered dinners arrive in oven-safe aluminum trays labeled with each dish and its allergens, plus reheating times in English. If you plan a big multi-generation table, our family gathering catering team can add a kids' menu and extra seating rentals.
Thanksgiving for Offices
American and Canadian companies with Medellín teams often mark Thanksgiving with a lunch at the office, because Thursday is a working day for everyone. We serve it as a hot buffet in the cafeteria or as individual turkey lunch boxes with stuffing, two sides and a slice of pie.
For Colombian staff, many of whom are tasting the holiday for the first time, we place bilingual cards beside each dish that explain what it is and why it is eaten. It turns lunch into a small cultural exchange, which is often the point.
Office orders follow our corporate lunch catering process, with an electronic invoice issued to the company. Towers in El Poblado and Ciudad del Río are regular stops on our 11:00 a.m. run, so the buffet is ready at noon.
Thanksgiving Order Deadline
Turkey orders close 10 days before Thanksgiving, which for 2026 means Monday 16 November, because that is when our supplier confirms the final birds. Staffed dinners need two weeks' notice, and sides-only orders can be placed until 48 hours ahead while stock lasts.
We deliver and serve across the valley, and our page on catering in Envigado shows drive times to the southern neighborhoods. If you move the dinner to Friday or Saturday, the same deadlines apply, counted from your chosen date.
Questions and answers
Thanksgiving FAQs
Can you supply a whole turkey for my own oven?
Yes, we sell oven-ready turkeys of 5 to 8 kg, brined for 24 hours and trussed, or fully roasted and chilled for you to reheat. A roasted bird reheats in a home oven at 160 °C in about 60 to 75 minutes, covered in foil with a cup of stock, until the thigh reads 74 °C. Each one comes with written instructions in English and a container of gravy.
Do you deliver on Thanksgiving Thursday?
Yes, Thanksgiving Thursday is a normal working day in Colombia, so our full delivery fleet runs. We deliver in two windows: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for office lunches and 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. for family dinners, and we also deliver on the Friday and Saturday after for hosts who move the meal to the weekend.
How big a turkey do I need?
Allow about 650 g of whole raw turkey per guest, which covers seconds and a little left over for sandwiches. A 6 kg bird feeds 8 to 10 adults; for 15 or more guests we roast two medium birds instead of one giant one, because they cook more evenly and stay juicier.
Reserve your date
Reserve Your Thanksgiving Turkey
Tell us the day you are celebrating, how many will sit at the table and whether the turkey should arrive carved or be served by our team. Itemized quotes come back within 24 hours, and info@medellincatering.com works just as well for questions.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)