Michael Symon reveals the one crowd-pleasing dish he 'hates serving' on Thanksgiving

By Cristina Corvino

With Thanksgiving only a little over a week away, what better way is there to prepare yourself than with advice from an award-winning chef?

Aside from raving about his experience hosting Lipton Chef Fests around the country, Michael Symon from ABC's "The Chew" divulged some major Thanksgiving dos and don'ts -- and we're here to share them with you!

What's the biggest mistake you can make with the turkey? Should you stuff it? Find out below!

Tell me a little bit about Lipton Chef Fest and why you wanted to get involved.

Going to different cities around the country and getting several hundred people together and doing big family-style meals and putting people together at a table [who] may be friends, may not know each other, passing around food, enjoying some cocktails, having a good time -- for me, that's really what food is all about. Lipton wanting to throw big parties to do that was a lot of fun for me.

Do you tend to unplug during mealtime?

It's not even an option at my house. You want to eat at my house, your phone stays in another room.

See Michael Symon at Lipton Chef Fest and more:

With Thanksgiving approaching, what's your number one tip for hosts and hostesses?

I would say, plan ahead. If it's your first Thanksgiving, don't be afraid to make it a little bit of a potluck, where you make the turkey and you tell [guests] what you're looking for for sides, so you don't get eight people bringing stuffing.

And if you're going to take it on yourself, even the greatest of chefs, we make lists -- and we follow them to a T. If you come over my house Thanksgiving morning, there's going to be a sheet of paper that starts at 6 a.m. and goes all the way until dinnertime. It's a schedule: 6 a.m., chop this; 7 a.m., put this in; 7:10, take this out; 7:15, this goes in -- and it goes that way all the way to dinner.

When it gets a little crazy or when it gets hectic -- when my lovely sister-in-law shows up two hours early -- if I'm frazzled, I could just turn around and look at my list.

What's your favorite and least favorite dish to cook or eat? Is there a crowd-pleaser that you don't necessarily eat?

I mean, I love the turkey and I love stuffing. I'm 100 percent purist -- with a great turkey, stuffing and gravy, I'm super, super happy.

The one thing that I hate serving -- I always make a fresh cranberry sauce, but I have people in my family [who] will only eat that [canned] cranberry stuff -- that cranberry jello. They love it, and if I don't have it on the table, there's a little bit of a revolt. [Laughs]

I always kid with them, I'm like, "If anyone's putting this on Instagram, please let me remove the cranberry jello from the middle of my table first -- and then you can take the picture and then I will put it back." It's always kind of funny. One of the people who loves it is my 98-year-old grandfather, and I'm not about to piss him off.

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Love it. And what's the biggest mistake to avoid when it comes to cooking the turkey?

I think the most common ones are the simplest ones to avoid. That turkey has to come to room temperature before you start cooking it, then you cook it, you use an actual thermometer that you know works, you pull it out at 155 to 160 degrees. You don't use that little thermometer that they stick in the meat. And then you have to make sure that you have enough time that your turkey is done minimally an hour before your guests come over. Those three things make all the difference in the world. You can do different seasonings, you can do different rubs -- you can do all those different things -- but getting it to room temperature before you start it, cooking it only to 155 to 160 degrees and letting it rest for an hour are the absolute key things when cooking a turkey.

What's the most popular question you get as a chef about cooking that day?

"Could I put the stuffing in my bird?" That's probably the most common one.

And what do you say?

I never put stuffing in the bird because to get the stuffing to 160 degrees, which kills salmonella, you have to cook the turkey to 190 degrees, which gives you dry turkey -- so I always cook it on the side.

What I do sometimes -- and this again with my grandfather -- he insists on having one in the bird, so I make the stuffing, I put it in a cheese cloth and I put it in the cavity. Then when the meat reaches 160 degrees, I take the turkey out and I take the stuffing out, and then I cook the stuffing the rest of the way in a casserole pan -- so it cooks all the way through. Then I kind of shimmy it back in the turkey, so he's happy when he comes over.

Such a good trick! Anything else coming up for you that you want to share?

We're getting ready to do a new project in Atlantic City -- that'll be in May, that's very exciting. "The Chew" is in season 6, always very exciting. [I'm] working on a new cookbook, which is great. But, it's really actually been enjoyable for me to work with Lipton for the past couple months. Doing these Chef Fests was great. I love showing people easy tips to add a bunch of flavor and make their life a little bit better.

And quite frankly, it's been such a stressful past year with politics, to look out to a crowd of 300 people --- and a lot of them are strangers -- breaking bread and having dinner together is incredibly comforting to me.

This interview has been edited and condensed.