Grilled Thanksgiving dishes are an oven space saver for the holiday

Oven too crowded? Grilled Thanksgiving dishes can bring both a big burst of flavor and keep your oven from becoming overwhelmed.

Grilled Thanksgiving dishes can be a smart way of handling the numerous dishes on the Thanksgiving feast. Unless you have double ovens, a huge kitchen or the Thanksgiving dinner was catered, a single oven can cause chaos in the kitchen. From cooking the huge turkey to preparing all the Thanksgiving sides, space can be at a premium.

An easy solution to freeing up some oven space is to use an outdoor grill. While some places might not be overly conducive to outdoor grilling at Thanksgiving (sorry Chicago), some people can take advantage of their grills during the Thanksgiving holiday. Using that grill to cook some Thanksgiving dishes could be a great solution to keeping the Thanksgiving dinner on track.

Depending on your grill, a variety of recipes can work. While some people might have an entire outdoor oven, like the Napoli Outdoor Oven from LYNX, you can modify some of the recipes for your traditional LYNX grill as well. For example, LYNX has a delicious recipe for Almond & Thyme Roasted Pumpkin. This pumpkin recipe (see below) only takes 30 minutes in this particular oven.

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"Almond & Thyme Roasted Pumpkin on The Napoli Outdoor OvenServes: 6Prep Time: 20 minCook Time: 30 minIngredients• 2 pounds fresh pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes• 1 cup Onion, cut in medium cubes• 2 Tbs olive oil• 1⁄2 Tsp salt• 1 Tsp fresh ground black pepper• ½ Tsp ground cumin• ¼ Tsp paprika• ½ tsp Thyme leaves, fresh• 2 Tbs Sliced Almonds + more for garnishDirections• Pre-heat your Napoli oven on low for 30 minutes with door on.• Mix pumpkin, onion, olive oil, salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, thyme and almonds in a large bowl.• Transfer to a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft and brown on the edges.• Serve and garnish with sliced almonds."

In some cases, you could take this particular recipe and modify it for your grill. With the grill lid closed, the grill is similar to an oven. Just watch the temperatures inside the grill.

It is probably best to use indirect heat to cook a recipe like this one. Also, instead of using a traditional baking sheet, consider using a cast iron pan that can stand up to the higher temperatures. Additionally, use a good dual thermometer, like one from Thermoworks, to capture the grill temperature and the pumpkin temperatures.

While it can take a little try and error to get youra timing and temperatures perfected, using your grill in addition to your oven is a huge time saver on Thanksgiving. Plus, the grill can infuse the Thanksgiving dishes with some more robust flavors.

Would you consider using serving from grilled Thanksgiving dishes this year? Have you ever served these type of dishes on Thanksgiving?