The Only Day Of The Week You Can Snag Cracker Barrel's Turkey N' Dressing
It doesn't get much more comforting than a big plate of turkey and dressing with all the fixings. This holiday staple is a common sight on diner menus, usually served alongside a helping of vegetables and slathered in gravy. You can also find the meal at Cracker Barrel — if you know when and where to look.
Cracker Barrel has its standard set of offerings on the menu — like the popular Chicken 'N Dumplings — but there are some dishes you can only catch one day of the week. The restaurant's daily specials are served from Wednesday to Sunday and feature different dishes for lunch and dinner each day. If you want to catch the Turkey N' Dressing, it's available on Thursdays for both lunch and dinner at certain Cracker Barrel locations. Not every Cracker Barrel offers the same menu, so be sure to check in with your local outpost to ensure they offer it before stopping by!
What is dressing?
Depending on where you're from, you may or may not be familiar with the term dressing. Stuffing tends to be a more common accompaniment to turkey in the northern U.S., while dressing is more popular in the southern states. But what's the difference between stuffing and dressing? While some may see these two words as interchangeable, there is a distinction between the two.
Stuffing, you might guess by the name, is a mixture of ingredients meant to be stuffed inside of the cavity of the bird before cooking. While not all stuffings are made this way anymore, this is how the mixture of bread, eggs, broth, and other savories originated. Dressing, meanwhile, is traditionally prepared separately from the bird (or other main dish) and served separately as well. Cornbread dressing is among the most popular dressings, but there are a variety of different types using other types of bread. Cracker Barrel serves the traditional cornbread dressing.
A variety of Cracker Barrel weekly specials
Beyond turkey and dressing, Cracker Barrel offers a medley of other dishes for their daily specials throughout the week. Each of these dishes comes with two sides as well as buttermilk biscuits or corn muffins. Stay traditional with your Turney N' Dressing and get the sides of carrots or corn plus mashed potatoes and gravy.
Though the restaurant's main menu remains the same day to day, many of these special dishes are only available one day per week. Some even vary based on whether you're ordering at lunch or dinner — such as Wednesday's special, which features Meatloaf for lunch and Broccoli Cheddar Chicken for dinner.
Fridays bring the Country Coastal Sampler or the Friday Fish Fry, depending on your local Cracker Barrel's offerings. The fish fry is akin to fish and chips, with batter-dipped cod filets; the sampler includes fried shrimp in addition to the fried cod.
On Saturdays, you can order Country Fried Pork Chops smothered in gravy. Sunday's special is Homestyle Chicken, though according to the Cracker Barrel website, this dish is technically available every day.