If you're too busy to shop and cook and prep for the Thanksgiving holiday, you're not alone. More burned out B.C. families are opting for a helping hand this year, with many turning to the professionals to do the legwork for their Thanksgiving dinner.

Some grocery stores are offering up alternatives. Whole Foods will prep your raw bird, provide all the trimmings and dessert for eight people for $149.

And if cooking the bird yourself still seems like too much work, how about getting the pros to do all the holiday drudgery for you?

The Sutton Place Hotel is offering Thanksgiving-to-go for up to 13 people. It's called the "Turkey Express" service.

"You got the smell. It's same as if you would have cooked it at home. Just order it a half an hour early, put it in the oven, keep it warm and everyone thinks you've cooked your own turkey. So a little cheating, but it's a good thing," said Wolfgang Dauke of Sutton Place.

For $350 before tax your family can sit down to an expertly roasted turkey with all the trimmings and none of the work.

If that's a little too rich for you, executive chef Michael Deutsch has some secrets to getting the best from your home-cooked bird. It all starts with a simple salt, brown sugar and water brining.

"What that does is it makes the bird retain a lot of the moisture in there, and it would take between three and six hours depending on how much you want to brine it," said Deutsch.

The recipe is simple:

  • Take four litres of water
  • Add 1 ½ cups sea salt
  • 1 ½ cups brown sugar
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp. black peppercorn
  • 4 tbsp. coriander seed
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 diced onion

Immerse the bird for about six hours. Take it out when ready to cook

Before you stuff the bird and pop it in the oven, salt and spice both the inside and the outside of the cavity and tuck a little crushed and salted garlic and fresh herbs under the skin.

But if you'd rather let the pros do all the legwork, while you get all the compliments, get your Turkey Express order in now.

The Sutton Place Hotel was the first Vancouver hotel to offer this service about 15 years ago. It used to do about ten meals a season. Now it's doing up to 40 a day during the holidays.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lynda Steele