These 3 Football Stadiums Have the Best Food on Thanksgiving

From turkey legs to hand-held pies, there's never been a better selection of Thanksgiving food at the NFL.

While millions of football fans will gather around televisions at home with plates full of Thanksgiving Day dishes, fans at three NFL venues have the chance to dive into the flavors of the holiday right at the concourse level.

In a growing tradition that has captivated football fans — especially in Dallas and Detroit, two NFL cities that have hosted Thanksgiving Day games regularly since 1966 and 1934, respectively — stadiums are serving their own versions of turkey, stuffing, traditional sides, and more. Since the league added a third game on the holiday in 2006, a rotating list of cities has been able to participate in the Thanksgiving food festivities. This year Green Bay, Wisconsin returned to the mix for the first time since 2015, complete with an update on its own Lambeau Field menu.

AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas

The Dallas Cowboys have been playing football on Thanksgiving Day since 1966 — with the exception of two years — and any fan that attends a game at AT&T Stadium can get a taste of the holiday.

“Every single fan that comes to the game, whether in a suite or club or all the way on the upper concourse, has the ability to purchase a Thanksgiving meal,” George Wasai, vice president of food and beverage for Legends Hospitality at AT&T Stadium, tells Food & Wine. “Every year, we try to introduce something new. It is very important to us that even though you may experience a normal Thanksgiving meal, you always have a new twist [at the stadium].”

Protein is the heavy lifter here, and according to Legends the venue serves over 13,000 pounds of turkey and 5,000 pounds of ham to roughly 90,000 fans on Thanksgiving Day. But there’s no shortage of sides and condiments either, including 252 gallons of cranberry sauce, 5,000 pounds of cornbread used in the stuffing, 425 pounds of pecans and 970 pounds of pumpkin for scratch-baked pies, 830 pounds of fresh green beans, 2,340 pounds of sweet potatoes, and 310 gallons of gravy.

What may excite Dallas fans most on Turkey Day is the stadium’s year-round Cowboys’ macaroni and cheese — which reportedly has a 20-ingredient sauce and truffle breadcrumbs on top — with Thanksgiving marking the best-selling day of the year for the item as over 16,000 pounds of the gooey concoction are typically dished out during the holiday.

“The mac and cheese number is always unbelievable,” Heather Fuller, concessions chef for Legends Hospitality at AT&T Stadium, tells Food & Wine. “That one seems to go up all the time and is the most shocking.”

When it comes to adapting traditional Thanksgiving flavors to a sports arena, Fuller says the trick is ensuring fans can walk around and eat, without needing to sit down with a knife and fork. “We have to think outside the box when it comes to those things,” she explains.

That’s why one of the most popular items in the last couple of years has been the stadium’s take on Thanksgiving in one pie, first introduced in 2022. The portable hand pie contains “all the Thanksgiving goodness wrapped in a butter crust,” Fuller says, and comes layered with pecan- and hickory-house-smoked turkey, herb dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans, sweet potatoes, and gravy inside a crust.

The location’s massive Thanksgiving sandwich has also been a big hit, with all the flavors of the holiday that you’ll find in the pie piled on a six-and-a-half-inch brioche bun, but with an added layer of Cowboys mac n cheese.

Last year the “Thanksgiving roll” was introduced in Dallas, featuring herb dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pecan- and hickory-house-smoked turkey bundled and fried in a crispy egg roll-style wrap. The turkey-gravy dipping sauce adds an extra savory touch. “Fans loved it,” Fuller says, “and we will be bringing it back this year and making more of them.”

This Thanksgiving Day, the Cowboys will introduce another new item to their fans, this time in partnership with Tyson Foods — a chicken nugget in the shape of the team’s star logo.

Wasai points out that it has been fun to create something new that fans look forward to year after year, but it comes with some logistical hurdles too. “It is planned chaos for sure,” Fuller tells us, noting that they work months before to make sure they can procure the ingredients they need because of quantity requirements. Staff must also balance how they store and prep the items, because the regular concession menu remains intact — nachos are the top seller at AT&T Stadium whether it’s Thanksgiving Day or not, with three out of every five food orders including the stadium’s cheesy chips.

“It is a privilege and an honor to have people come here and share their Thanksgiving meals with us,” Fuller says. “For a lot of people, their tradition is eating the meal at the stadium.”

Festive Foods by the Numbers

On Thanksgiving Day, AT&T Stadium serves approximately:

• 13,000 pounds of turkey

• 5,000 pounds of ham

• 252 gallons of cranberry sauce

• 5,000 pounds of cornbread

• 425 pounds of pecans

• 970 pounds of pumpkin

• 830 pounds of green beans

• 2,340 pounds of sweet potatoes

• 310 gallons of gravy

Ford Field anticipates serving:

• 1,800 turkey legs

• 3,500 total pounds of turkey

• 3,000 pounds of mashed potatoes

• 2,000 pounds of stuffing

• 700 pounds of green beans

• 500 pounds of corn on the cob

• 100 gallons of gravy

• 55 gallons of cranberry sauce

• 2,500 slices of pie
  

Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan

Thanksgiving food traditions stretch even deeper into history in Detroit, with a game played on the holiday at Ford Field stadium regularly since 1934. Since Chicago-based hospitality company Levy Restaurants took over the food service in 2002, the stadium has offered up a themed menu for its 65,000 fans every Thanksgiving.

The highlight of the festive feast is undoubtedly its signature turkey legs. The most popular concessions menu item during the games, the turkey legs come smothered in a tangy sweet cranberry barbecue sauce and are served with a side of cornbread dressing.

The special Thanksgiving Day menu also has a brunch lineup with an egg and brioche casserole; Thanksgiving pull-apart sliders with roasted turkey; a bacon, sausage, and brisket breakfast griddle; and a sweet potato hash.

Following the game, staff deliver turkey legs and turkducken — a dish consisting of a roast turkey that’s stuffed with a duck that’s stuffed with a chicken —  to the players and staff on the field, which sounds like the ideal way to recover from physical activity.

“For more than 20 years, we’ve had the privilege of playing a role in the Detroit Lions annual Thanksgiving game,” Andy Lansing, Levy CEO, tells Food & Wine. “It’s one of the great moments at the intersection of sports and food, [and] an absolutely cherished tradition. Not only do we host and feed 60,000-plus hungry fans in the stadium, but our homestyle cooking is on full display for the millions at home watching the annual post-game turducken and turkey leg celebration. That celebration truly kicks off Thanksgiving, and we take great pride in bringing everyone together.”

Levy noted that The Lions anticipate serving 1,800 turkey legs — and 3,500 pounds of turkey in all — while also dishing up 3,000 pounds of mashed potatoes, 2,000 pounds of stuffing, 700 pounds of green beans, 500 pounds of corn on the cob, 100 gallons of gravy, 55 gallons of cranberry sauce, and 3,500 slices of pie.

There are also three signature holiday cocktails for this year’s game against the Chicago Bears, which channel the Detroit team’s mascot Roary the Lion, and its colors of blue, silver, black, and white. Fans can choose from options like the Roarin’ Roary with white rum, piña colada mix, blue raspberry lemonade, and a blue boba and dried pineapple garnish, or the Chicago Thunder, which contains vodka, triple sec, peach purée, and orange juice, garnished with an orange wheel and blue gummy bear skewer.

Related: 21 Fall Cocktails From an Apple Cider Margarita to Seasonal Sangria

Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin

For the first Thanksgiving Day game in Green Bay, Wisconsin since 2015, the Packers’ culinary team from Delaware North has a plan to bring holiday flavors to every fan visiting the frozen tundra.

Attendees who have splurged on private suites can take advantage of a full turkey dinner and fresh pumpkin pie, and two all-inclusive clubs (the Terrace Club and Champions Club) will feature a Thanksgiving carving station with a choice of herb-crusted turkey breast or strip steak, plus sides like sage stuffing, green bean casserole, and sweet potato with torched marshmallow. But it’s across the venue — from concession stands to party decks, in places that any fan can access — where Lambeau Field will serve a shaved turkey sandwich with house-made stuffing, gravy, cranberry aioli, and crispy onions on sourdough bread.

The festivities aren’t limited to Thanksgiving Day. For an entire week leading up to the game, fans visiting the on-site 1919 Kitchen & Tap, which is open at the stadium year-round, can order a Turkey Day Flatbread with garlic sour cream, house-made stuffing, turkey, fire-roasted corn, mozzarella, and cranberry mostarda.

“From a culinary standpoint, the trickiest part is just ensuring you have all the right ingredients,” Zac Ladubec, executive chef for Delaware North at Lambeau Field, tells Food & Wine, “as Thanksgiving dinners obviously don’t happen every day. But creating unique meals for special occasions is what we do best, so it’s not so much a challenge as it is an opportunity to do something fun on a holiday that includes two of our favorite things: Packers football and great food.”