Cajun seasoning is popular in many recipes, and many cooks use it to give their foods a distinct flavor, even if the recipe doesn’t call for it.

You can add Cajun seasoning to your Thanksgiving meal to give beloved family dishes a new, flavorful kick. You might not find the three recipes below on a restaurant menu or in a cookbook, but they're so simple and easy to adjust to your taste preferences that you’ll want to make them over and over again—not just during the holidays!

Green Bean Casserole

FRENCH’s recipe for green bean casserole is nearly perfect. It’s easy to vary the ingredients to make this dish suitable for tons of different occasions.

We suggest simply replacing the 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper with the same amount of Cajun seasoning (adjust to taste). Want to add a smoky flavor and extra crunch? Fry up a few strips of bacon, break them up into small pieces, and then add them to the dish’s fried onions. Be sure to wait for the bacon to cool, as hot, greasy bacon can take the crisp and crunch right out of your fried onions.

Instead of baking your bacon-onion mixture on top of the casserole as the recipe instructs, add it right before serving. If you want your onions to be browner, bake them until they reach the desired color. 

Cajun-Spiced Turkey 

Let’s get right down to the main event: turkey! If you haven’t tried a Cajun-spiced turkey, you haven’t lived. Turkey’s lean meat is especially perfect for the strong flavors of Cajun seasoning blends.

We like this Epicurious recipe for its relative ease. If you’d like, substitute in Aunt Sally’s Cajun Seasoning for the recipe’s Cajun spice mix! Just remember that the turkey needs a whole night to absorb the spices before being roasted.

Railroad Biscuits

Not many people know what railroad biscuits are. These holdovers from the olden days were meant to last a week or so, and generally included raisins, nuts, some sort of berry, and some sort of sweet treat in the center. Chocolate, toffee, and butterscotch are commonly used. They’re a versatile and classic Thanksgiving dessert that goes by other names, including “railroad cookies”.

Almost any biscuit recipe will work, but Food.com’s buttermilk biscuit recipe works especially well because the buttermilk’s tang brings out the sweetness in the raisins and berries. All this sweet and tangy recipe needs is—you guessed it—a little bit of spice. It might sound a little weird, but bear with us!

Sprinkle your biscuit dough with just enough Cajun seasoning to coat it. You don’t want to overwork your dough, so mix the raisins, nuts, and berries in a separate bowl. You’ll need to fold this mixture in right before cutting the dough to place on the pan.

All of the recipes above can be adjusted to accommodate any taste preferences, special dietary needs, and amounts desired. 

Do you like Aunt Sally’s recipes series? Be sure to check out our Halloween sweet treat post, where we worked pralines into three of our favorite recipes.