Our seasonal Turkey Dinner is a holiday favorite, featuring classics like our Marshmallow Delight and Cranberry Orange Relish. Discover the story behind this delicious feast that brings tradition and flavor to your table!

Our seasonal Turkey Dinner from our deli features

• Marshmallow Delight
• Cranberry Orange Relish
• Homestyle Gravy
• Homestyle Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes
• Old-Fashioned Cornbread Dressing and
• a fully cooked turkey.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at how this dinner is made.

Step 1

To prepare for the holiday season, our Lakeland, Florida, deli plant ramps up production of Marshmallow Delight, Cranberry Orange Relish and Homestyle Gravy. First, the focus is on the Marshmallow Delight, which is made in our salad operation. This delicious treat is a sour cream base mixed with marshmallows, assorted fruits and a seasoning blend. These primary ingredients are blended together and then deposited into container cups.

Step 2

Once production of Marshmallow Delight is complete, the deli plant begins making Cranberry Orange Relish. First, the cranberries are chopped in a blender and then mixed with sugar and orange juice concentrate. Once the ingredients are fully combined, the mixture is poured into container cups in preparation for shipping.

Step 3

Our Homestyle Gravy is produced on the same production line used for mayonnaise. Each year, mayonnaise production pauses for 3 days, allowing us to produce enough gravy to meet the demand for the holiday season. We combine vegetable broth, water and a blend of seasonings to create our delicious gravy, which is then poured into container cups.

Step 4

After the marshmallow dish, relish and gravy are produced, the products are then packaged for different holiday needs. Some containers are distributed to stores as individual sides, while the containers needed for Turkey Dinner assembly are sent to 2 of our facilities. Our Homestyle Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes and Old-Fashioned Cornbread Dressing are packaged and stored in our frozen warehouses. They’re then shipped separately to the same facilities, where they arrive with the marshmallow dish, relish and gravy. During this time, those facilities receive fully cooked turkeys to begin the assembly process.

Step 5

This is where the fun begins, and everything comes together. Our associates assemble and pack the products together to create the Turkey Dinners, which takes about 5 days. Once assembly is complete, the dinners get stacked onto pallets and loaded on trucks for shipment to our stores in time for Thanksgiving.

About the deli kitchen

When the Lakeland deli kitchen opened in 1984, it was about half its current size and only produced a handful of our current offerings. Today, over 425 associates work at the 135,000-square-foot facility. A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector is on-site every time we’re making meat products. The deli kitchen is where many Publix-brand deli meats in the service case are processed and packaged, along with a variety of our Publix Smokehouse meats like ribs, pork butts and chicken, as well as our Publix salads and dips.