We all know the history of the first Thanksgiving… allegedly. Our schools have been glossing over the fact Texas had a bigger Thanksgiving led by the Catholics [so you can be sure it was more rootin’ and tootin’ than the event in New England] a full 23 years before the pilgrims.

The Dallas Cowboys have done what they can to take back the tradition.

This week, I went back to AT&T Stadium to supervise their preparation for Thursday’s game. A lot of the items they’re selling are the same as last year, but they’ve added something new.

Rowdy high-fived the chef who oversaw the creation of chicken nuggets shaped like the Dallas Cowboys’ star.

Tyson Dallas Cowboys Nuggets are available at stands throughout the stadium. I was excited to think I now had a nugget guy, imagining George Wasai carefully crafting each Chicken Star while wearing a jeweler’s magnifier, but he said Tyson sends them the pre-shaped nuggets. They probably just use some sort of nugget extruder that pushes the chicken through a stencil.

Heather Fuller, one of the concessions chefs, says they started prep work about a week ago. When your mother-in-law starts getting the vapors about having to prepare such an elaborate dinner for extended family, you can explain the gang at AT&T Stadium is fixin’ 14,000 pounds of turkey, 5,400 pounds of ham, 310 gallons of gravy for dippin’, and 12,000 pounds of Cowboys Mac n Cheese.

Marcelo Vasquez, the executive chef, says the Mac n Cheese is available year round, but he says they get a boost from people who want to try it at Thanksgiving.

He says they’ll be at the stadium at 4 am Thursday to start cooking turkeys, then the hams go in the oven at 8.

They showed us how they don’t take this job lightly. After presenting us with the information, they came out with tray after tray of Cowboys Nuggets on which the reporters could nosh as we filed our stories.

Here’s the complete rundown of food they’ll be serving during the game, complete with gravy, sauces and creams for dippin’:

1. 16,320 pounds of famous Cowboys Mac n Cheese  
2. 5,410 pounds of Ham 
3. 212 Gallons of heavy whipping cream for dessert toppings 
4. 252 Gallons of cranberry sauce    
5. 2,685 pounds of yukon gold potatoes   
6. 14,002 pounds of turkey   
7. 5,131 pounds of cornbread for dressing 
8. 310 Gallons of gravy
9. 425 pounds of pecans for scratch-baked pies  
10. 830 pounds of fresh green beans for signature bowls and hand pies  
11. 970 pounds of pumpkin for scratch made pies 
12. 2,340 pounds of sweet potatoes
13. 260 pounds of greens for salads and sides