I usually hold the thermostat in place with some silicon and coat both sides of the gasket. Spread it around, not thick globs. After having mine leak from the last intake job, I went alittle crazy on silicon and did anything coolant related with it plus the gaskets....
You only need a thin coat of RTV on both sides of the gasket. I usually use a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface to make sure the T-Stat housing is perfectly flat first. Then with the little RTV around the edge of the T-Stat istself I "glue" it into the housing smearing the RTV on the housing surface, adding some if necessary. Then stick the gasket on and smear a light coat on the gasket. You don't really need too much sealant because the excess is simply going to oozeout an look bad while providing no extra sealing.