The 30 Most Popular Thanksgiving Recipes
Thanksgiving recipes bring everyone together for a holiday filled with delicious food and cherished traditions. From juicy roasted turkey to creamy mashed potatoes, everyone has their favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Whether you’re hosting or bringing a side, these classic recipes will make your holiday feast unforgettable.
This collection features the most popular Thanksgiving recipes families return to year after year. You’ll find traditional side dishes, savory stuffing, comforting casseroles, and irresistible Thanksgiving desserts. From green bean casserole to homemade pumpkin pie, there’s something everyone will love on your holiday table.
If you’re not interested in traditional at all and want to skip the turkey altogether, I recommend lasagna roll-ups that feed a crowd! My family does do turkey on Thanksgiving, but we have the lasagna rolls every Christmas.
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Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes
Juicy Roast Turkey
This simple Thanksgiving recipe makes cooking a turkey look too easy to be true! The turkey is rubbed down with a plethora of herbs and spices prior to roasting. The cavity is filled with citrus fruit, garlic, and onion, providing a unique scent and flavor to the bird.
Dry Brine Spatchcock Turkey with Herb Butter
No dealing with a bag full of liquid in this recipe! Just remove the spine and rub the bird down, then it’s ready to go. This recipe creates a beautifully crispy skin as well. Make sure you have a pair of poultry shears!
Brined Turkey
A super-easy brine recipe, all you need is a giant stockpot to make the brining process as simple as possible. Brining allows the meat to absorb salt overnight, which helps the meat retain its juices while the turkey cooks.
Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes
Turkey Gravy and Cranberry Sauce
Easy Turkey Gravy
This no-fuss gravy recipe just uses the drippings from your cooked turkey and some pre-mixed poultry seasoning. You can use turkey stock instead of drippings to make it even easier!
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce is a lot easier to make than you think. This recipe is fancied up with fresh orange juice and zest, as well as a cinnamon stick.
Starchy Sides
Buttery Herb Stuffing
On Thanksgiving, calories don’t count. So don’t worry about the large quantity of butter involved in the creation of this delicious stuffing.
FYI, stuffing and dressing are the exact same thing. Traditionally, stuffing is when the recipe is “stuffed” into the turkey, while dressing is cooked separately. I call it stuffing either way!
Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes
These are the Holy Grail of mashed potatoes. They start out like regular potatoes, boiling on the stove and getting mashed… But then they’re baked in the oven with all the delicious toppings of a loaded baked potato. You won’t have leftovers of these!
Sweet Potato Casserole
Finally, a sweet potato recipe with marshmallows and not pecans! This is how it should be, in my opinion. I don’t like nuts but I love sweet potatoes. This recipe even has a streusel topping under the marshmallows for extra crunch, flavor, and sweetness.
Southern Baked Mac and Cheese
This heart-stopping soul food recipe uses ALL the cheeses, including cream cheese. It also includes both heavy cream AND half and half. Just cook the noodles and mix it all up in a dish to bake, melt, and turn into heaven.
Classic Corn Casserole
This is how we ate corn on Thanksgiving at my Granny’s house when I was growing up! Whole kernel corn, cream-style corn, and Jiffy mix were always the main ingredients, no matter how it deviated a little each year.
Veggie Recipes
Ginger Lime Brussels Sprouts
This recipe has TWO secret ingredients (and I don’t mean the ginger) – maple syrup and lime! If you don’t like brussels sprouts after they’re cooked with maple, you’re probably never gonna like them.
Air Fryer Carrots (Two Ways!)
A simple switch of ingredients can change these carrots from sweet to spicy. Either way, your air fryer will keep them out of your stove – and cook them up tender but crunchy!
Easy Green Bean Casserole
This is how my family has always made green bean casserole: with cream of mushroom soup. Some say it’s the easy way, and I say… they are right! Why make Thanksgiving recipes hard? You’ve got so much to make!
Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup
A simple soup can add an easy “course” to the meal before the big show – especially if you’re not quite done cooking! In a slow cooker, it’s not taking up valuable space in the oven. This one is thick and creamy and can be fancied up even more by adding a swirl of cream to each bowl. If you don’t have a heat-proof blender, make sure you have a hand mixer to whip up the squash!
Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Casserole
A much more sophisticated version of broccoli casserole, this recipe has broccoli and onion cooked up in creamy coconut milk. Red pepper flakes give it a nice zing, too!
Other Side Dishes
Fall Apple Mandarin Orange Spinach Salad
A simple, light, fruity salad is sometimes all you need for your mouth to get a little break from all the warm, hearty side dishes abundant at Thanksgiving. But don’t worry, there’s still cheese on it!
Pomegranate Coleslaw
My husband hates the traditional creamy coleslaw, but he’ll destroy this fruity, tangy version. Apple and pomegranate lend some sweetness to the dish while a homemade dressing of cider vinegar, agave, and dijon liven up the cabbage, carrots, and beets.
Dill Pickle Potato Salad
You can’t call it a party unless there’s potato salad present. This one has all the good veggies – pickles, peas, carrots, and broccoli. The dressing is, very simply, good old mayo!
Veggie Dip
This is great to have ready and sitting out with fresh vegetables for everyone to nibble on until dinner is completely ready. There are no weird ingredients and you can throw it together in five minutes!
Cranberry Fluff Jello Salad
Depending on how old you are, if you think back to your childhood, you just might remember Grandma serving up something like this at her Thanksgiving. This weird-but-tasty fluffy fruity concoction isn’t usually even considered a dessert, just a normal side dish! Well, at least, it used to be. Still tastes good to me!
Sauteed Apples
Sure, this recipe is insanely easy, but I like warm fruit as much as I love warm veggie casseroles. It’s good to have something sweet in the mix! This recipe makes the apples particularly tasty with molasses and maple syrup.
Bread Recipes
Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread
If you’re from the South like me, you know cornbread is THE bread of choice to go with most meals. Thanksgiving is no different! Being able to serve your bread straight out of the skillet means there’ll be one less serving platter to wash, too.
Honey Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
You won’t believe how easy it is to make your own perfectly rounded, fluffy dinner rolls with this recipe. Just make sure you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment and the time and patience to let the dough proof before baking.
Thanksgiving Drink Recipes
Thanksgiving Punch
Apple cider and ginger ale form the base of this punch, but the flavor is super amped up with fresh fruit, cinnamon sticks, and pumpkin pie spice. You can make it a few days ahead in a pitcher, too!
Cranberry Wassail
Vocabulary alert! “Wassail” is a hot mulled cider drink. This recipe is non-alcoholic and makes a perfect drink to serve the kids while the grown-ups have their post-meal cups of coffee!
Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes
Pumpkin Pie
At the top of the list of Thanksgiving essentials, this pumpkin pie recipe is no-frills, old-fashioned, and will be tasty till the end of time. Just make sure you have some Cool Whip to put on top of each slice!
Pumpkin Roll
This is the one dessert I always looked forward to my mom making during the holidays! One surprising ingredient for the filling on this pumpkin roll is maple syrup!
Sweet Potato Pie
Since sweet potato pie also uses cinnamon and brown sugar, to me, it doesn’t taste all that different from pumpkin pie. This genius recipe cuts out the potato prep by using baby food pouches of pureed sweet potato! The homemade marshmallow whipped cream adds a decadent touch.
Bourbon Chocolate Walnut Pecan Pie
That’s a mouthful – literally! So many amazing flavors come together in this incredible fall dessert recipe. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, either. You can throw this pie together in 10 minutes.
Dutch Apple Pie
There are people out there who think pumpkin pie is totally unnecessary at Thanksgiving, and would rather only have apple pie. Those people are obviously wrong, but I do love apple pie. So I just eat both!
Get even MORE Thanksgiving dessert recipes!
How to Choose What Recipes to Make
How much will each dish cost to make?
Some things are expected to be pricey, like the turkey. But while most vegetables are priced low, if a recipe calls for a specific type of cheese or you need to buy new spices, the costs can add up!
Check over the entire ingredients list for any outliers before choosing. By the way: it’s perfectly okay to make cheap Thanksgiving recipes. They still taste good.
How many things can you cook at once?
It’s always a great idea to choose some dishes that are cold or can be made ahead and quickly reheated. This will save a lot of stress on Thanksgiving day. But remember, the average stovetop has four burners and the average oven has two racks. You can have a lot of food cooking at once!
Not only that, you should choose Thanksgiving recipes that make use of a slow cooker, an instant pot, and an air fryer so you can have more cooking at once.
What are the other guests bringing?
If you’re not sure, ask the host. If you ARE the host, be sure to send out a menu of what you’re preparing to your guests. Even if you didn’t ask, they may want to bring a dish along anyway. This way they won’t duplicate one of yours.
Do you like the recipe enough to eat the leftovers?
One of the best parts of Thanksgiving recipes is that they’re designed to have LEFTOVERS! Just make sure you’re making something you really like, because you’ll likely go home with your own leftovers.
How far are you traveling with the dish?
If you’re driving a long distance to Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll want to prepare a cold dish or just bring drinks. If you want to bring a hot dish but it will need to be heated upon arrival, let your host know well ahead of time. Otherwise, they may not have any available space in the oven or microwave!
When to Start Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner
There are a lot of factors involved in deciding when to start cooking. I’ve actually got a really great printable Thanksgiving planner that can help you sort out your plan of attack. Below are some tips for creating a timeline that I’ve learned through years of experience.
Make the cold and room-temp dishes FIRST.
Deviled eggs and potato salad can be made the night before. Pies and cookies can be made a day or two in advance. Even warm dips can be made in advance and reheated in the microwave.
A lot of the casseroles on this list can be assembled the day before, then popped in the oven before dinner. Just give them time to come to room temperature before cooking to avoid cracking your glass dishes!
Your turkey needs to start super early.
Even smaller turkeys usually take several hours to cook in the oven. Larger turkeys can take over six hours! And remember: that turkey is taking up valuable casserole space in your oven while it cooks.
It’s best to start cooking the turkey at a time when it should be done an 90 minutes to an hour before dinner time. It should be loosely covered and left to rest after it’s done anyway, giving you baking space and time for your side dishes.
Some casseroles stay hot longer than others.
You’re probably not going to be able to bake all of your oven sides at the same time. Cook the ones that will stay warm longer first. Anything with a lot of sauce, cheese, or density will hold heat a little better than something with pockets of air.
Prep all dishes early in the morning.
Peel, chop, season, and otherwise prepare all of your vegetables, liquids, and butter sticks first thing in the morning and put them back in the fridge. Then you can just pull them out and dump them into a pot or pan without having to pause for measuring or cutting.
Before You Go…
All of these Thanksgiving recipes have gotten my stomach rumbling! Make sure you grab a free printable Thanksgiving banner while you’re here to decorate your dining room!
Recipes look delicious. Can’t wait to try them.
The pumpkin pie and the apple crumble are must do! thanks for sharing!!
What a great collection of recipes. Thanksgiving was earlier this month for us and we had a nice quiet dinner with our little social bubble, of family. Hopefully you are able to celebrate with your family and well!