No Thanksgiving meal would be complete without a heaping platter (or several) of delicious side dishes. Sure, turkey is typically at the center of Thanksgiving dinner, but sides are often the star of the show, and they’re what we reach for again (and again) at second helpings! We’ve rounded up some classic Thanksgiving sides including traditional stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole and more. Keep scrolling for the complete list of 25 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes, where the most popular is number one (keep reading till the end!).
25. Ambrosia Salad
Ambrosia Salad is an old-fashioned Thanksgiving side dish that consists of fruit, marshmallows and a creamy dressing. The combination of pineapple, mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, shredded coconut, chopped pecans, mini marshmallows and a sour cream/whipped topping dressing make this a light and refreshing Thanksgiving side dish. We highly recommend making this Ambrosia salad the night before Thanksgiving Day, as it needs to sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to set. Drain and pat dry the fruit before adding to the salad to prevent too much liquid which could loosen up the dressing.
Ambrosia Salad
Ingredients
Method
- Pat the fruit dry with paper towels.
- Fold sour cream into whipped topping.
- Stir in fruit, marshmallows, coconut, and pecans.
- Chill at least 2 hours.
24. Maple Roasted Root Vegetables
A perfect side dish to accompany a Thanksgiving or Holiday roast, these Maple Roasted Root Vegetables are bursting with flavor! Tender roasted carrots and parsnips with sweet potato and red onions, tossed in olive oil with fresh thyme, salt and pepper and roasted. After 25 minutes they are taken out and drizzled with pure maple syrup and back in the oven to caramelize for an additional 10 to 15 minutes for perfect browned caramelized edges! Serves 6 alongside turkey or ham or whatever meat you choose to serve on Thanksgiving or any special holiday!
Maple Roasted Root Vegetables
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 425°F.
- Toss vegetables with oil, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Spread on 2 sheet pans.
- Roast for 25 minutes.
- Drizzle with maple syrup and toss.
- Roast 10 to 15 minutes more, until caramelized.
23. Waldorf Salad
Made with crisp apples, celery, red grapes, and toasted walnuts tossed with a creamy honey-mayo dressing. This tasty salad is the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving menu! Adding lemon juice will help the diced apple from browning and adds a subtle tang. Refrigerate leftovers tightly covered. Easy Make-Ahead Thanksgiving recipe! Prepare up to dressing step ahead of time; refrigerate tightly covered until serving. Stir dressing into salad and top with toasted walnuts just before serving.
Waldorf Salad
Ingredients
Method
- Toss apples with lemon juice.
- Whisk mayo, yogurt, honey, and salt.
- Add apples, celery, and grapes. Toss to coat.
- Top with walnuts.
- Chill until serving.
22. Collard Greens
Cooked low and slow with a smoked ham hock, this is a perfect side dish for any holiday menu. To start, brown the onion and garlic then add chicken broth and a smoked ham hock and bring to a simmer. Once simmering add the chopped collards. The apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and red pepper flakes complement the smoky ham hock broth. Once the collards have cooked down and are tender, dice some of the meat off of the ham hock and stir into the pot. Serve them, or alongside cornbread to sop up that yummy pot liquor!
Collard Greens
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Cook onion for 5 minutes.
- Add garlic. Cook 1 minute.
- Add broth and ham hock. Simmer 30 minutes.
- Add greens a handful at a time.
- Stir in vinegar, brown sugar, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.
- Cover and simmer 45 minutes.
- Pull meat off the ham hock, chop, and stir back in.
21. Roasted Butternut Squash
Roasted Butternut Squash is made by combining cubed, fresh butternut squash with olive oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and black pepper. Then it all goes in the oven to roast, at a pretty high temperature (425°F), which causes the edges to caramelize, but leaves the centers soft and tender (be sure to give it a flip half way through cooking, for more even browning). Once removed from the oven, it’s garnished with some fresh, chopped sage, which lends an earthiness that contrasts nicely with the sweetness.
Roasted Butternut Squash
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 425°F.
- Toss squash with oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.
- Spread on a sheet pan in one layer.
- Roast 25 to 30 minutes, flipping halfway.
- Sprinkle with sage.
20. Broccoli Casserole
Chopped broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, mayo, sour cream, eggs, cheddar (sharp) cheese and seasonings are the basis for this tasty Broccoli Casserole recipe. After being combined in a casserole dish, a mixture of additional cheddar cheese and Ritz crackers tossed with melted butter goes on top. It’s baked for about 30-35 minutes, until heated through, bubbly and nice and golden on top. It’s super cheesy, comforting goodness, and even picky eaters might enjoy it!
Broccoli Casserole
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish.
- Chop the broccoli.
- Mix soup, mayo, sour cream, eggs, 1 1/2 cups cheese, and seasonings.
- Fold in broccoli. Spread in the dish.
- Top with remaining cheese.
- Toss crackers with butter. Sprinkle on top.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until bubbly.
19. Fall Salad with Apples and Pecans
Light, fresh and full of fall flavors, this Fall Salad with Apples and Pecans recipe is sure to please. The crisp apple and toasted pecans add texture to the greens and it all comes together beautifully with the sweet and tangy flavors of the delicious, homemade honey Dijon dressing. A lighter option to balance out all those rich casseroles and creamy sides. Serve it with roasted turkey, stuffing and other Thanksgiving favorite.
18. Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots
An easy recipe and a crowd favorite, these Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots can be made on the stovetop (a plus when you’re trying to conserve oven space for everything else you’re cooking on Thanksgiving Day!). The carrots simmer covered until tender, then uncovered until the liquid has cooked off. Melted butter and brown sugar are stirred until melted and nicely caramelized. The shiny glaze coats the carrots evenly and the addition of a little black pepper offsets the sweetness nicely (they can also be garnished with fresh parsley and flakey sea salt).
Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots
Ingredients
Method
- Simmer carrots, water, and salt in a covered large skillet over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Uncover and cook until the water evaporates.
- Add butter and brown sugar.
- Cook, turning often, 5 to 7 minutes, until glossy and caramelized.
- Season with pepper. Top with parsley and sea salt.
17. Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
If you’re looking for another great way to prepare Brussels sprouts, try these Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, cooked in a skillet until golden and a little crispy on the edges, the smoky flavor of the bacon adds richness (and some salty) to balance out their flavor. Cooking Brussels sprouts in a skillet, like this, really brings out their natural sweetness and helps balance out any bitterness. This would be another option that isn’t a creamy casserole (in case you have enough of those on your Thanksgiving Day menu already). They would go great alongside classic favorites like creamy mashed potatoes.
16. Cranberry Jello Salad
Sweet, tart and full of crunchy pecans, Cranberry Jello Salad is a Thanksgiving classic. Made with raspberry gelatin, whole berry cranberry sauce and crushed pineapple, it’s also an easy dish to prepare ahead of time. In fact, you’ll want to make it the day before Thanksgiving and allow it time to firm up in the fridge. Finely chopped celery is optional for this recipe but it adds another textural element to this fun holiday dish.
Cranberry Jello Salad
Ingredients
Method
- Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.
- Stir in cranberry sauce until melted.
- Add pineapple with its juice.
- Chill 45 minutes, until slightly thick.
- Fold in celery and pecans.
- Pour into a 9×13 dish.
- Chill 4 hours, until set.
15. Sweet Southern Biscuits
Sweet Southern Biscuits are an easy make-ahead recipe. They have just a hint of sweetness thanks to some sugar stirred into the dough, which also includes heavy cream and Greek yogurt for tender, cake-like biscuits. Slathered with butter, drizzled with honey or spoonfuls of jam, there’s no question they’re sweet, but these biscuits are also great next to savory items on your Thanksgiving table, like roasted turkey smothered with gravy. Keep some biscuits back after the holiday meal for the following day: Slice ’em and sandwich ’em with all that leftover turkey!
14. Cornbread Dressing
Made with crumbled cornbread (we suggest drying it out for one day before making the recipe), sautéed onion and celery, fresh sage, dried thyme, chicken broth, day-old white bread and eggs, Cornbread Dressing is moist and delicious. Cornbread Dressing can easily be made ahead, baked in a 9×13-inch baking dish and golden on top, ready to be reheated after turkey comes out of the oven on Thanksgiving Day. And it makes 12 hearty servings, perfect for a holiday crowd.
Cornbread Dressing
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13 dish.
- Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
- Cook onion and celery 8 minutes.
- Add to cornbread and bread in a big bowl.
- Stir in sage, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Mix in eggs and broth.
- Spread in the dish.
- Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until golden.
13. Scalloped Potatoes
A take on a traditional gratin, Scalloped Potatoes are perfect on the Thanksgiving table either in lieu of, or along with, classic mashed spuds. Thinly sliced Yukon Gold potatoes simmer in a creamy, delicious sauce of butter, onion, garlic, whole milk, heavy cream and seasonings like fresh thyme and nutmeg. A great make-ahead casserole dish, Scalloped Potatoes can go in the oven up to a day in advance of Thanksgiving, where they’ll bake for a total of 75 minutes, first covered until the potatoes are tender, and then uncovered until golden.
Scalloped Potatoes
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 375°F. Butter a 9×13 dish.
- Melt butter in a saucepan. Cook onion 3 minutes.
- Add garlic. Cook 30 seconds.
- Whisk in flour. Cook 1 minute.
- Whisk in milk and cream. Simmer until thick.
- Stir in salt, pepper, nutmeg, and thyme.
- Layer potatoes and sauce in the dish.
- Cover with foil. Bake 45 minutes.
- Uncover. Bake 30 minutes more, until golden.
12. Deviled Eggs
Serve Deviled Eggs as an easy make-ahead Thanksgiving appetizer! Guests can graze on them, waiting around for Thanksgiving dinner. Just refrigerate the 24 egg halves (enough for a heaping appetizer platter) in the filling dish until ready to serve. To make them, simply boil eggs, halve and remove yolks. Then mash together yolks with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish, white vinegar. Fill egg whites and dust with paprika.
Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
Method
- Cover eggs with water in a pot. Bring to a boil.
- Cover, turn off heat, and let sit 12 minutes.
- Move to ice water. Peel.
- Halve eggs and pop out the yolks.
- Mash yolks with mayo, mustard, relish, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
- Spoon or pipe into the whites.
- Sprinkle with paprika.
11. Easy Creamed Corn
Coated in a smooth and deliciously creamy sauce, this Easy Creamed Corn recipe will win over the skeptics! Made entirely on the stovetop, there’s no worry over whether or not you’ll have oven space for it alongside all of the other goodies (like the turkey and stuffing!). Mild in flavor and ever so slightly sweet, Creamed Corn pairs perfectly with more savory Thanksgiving dishes like turkey and mashed potatoes. Serving suggestion: serve piping hot, straight into a bowl!
10. Steakhouse Creamed Spinach
Need an idea for a cooked green for Thanksgiving? Look no further! This Creamed Spinach recipe pairs well alongside roasted turkey, savory side dishes and of course, some great mashed potatoes. A rich and thick cream sauce, laced with cheese, coats each tender bite of spinach in this recipe for Steakhouse Creamed Spinach. Creamy without being overbearing, this Creamed Spinach recipe doesn’t drown out the flavor of the spinach. Instead, the two flavors complement each other perfectly for a rich, savory bite.
9. Jalapeno Corn Casserole
Mixed altogether in 1 bowl, this easy recipe for Jalapeno Corn Casserole couldn’t be more simple to whip up for Thanksgiving dinner (or any holiday or special get-together for that matter). Creamy, moist and spoonable, this recipe features whole kernel corn, creamed corn, sour cream, corn muffin mix, chopped up jalapenos and plenty of melted, sharp cheddar cheese. Sweet, salty and spicy flavors are all present in each and every bite of casserole. This recipe is great for holiday get-togethers where time to prep or oven space is limited.
8. Homemade Dinner Rolls
Nothing beats fresh, hot from the oven homemade rolls on Thanksgiving (or any) Sunday! Simple to make, these soft rolls are brushed with butter straight out of the oven, leaving the perfect glossy top, begging to be slathered with even more butter. The basic dough is comprised of just a handful of simple ingredients, including warm milk, yeast, sugar, egg, butter and flour. Once combined, the dough will rise in a large bowl until doubled in size. Once the initial rise is complete, the dough is then formed into 16 individual rolls, which rise a 2nd time and head into an oven.
Homemade Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Method
- Mix milk, yeast, and sugar. Rest 5 minutes.
- Add egg, softened butter, salt, and 3 cups flour.
- Knead 6 to 8 minutes, adding flour as needed.
- Cover and let rise 1 hour, until doubled.
- Shape into 16 balls. Place in a greased 9×13 pan.
- Cover and rise 30 minutes.
- Heat oven to 375°F.
- Bake 15 to 18 minutes, until golden.
- Brush with melted butter.
7. Turkey Gravy
Made with drippings and thickened with a roux (butter + flour), this recipe for Thanksgiving Turkey Gravy is sure to please! Lightly seasoned with dried thyme, salt and pepper, the flavors in this recipe aren’t overpowering…simply the perfect complement to Thanksgiving turkey! Add turkey (or chicken) stock/broth to the pan drippings (if necessary) then simmer for 8 to 10 minutes for perfectly thickened, gravy that coats the back of a spoon. Serving suggestion: serve warm alongside Thanksgiving turkey, mashed potatoes and/or stuffing!
Turkey Gravy
Ingredients
Method
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Whisk in flour. Cook 2 minutes, until golden.
- Slowly whisk in broth and drippings.
- Add thyme.
- Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, until thick.
- Season with salt and pepper.
6. Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce is a Thanksgiving side dish, but you’ll never go back to canned once you make this easy cranberry sauce recipe. Simply simmer fresh cranberries with orange juice, orange zest and nutmeg. It will be ready when the cranberries become soft and the sauce thickens. The flavor profile will be similar to the canned cranberry sauce you’re used to, but will definitely have a punch thanks to the fresh cranberries (you will also have a chunkier texture). Citrus pairs perfectly with Thanksgiving meals, cutting through all the rich food on your plate. Plus, it only takes about 20 minutes.
5. Homemade Kraft Mac and Cheese
If there’s one side dish (or dinner) that kids love, it’s macaroni and cheese. Skip the boxed version this Thanksgiving, and try your hand at this creamy, from-scratch mac and cheese recipe instead. The taste and texture will blow any boxed version out of the water, and real sharp cheddar cheese instead of powder is the name of the game here. Bonus, it can be made entirely on the stovetop! This is helpful if oven space is a priority during Thanksgiving Day dinner.
4. Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble
Sweet potatoes are a Thanksgiving dinner tradition in some households. Take the humble sweet potato to the next level by whipping up this sweet potato casserole. First, boil sweet potatoes, and then mash them up with brown sugar, melted butter, milk, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon. Top with crumbled, chopped pecans, brown sugar, flour and butter for the perfect mix of sweet and crunchy. Bake until the top is perfectly crisp, while the inside should still be soft. This recipe makes about 10 servings, making it the perfect side dish (or even dessert!) for Thanksgiving.
Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble
Ingredients
Method
- Boil sweet potatoes until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain.
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13 dish.
- Mash potatoes.
- Beat in filling ingredients until smooth.
- Spread in the dish.
- Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle on top.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the topping is crisp.
3. Green Bean Casserole
Green bean casserole is a Thanksgiving classic, and for good reason. This recipe takes all the flavors you love about green bean casserole and kicks it up a notch by ditching the can of cream of mushroom soup. Brown some delicious cremini mushrooms instead, and combine with tender green beans, garlic, chicken broth and milk for an oh-so delicious dish. You’ll still be using crispy fried onions, but reserve half to sprinkle on the casserole in the last 5 minutes of cooking because otherwise they’ll burn! Makes 8 servings.
Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 400°F.
- Boil green beans for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Cook mushrooms until browned, 6 to 7 minutes.
- Add garlic. Cook 30 seconds.
- Stir in flour. Cook 1 minute.
- Whisk in broth and milk. Simmer until thick.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in green beans and half the onions.
- Pour into a 2-quart baking dish.
- Bake 20 minutes.
- Top with remaining onions. Bake 5 minutes more.
2. Classic Herb Stuffing
Stuffing (or dressing as some call it) is a Thanksgiving must! Here’s a delicious recipe for herb stuffing you can make on Thanksgiving Day. First, toast bread cubes (we suggest a hearty French or Italian bread), and sautee onion, celery and garlic with fresh sage, thyme and parsley. Combine with the bread, and add in eggs and chicken broth to bring everything together. Bake until cooked through and remove for crispy edges and a moist center. Pro tip: Make the stuffing in its own dish, instead of inside the turkey. It’ll save you lots of hassle!
Classic Herb Stuffing
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 300°F.
- Toast bread cubes on sheet pans for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Raise oven to 375°F. Butter a 9×13 dish.
- Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
- Cook onion and celery for 8 minutes.
- Add garlic, sage, and thyme. Cook 1 minute.
- Toss bread, vegetables, parsley, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
- Whisk eggs and broth. Pour over bread and toss.
- Spread in the dish. Cover with foil.
- Bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 20 minutes more.
1. Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Garlicky, buttery and downright scrumptious, there’s no better side dish than creamy mashed potatoes. We suggest this garlic parmesan recipe to take your side dish to the next level. Parmesan adds a nutty, salty flavor to these already delectable mashers. Guaranteed to go perfectly with a roasted turkey and some homemade gravy! Serve immediately (while they’re still piping hot), and top with additional butter or gravy. Make extra because trust us, no one will complain as mashed potatoes are almost always the first dish to go!
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