The turkey gets top billing every year, but ask anyone what they actually pile on their plate and you’ll hear about the potatoes. And the dressing. And that one green bean dish somebody’s aunt has been bringing since 1994.
Around here in Montana, Thanksgiving gets divided up over the phone about two weeks ahead. Somebody claims the rolls, somebody claims the sweet potatoes, and whoever answers last ends up with the gravy. I’ve been on both ends of that call. So I keep every side dish I trust in one place, and this is it.
If you only make one new thing this year, make the crack green beans. Bacon, brown sugar, and a little soy sauce, and the pan comes back empty every single time. Fair warning.
Potatoes, Every Way
Buttery, cheesy potatoes you can assemble the night before and slide in the oven.
Bring party potatoes to the table when you want the dish everyone asks about.
Cheesy hashbrowns that cook in the crock pot but finish off in the oven.
Crock pot cheesy hashbrowns are so easy to make and a crowd-pleaser.
Crispy edges, soft centers, and onions that go sweet in the skillet.
Fix a skillet of fried potatoes and onions for the folks who show up early and hungry.
Little potatoes with crackly skins, done in the air fryer while the oven stays busy.
Toss together air fryer baby potatoes for a side that needs almost no counter space.
Creamy mashed potatoes without babysitting a pot on an already crowded stove.
Make these Instant Pot mashed potatoes when every burner is already spoken for.
Green Beans and Fall Vegetables
Canned green beans baked with bacon, brown sugar, and soy sauce until they’re sticky and salty.
Pass around a pan of crack green beans and watch it disappear before the turkey’s carved.
The classic casserole with bacon and cheese stirred in, because it earns its spot.
Bake this green bean casserole with bacon and cheese if your family expects the traditional one.
A few pantry tricks that turn a plain can of green beans into something worth seconds.
Learn how to make canned green beans taste better when you’re working with what’s already in the cabinet.
Green beans and potatoes cooked together the old way, with bacon running through it.
Simmer up Instant Pot green beans and potatoes for two sides in one pot.
Crispy, caramelized sprouts that convert the people who swear they don’t like them.
Roast a sheet pan of roasted Brussels sprouts for the easiest green thing on the table.
Sprouts with bacon and dried cranberries under a sweet glaze, dressed up for company.
Plate up roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and cranberries when you want one side that looks fancy without the work.
Buttery, brown sugar carrots that the kids will actually eat.
Stir up a pan of candied carrots and put a vegetable on the table nobody argues about.
Broccoli roasted with garlic until the edges go brown and crisp.
Add garlic roasted broccoli when the rest of the menu is heavy and you need something simple.
Asparagus bundled in bacon and baked until the bacon crisps up.
Wrap up some bacon wrapped asparagus for a side that doubles as an appetizer.
Tender cabbage cooked down slow with butter and seasoning.
Start slow cooker cabbage in the morning and forget about it until dinner.
Sweet squash with crisp edges, ready in about fifteen minutes.
Cook up air fryer butternut squash for fall flavor without heating up the kitchen.
Casseroles, Corn, and Rice
Soft, sweet, spoonable corn casserole that sits somewhere between a side and a bread.
Spoon out this corn casserole and expect to be asked for the recipe before dessert.
Cheesy broccoli and rice baked together, straight out of a church cookbook.
Bake a dish of Southern broccoli casserole when you need something comforting that travels well.
Three ingredients, one dish, and rice so buttery it barely needs anything else.
Try stick of butter rice for the side dish with the shortest grocery list on this page.
Sweet corn on the cob without tying up a burner or a big pot of water.
Load up Instant Pot corn on the cob when you’re feeding a crowd and short on stovetop.
Dressing, Rolls, and Bread
Cornbread dressing made the way it’s been made for generations, moist in the middle and crisp on top.
Make this old-fashioned cornbread dressing if you want the one dish that tastes like your grandma’s kitchen.
Sweet, moist cornbread that works as a side or as the base for your dressing.
Bake a muffin tin full of sweet cornbread a day early and use half of it for dressing.
Soft, pull-apart yeast rolls worth the rise time.
Fill a basket with these yeast rolls and let the smell do the rest.
Flaky buttermilk biscuits for the people who’d rather have biscuits than rolls.
Whip up easy homemade buttermilk biscuits and put butter and honey on the table beside them.
Biscuits from three ingredients when the oven schedule has gotten away from you.
Keep 3-ingredient biscuits in your back pocket for the year everything runs late.
A soft white loaf that slices beautifully and makes the best leftover turkey sandwiches.
Bake an Italian white bread on Wednesday and thank yourself on Friday.
Sweet Potatoes and Candied Sides
Sweet, syrupy yams baked until the edges caramelize.
Serve up these candied yams for the side that blurs the line between dinner and dessert.
Sweet potatoes under a brown sugar and pecan topping that goes crunchy in the oven.
Assemble a dish of sweet potato crunch the night before and bake it Thanksgiving morning.
Perfectly soft sweet potatoes with no oven time at all.
Cook Instant Pot sweet potatoes as your starting point for any topping you like.
Warm, cinnamon-soft pears cooked down in butter.
Cook a skillet of fried pears for an old-fashioned side most people have never had.
Apple butter that cooks itself in the slow cooker and makes the whole house smell like fall.
Put up a batch of slow cooker apple butter to spread on those rolls.
Make-Ahead Salads and Fluff
Creamy orange fluff with mandarin oranges and marshmallows, straight off the potluck table.
Stir together orange fluff salad the night before and pull it out cold.
Peas, cheese, and bacon in a creamy dressing, the way it showed up at every church supper.
Mix up old fashioned pea salad a day ahead and let the flavors settle in.
Apples, Snickers, and whipped topping in the salad that’s really a dessert.
Bring Snicker apple salad if you want the bowl that empties first.
Shredded carrots with raisins and pineapple in a sweet, creamy dressing.
Shred up a bowl of carrot salad for a bright spot on a very beige plate.
Broccoli, bacon, raisins, and sunflower seeds in a sweet-tangy dressing.
Toss up broccoli crunch salad when you want something cold and crisp between all the casseroles.
Leaf lettuce wilted with hot bacon dressing, an old recipe most people have forgotten.
Dish up wilted lettuce for the side your grandparents will recognize right away.
A simple green salad with a dressing that makes it worth eating.
Round out the table with the best side salad when you need one light thing.
Gravy and the Finishing Touches
Smooth, peppery white gravy that comes together in one skillet.
Whisk up this white gravy for the mashed potatoes and the biscuits both.
Rich gravy built from the drippings you already have in the pan.
Pour homemade gravy with drippings over everything and don’t apologize for it.
Deviled eggs topped with candied bacon, gone in about four minutes.
Fill a tray of deviled eggs with candied bacon to keep everyone out of the kitchen while you finish up.
Or, get even more creative and make these adorable pumpkin deviled eggs.
Celery sticks filled with seasoned cream cheese, the appetizer that never left.
Set out stuffed celery with cream cheese on the relish tray like your mom used to.
Honey butter, cinnamon butter, and a few more ways to dress up a dinner roll.
Soften some flavored butter and let people help themselves.
The Table Takes Care of Itself
Pick four or five from this list and you’ve got a Thanksgiving spread nobody’s going to forget. My advice is one potato, one green thing, one casserole, something cold you made the day before, and bread. That combination has never once let me down.
And write down what people ask about. That’s next year’s list, already done.
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