The Ultimate Guide to 35 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes: Craft Your Perfect Feast
Thanksgiving dinner is a celebration of abundance, warmth, and, of course, incredible food. While the turkey often takes center stage, it’s the array of delectable side dishes that truly completes the holiday meal. To make your Thanksgiving dinner planning effortlessly simple and spectacularly delicious, I’ve curated a collection of the 35 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes. These recipes are thoughtfully grouped into categories, ensuring you can easily choose a balanced and flavorful spread that will delight all your guests.
Table of Contents
- Frequently Asked Questions
- 35 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes!
- Yeasted Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls
- Quick Thanksgiving Bread Side Dishes
- Sweet Potato Thanksgiving Side Dishes
- Stuffing Recipes for Thanksgiving
- Potato Thanksgiving Side Dishes
- The Best Thanksgiving Condiments
- Vegetable Thanksgiving Side Dishes
- Lasagna Thanksgiving Side Dishes
- Before You Go
Frequently Asked Questions About Thanksgiving Sides
Many Thanksgiving side dishes can be prepared up to a week in advance to ease holiday stress. My best advice is to pre-cut vegetables, cube bread for stuffing, and chop herbs. This allows for quick assembly and cooking on the day before or the day of Thanksgiving. However, certain items like fresh dinner rolls and creamy mashed potatoes are best made and served on the same day for optimal freshness and texture.
When choosing your Thanksgiving sides, I recommend categorizing them to ensure variety. Always include several different vegetable dishes, one featuring sweet potatoes, a savory stuffing or dressing, and a bread or dinner roll option. Beyond flavor, consider the preparation time: balance complex, hands-on recipes with simpler dishes that require minimal effort on Thanksgiving Day. This strategy helps manage your time effectively and allows some prep work to be done in the weeks leading up to the feast.
While it’s a personal preference, the joy of Thanksgiving often lies in the expansive variety of flavors. I suggest aiming for at least four side dishes, regardless of your guest count. A good starting point is two distinct vegetable sides, one stuffing or dressing, and a complementary sauce. For larger gatherings, feel free to add more options and variety! The key is to select dishes that are flavorful, pair well together, and don’t necessarily have to be overly complicated.
Exploring the 35 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes!
To help you navigate the rich tapestry of Thanksgiving flavors and select your perfect holiday menu, I’ve organized these 35 exquisite side dishes by category. Alternatively, for a truly traditional and curated experience, you can simply follow my Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner Menu with recipes!
Irresistible Yeasted Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls
There’s nothing quite like warm, homemade yeasted dinner rolls on the Thanksgiving table. A perfectly chosen roll isn’t just a vehicle for butter; it’s essential for soaking up all those incredible holiday flavors and, of course, for crafting epic leftover sandwiches the next day!
These Pumpkin Herb Dinner Rolls offer a savory twist with rich browned butter and fragrant herbs. Their distinctive flavors are guaranteed to impress, and despite their gourmet appeal, they’re surprisingly easy to make, requiring just a little pumpkin puree and a touch of patience!
Pumpkin Herb Dinner Rolls
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You can never go wrong with soft, tender Potato Rolls. While they do require homemade mashed potatoes, this step can easily be done up to a week ahead. I often cook a large batch of potatoes, use what I need for these rolls, and transform the rest into easy weeknight Creamy Mashed Potatoes.
Easy Potato Dinner Rolls
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For a touch of artisan charm, these Rosemary Sourdough Rolls boast a perfectly browned, crispy exterior and a wonderfully chewy interior. The aromatic rosemary beautifully complements any side dish and pairs exquisitely with my Roasted Herb Turkey. You might want to make a double batch – they disappear fast!
Rosemary Sourdough Rolls
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For a foolproof option, these Easy Dinner Rolls are so incredibly soft and tender they practically melt in your mouth. With no special preparation needed beforehand, you can whip them up from start to finish on Thanksgiving Day itself, making them a stress-free addition to your meal!
Easy Dinner Rolls
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Prepare for a delightful surprise with these Pumpkin Spice Dinner Rolls. An unexpected yet charming addition to your Thanksgiving side dishes, they are subtly savory with just a hint of brown sugar and warming pumpkin spice. They’ll pair wonderfully with sweet potato casserole, any stuffing, and a vibrant cranberry sauce.
Pumpkin Spice Dinner Rolls
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For a more wholesome yet equally delightful choice, these Whole Wheat Buttermilk Rolls are an excellent option. Each roll boasts only 50 calories and is made with 100% whole wheat, yet remains incredibly light, fluffy, and utterly delicious.
Honey Whole Wheat Buttermilk Rolls
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Let’s rediscover the authentic charm of traditional Parker House Rolls! The dough is classic: rolled into an oval, brushed with melted butter, and folded in half. They’re then baked to perfection on a baking sheet, creating those irresistible pull-apart rolls. This recipe shares the precise method straight from culinary school to your very own kitchen!
Parker House Rolls Recipe
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I crafted this recipe to perfectly capture the beloved taste and texture of King’s Hawaiian rolls. This Hawaiian Bread is similar to Portuguese sweet bread and French brioche bread, enriched with sugar, butter, and eggs. The inclusion of pineapple juice and a secret ingredient – mashed potatoes – gives them that extra sweet, tender, and incredibly soft quality you crave.
Hawaiian Bread
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Effortless Quick Thanksgiving Bread Side Dishes
When time is of the essence and a yeasted roll feels too ambitious, quick breads like cornbread and biscuits are your Thanksgiving saviors! These simple, fast-to-prepare bread side dishes will perfectly complement any holiday dinner, coming together in no time at all.
Moist Sweet Cornbread offers an incredibly easy and delicious alternative to yeasted bread for your Thanksgiving spread. You can effortlessly mix it in just one bowl, or for ultimate convenience, directly in the cast iron skillet you’ll use for baking!
Sweet Cornbread
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Having lived in the South, I know that for many, a meal simply isn’t complete without a tender Buttermilk Biscuit. You can do all the necessary prep work for these ahead of time, then simply bake them fresh for a glorious Thanksgiving dinner!
The Best Buttermilk Biscuits
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This is my classic Southern Cornbread Recipe. Unlike my Sweet Cornbread, it offers a more traditional, less sweet profile, yet remains wonderfully tender and soft. It’s ideal for making my Mushroom Cornbread Stuffing, but also serves beautifully as a standalone side dish.
Southern Cornbread Recipe
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Decadent Sweet Potato Thanksgiving Side Dishes
A Thanksgiving table just isn’t complete without at least one sweet potato side dish! I often lean towards the sweeter side, like a classic sweet potato casserole (sometimes with marshmallows!). However, I also have a deep appreciation for a well-executed savory sweet potato creation, offering a delightful balance to the meal.
These Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes offer the best of both worlds: they are subtly sweet yet predominantly savory. This silky-smooth puree combines roasted sweet potatoes with maple syrup, rich butter, and a touch of crème fraîche for an exceptionally luxurious texture.
Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes
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Prepare for pure decadence with this recipe for The Best Sweet Potato Casserole. It features a rich, buttery sweet potato base crowned with a delightful brown sugar pecan crumble. Baked together, these elements create the ultimate sweet potato casserole—the stuff of true Thanksgiving dreams.
The Best Sweet Potato Casserole
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If you’re looking for a slightly less indulgent option than my classic Sweet Potato Casserole, this Lightened-Up Sweet Potato Casserole recipe is perfect. It uses less butter and sugar, yet beautifully preserves the silky texture and signature crumble topping, offering a healthier take on a cherished classic.
Sweet Potato Casserole Lightened Up
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For a completely savory approach to sweet potatoes, these Brown Butter Sage Mashed Sweet Potatoes are a revelation. Smooth and creamy, they are infused with the nutty depth of browned butter and the earthy aroma of fresh sage, creating an elegant and flavorful side dish.
Brown Butter Sage Mashed Sweet Potatoes
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This Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole offers an even healthier and more visually engaging alternative than my lightened-up version. Sweet potatoes are sliced in the elegant Hasselback style and baked with a hint of butter until tender. A sprinkle of brown sugar pecan crumble on top finishes them perfectly, giving you all the classic flavors in a fun, wholesome presentation!
Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole
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Hearty Stuffing Recipes for Thanksgiving
Stuffing (or dressing) is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving. Any roundup of the 35 best Thanksgiving side dishes simply wouldn’t be complete without featuring a few of my most cherished recipes.
This Apple Sage Sausage Stuffing is a symphony of flavors, brimming with fresh herbs, a hint of sweetness from crisp apples, and a touch of spice from the sausage. It’s an absolutely phenomenal addition to any list of the Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes.
Apple Sage Sausage Stuffing
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This Classic Cornbread Stuffing features a delightful blend of crusty bread and cornbread, creating an ideal texture. It’s infused with an abundance of aromatics and just enough stock to ensure it’s moist and flavorful without ever becoming spongy.
Classic Cornbread Stuffing
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This Mushroom Cornbread Stuffing is my personal favorite! Made entirely with cornbread, it’s packed with savory aromatics and fresh herbs. The mushrooms provide a wonderful body and texture while keeping it light, and a scattering of cranberries adds a delightful tartness throughout.
Mushroom Cornbread Stuffing
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Classic Potato Thanksgiving Side Dishes
I love to incorporate a variety of flavors and textures into my potato recipes! Sometimes I stick to traditional, creamy mashed potatoes, while other times I enjoy shaking things up with rich, cheesy scalloped potatoes. The goal is always to balance the textures and flavors, especially with whichever sweet potato side dish I’ve chosen for the meal.
These Creamy Mashed Potatoes are a constant fixture on my dinner table. They are incredibly easy to prepare and feature just the right amount of butter to make them feel utterly decadent. I confess, I often eat them straight from the pot!
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
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Scalloped Potatoes are a mandatory side dish in my household, and my husband’s absolute favorite! Each year, I playfully tweak the recipe, experimenting with different cheeses or adding new layers of flavor. This creamy, cheesy delight is so good, you’ll be dreaming about it until next year’s feast, much like my White Cheddar Mac and Cheese!
