30 Easy Thanksgiving Recipes That Will Make You the Star of the Holiday
This Post is about 30 Easy Thanksgiving Recipes
Thanksgiving dinner has a reputation for being this massive, all-day cooking marathon that leaves the host exhausted before anyone even sits down. I am here to tell you it does not have to be that way.
These 30 easy Thanksgiving recipes cover everything from appetizers to dessert and every single one of them is designed for a real person with a real life who also wants to actually enjoy Thanksgiving instead of just surviving it.
Make ahead where you can, use your crock pot aggressively and remember that nobody has ever left a Thanksgiving table saying the rolls weren’t homemade enough.
Appetizers to Keep Everyone Happy While You Finish Cooking
1. Brie and Cranberry Crostini
Toasted baguette slices topped with warm brie and a spoonful of cranberry sauce. This takes ten minutes and tastes like something from a fancy restaurant — the combination of creamy brie and tart cranberry is genuinely perfect and guests will eat every single one before the main course even hits the table.
2. Butternut Squash Soup Shooters
Creamy butternut squash soup served in small shot glasses or espresso cups as a passed appetizer.
Make it the day before, reheat gently and pour into glasses right before guests arrive. Elegant, seasonal and completely unexpected.
3. Deviled Eggs with Bacon and Chives
The appetizer that disappears before you even finish setting the table. Classic deviled egg filling topped with crispy bacon crumbles and fresh chives simple, crowd-pleasing, and something you can make entirely the day before. Double the batch because you will run out.
4. Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip
Block of cream cheese on a plate, topped with whole berry cranberry sauce and a drizzle of honey, served with crackers.
This takes three minutes to make and people lose their minds over it every single Thanksgiving. The sweet-tart cranberry against the creamy cheese with a little honey is just right.
5. Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board
A full grazing board with fall cheeses, prosciutto, crackers, grapes, dried apricots, pecans and cranberries. This is the appetizer that makes your guests think you have everything completely under control before they even sit down. My full guide on how to build one is right here: Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board Ideas.
The Turkey
6. Crock Pot Turkey Breast
Season a bone-in turkey breast generously, place it in the slow cooker on low for six to eight hours and walk away. This frees up your oven for literally everything else on this list and comes out perfectly juicy every single time. The drippings make an incredible gravy that takes about five minutes to pull together.
7. Herb Butter Roasted Turkey
The classic roasted turkey with a compound butter of softened butter, fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and garlic rubbed under and over the skin. This is the showstopper centerpiece turkey — golden, fragrant and exactly what Thanksgiving is supposed to look like.
8. Spatchcock Turkey
Flatten the turkey by removing the backbone, season aggressively and roast at high heat. Cooks in half the time of a traditional turkey, crispier skin and juicier meat — once you try spatchcock turkey you genuinely cannot go back. The technique sounds intimidating and takes about five minutes.
Sides Everyone Actually Wants
9. Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes
Cubed potatoes, chicken broth, butter and cream cheese in the slow cooker on high for four hours, mashed right in the pot. The smoothest, creamiest mashed potatoes you have ever made and they stay warm in the slow cooker while everything else comes together. No draining, no separate pot, no stress.
10. Green Bean Casserole from Scratch
Fresh green beans, homemade mushroom cream sauce and crispy fried shallots on top instead of the canned version. The difference between this and the canned soup version is genuinely remarkable and it still comes together in under 30 minutes.
11. Candied Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and a handful of mini marshmallows melted on top at the end. This is the side dish that gets requested every single year and goes in the crock pot so you never have to think about it again once it’s assembled.
12. Classic Stuffing
Cubed bread, celery, onion, butter, chicken broth, fresh sage and thyme baked until golden and crispy on top with a soft custardy center. This is the side dish people fight over at Thanksgiving and leftover stuffing the next day is one of life’s great pleasures. Make extra.
13. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
Brussels sprouts roasted at high heat until crispy and caramelized, tossed with crispy bacon and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. Even the people who think they hate Brussels sprouts eat these — the high heat roasting changes everything about them. This converts people every single Thanksgiving.
14. Cranberry Sauce from Scratch
Fresh cranberries, orange juice, orange zest and sugar simmered for ten minutes. It takes less time to make from scratch than it does to find the can opener and it tastes about a thousand times better. Make it two days ahead and refrigerate — it gets better as it sits.
15. Corn Pudding
Creamed corn, whole kernel corn, eggs, butter, sour cream and cornbread mix baked into a soft, custardy side dish that sits somewhere between a side and a dessert. This is the dish that people who have never had it before come back for seconds of immediately. Extremely easy, extremely good.
16. Roasted Garlic Dinner Rolls
Soft dinner rolls brushed with roasted garlic butter straight out of the oven. Store bought frozen rolls finished with homemade garlic butter taste genuinely incredible and nobody needs to know where they started. This is the move.
17. Autumn Harvest Salad
Mixed greens, sliced pears, candied pecans, dried cranberries, crumbled gorgonzola and a maple balsamic vinaigrette. This salad makes people forget they normally skip the salad at Thanksgiving because the flavors are so perfectly fall. Make the dressing ahead and assemble right before serving.
18. Crock Pot Stuffing
All the same ingredients as classic stuffing assembled in the slow cooker instead of the oven to free up valuable real estate. Cook on low for four hours for stuffing that stays perfectly moist throughout the entire meal. A complete game changer for a crowded Thanksgiving oven situation.
The Gravy
19. Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy
A rich turkey gravy made with turkey wings roasted in the oven, their drippings and good chicken stock — made entirely before Thanksgiving Day. No scrambling for drippings while everything else is coming to the table. Reheat gently and finish with a splash of white wine. This is the thing that ties the whole meal together.
Setting a beautiful table to go with all this food? My Thanksgiving Tablescape Ideas post has 20 stunning setups for every budget and style.
Desserts Worth Saving Room For
20. Classic Pumpkin Pie
Silky smooth pumpkin custard in a buttery homemade crust with freshly whipped cream. Make it the day before and refrigerate — pumpkin pie actually sets up better overnight and one less thing to do on Thanksgiving Day is always the right call.
21. Brown Butter Apple Pie
Classic apple pie filling in a flaky crust with brown butter folded into the pastry for a nutty, caramelized depth of flavor. This is the apple pie that makes people say they don’t normally like apple pie because it tastes completely different from any version they’ve had before.
22. Pecan Pie Bars
All the flavors of pecan pie in bar form so you can skip the pie crust drama entirely. These slice cleanly, travel beautifully and taste exactly like pecan pie — make them two days ahead and they’re even better.
23. Pumpkin Cheesecake
Creamy pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and a dollop of whipped cream. This is the dessert that makes people choose it over pumpkin pie and then immediately feel guilty about it. Make it two days ahead — cheesecake only gets better with time in the fridge.
24. Maple Pecan Ice Cream
Store bought vanilla ice cream mixed with maple syrup and toasted pecans, refrozen and served alongside any pie on the table. This takes five minutes and makes every dessert on the table taste more intentional — a scoop of this next to a slice of pumpkin pie is genuinely special.
25. Mini Pumpkin Tarts
Store bought mini tart shells filled with spiced pumpkin custard and topped with whipped cream. Individual desserts mean no cutting, no serving and everyone gets their own perfect little tart — great for a crowd and they look beautiful on a dessert table.
Drinks
26. Crock Pot Mulled Apple Cider
Apple cider, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, orange slices and star anise in the slow cooker on low all day. Your house smells like the best fall candle you’ve ever bought and guests can serve themselves straight from the slow cooker. Add bourbon for the adults.
27. Thanksgiving Sangria
Red wine, apple cider, brandy, sliced apples, oranges and cinnamon sticks. Make it the night before so all the flavors meld together and serve in a big pitcher over ice. This is the drink that gets people in the Thanksgiving spirit the moment they walk in.
28. Sparkling Cranberry Mocktail
Cranberry juice, sparkling water, a squeeze of lime and fresh cranberries floating in the glass. Beautiful, festive and something the kids and non-drinkers can have too — this looks just as impressive as a cocktail in the right glassware.
Leftovers Worth Planning For
29. Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich
Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a swipe of mayo on toasted sourdough. This is the meal people look forward to as much as Thanksgiving itself and if you’re not making extra stuffing specifically for this sandwich you are missing out on one of life’s great joys.
30. Turkey and Vegetable Soup
Turkey carcass simmered with celery, carrots, onion and whatever vegetables are left from dinner into a rich, healing broth-based soup. The best thing about Thanksgiving is honestly the soup you make with the bones the next day — it tastes like the whole holiday distilled into a bowl.
Wrapping up
Thanksgiving dinner is a lot — there’s no getting around that. But with the right recipes in your back pocket, a crock pot working overtime and as much made ahead as possible, you can actually enjoy the holiday you put all this effort into. That’s the whole point. Feed the people you love, sit down at that beautiful table you set and soak it in.
FAQs
What are the most important Thanksgiving recipes to make from scratch?
Gravy, cranberry sauce and stuffing are the three things worth making from scratch because the difference between homemade and store bought is most noticeable there. Everything else is fair game for shortcuts.
What Thanksgiving recipes can be made ahead?
Gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, pecan pie bars, candied sweet potatoes and the harvest salad dressing can all be made one to two days ahead. The crock pot sides can be assembled the night before and turned on in the morning.
How do you keep Thanksgiving food warm while everything finishes cooking?
Slow cookers on the warm setting are your best tool for mashed potatoes, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes and gravy. Cover everything else with foil and a kitchen towel to hold heat for up to an hour.
What is the easiest Thanksgiving dessert?
Pumpkin cheesecake made two days ahead requires almost no active work and consistently impresses more than any other dessert on the table. Pecan pie bars are a close second.
How much food do you need for Thanksgiving?
Plan for one to one and a half pounds of turkey per person, one cup of each side dish per person and at least two dessert options. Always make more stuffing than you think you need — it disappears faster than anything else.
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