Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas: Turkey, Sides, & Desserts

I’m sharing a bunch of Thanksgiving recipe ideas for y’all to try this year. I don’t know about y’all but for awhile we were eating the same foods at Thanksgiving every year. Last year we started mixing things up a little bit with new recipes for the same foods and I really liked that change.

We tend to decide on what exact recipe to make closer to the actual day. I know everyone isn’t like us (good for you!) so I wanted to go ahead & share a bunch of ideas early.

I’ve scoured Pinterest & my favorite food blogs for side dishes & desserts. I’ve also found recipes for turkey in case you’re looking to mix things up. (We are!)

All of these recipes are pinned on my Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas Pinterest board. You can go there to see all of these recipe ideas plus a bunch more that I didn’t share in this blog post.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

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Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas: Turkey

Sometimes turkey can get boring. Or dry. I know ours does. This year we’re most likely going to mix it up so I’m looking for turkey recipe ideas for us & these are the ones I found that sound really good.

• Citrus & Herb Butter Roast Turkey: The description for this recipe says that it uses “a blend of butter, fresh citrus zest, and herbs to infuse the meat with flavor & keep it tender, moist, & juicy”. They had me sold with just this description alone!
• Crockpot Cranberry Turkey Breast: To me, Crockpot says “tender & juicy”. I know that turkey can be dry sometimes so this recipe would be worth a try to change things up. (I bet my grandfather would’ve loved this turkey. He was a big cranberry fan.)
• Herb Butter Turkey (whole turkey): If you’re serving enough people to make a whole turkey, this is the recipe. The herb butter sounds so good.
• Roasted Turkey Breast with Garlic Herb Butter: I like the idea of making a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey because we won’t have to eat the turkey for 57 days. Haha Maybe if it’s smaller it’ll help it to not dry out too much, too? Maybe? Either way, turkey with garlic herb butter sounds good.

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Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas: Side Dishes

The Thanksgiving staples: mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, green beans. We have those 3 things every. single. year. Last year I tried a new mashed potato recipe that we really liked that I’m sharing below. I’ve had a go-to, from scratch, mac-n-cheese recipe for years that I’m gonna share with you too. We might mix things up again this year so I’m gonna add a few recipes that I’m eyeing too.

The Staples:

• World’s Best Mac N Cheese: Reading the recipe can be overwhelming because the cheese sauce is a whole separate recipe. Have no fear, you can make the cheese sauce the day before & just heat it up before you bake it. It’s easy to make. The link doesn’t link to the cheese sauce so click here to go to the cheese sauce recipe. I double the main recipe so I can use all 4 cups of the cheese sauce. It’ll make enough to serve 8 people as a side dish easily.
• Chunky Garlic Mashed Potatoes: We made these last year & just a heads up if you’re not a huge garlic fan, reduce the amount of garlic. I remember these potatoes being quite garlicky. If I make these again this year, I probably won’t use the entire head of garlic. I’d use almost all of it. 🙂

• Green Bean Casserole: In full transparency, we open a can of green beans & call it a day. We may add bacon to the pot if we’re feeling fancy. Haha Maybe we need to expand our horizons this year & try something new? I think this green bean casserole recipe would do the trick.

Mix It Up!

• Tried & True Honey Butter Rolls: SO GOOD! I love these rolls! I’ve made them a couple of times & they always turn out great. She also has a whole wheat option on her blog.
• Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes: Scalloped potatoes just feel a little more elegant to me than regular mashed potatoes. I can’t really even explain why I think that but I do so I think this recipe would be perfect if you want to elevate things a little bit. Or just to mix things up from your usual mashed potatoes.
• Cheesy Creamed Spinach: We’ve never had spinach of any kind at our Thanksgivings but I think this recipe would be great if we did. If you like creamed spinach, this sounds like a good recipe to try to mix things up.
• Brown Sugar Bacon Roasted Sweet Potatoes: The recipe title might seem like this dish would be a lot of work but it sounds quite easy. You can make it ahead of time & just heat it up before everyone gets there. I think it’d be a nice spin on the usual sweet potato casserole. This recipe adds in some saltiness too for some balance to the sweet potatoes & brown sugar. Yum!

• Grandma’s Veggie Casserole: My Grandma used to make this for our holiday get-togethers & everyone loved it—probably thanks to those onion rings on top. 🙂 I’m sharing the full recipe at the bottom of this blog post. It truly couldn’t be easier to make. If you’re looking for easy cheesy vegetables, this casserole is the one!
• Cranberry Sauce: We’ve always just opened a can (wow, anyone sensing a theme here?) but if you’re more of a from scratch person or want to give it a try this year then I bet this would be a good one. Lindsay is one of my favorite food bloggers & I’m sure she wouldn’t steer you wrong. 🙂

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Desserts

My favorite! This is what I’m always in charge of year after year and I love looking around and trying to decide what desserts to make. So naturally, I have linked a bunch here for you. I usually make 2: one with chocolate for the chocolate lovers & typically a pie because, Thanksgiving & fall. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to make this year but now I have a lot of great ideas to choose from.

• Brownies: In the past, I’ve made a batch of brownies from a box. Don’t get me wrong they were good, but this year if I make brownies, I’m definitely making these (they’re mine!). They’re the perfect mix of fudgy & cakey plus they’re thick & this recipe makes enough for a good size crowd. If I make 2 desserts this year, I’ll probably cut the batch in half so we don’t have as many.

• Caramel Apple Trifles: I think these are so cute & they’d be perfect for a small group for Thanksgiving. You can make them a few hours ahead of time or up to a day before (depending on how crunchy you want your granola).
• Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting: It is Thanksgiving so I felt that I should include a good pumpkin dessert. These look so good & you can’t go wrong with Cream Cheese Frosting.
• Maple Apple Blondies: Apples are quintessential fall, am I right? Add maple syrup to it and you’re living your best fall life.
• Apple Cider Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream + Caramel Apple Filling: This one would definitely be a little more work but if you want a showstopper (or a little bit of a challenge) this is the dessert to make.

Pie:

• I made this Cranberry Almond Apple Pie a couple of years ago & the family loved it! It’s the perfect fall pie in my opinion & I highly recommend it. I did a crumble topping because I was on the struggle bus with pie crust but no one minded. Feel free to try a crumble on top instead! You can use this one. Heck, even this pie would be yummy for Thanksgiving.

• Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars: I know pecan pie is super popular this time of year & while I’ve made a whole pecan pie before (& it was super easy), I think it’d be fun to make them into bars instead. Try these bars if you want to mix up the traditional dessert.
• Apple Slab Pie with Maple Icing: If you like to go the more traditional route, this is a great dessert for you. Instead of a traditional pie, you use a baking pan which will serve more people (or give you plenty of leftovers 🙂 ).

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There you have it! A huge round up of Thanksgiving recipe ideas. Hopefully these recipes give you new inspiration for your Thanksgiving celebration this year. I know they’ve given me new ideas.

Oh! And when you have a bunch of leftovers, I think these Cranberry Asiago Turkey Sliders would be great to mix things up & get those leftovers eaten in a fresh way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

P.S. The first & last photo are part of our fall decor that my mom did this year. Doesn’t it look so good?!