50+ Thanksgiving Recipes {Plus a Thanksgiving Menu Planner!}
Welcome to the ultimate resource for planning your big holiday meal!
Below are over 50 of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, as well as a handy printable Thanksgiving menu planner.
What’s the Thanksgiving dish/recipe your family can’t live without?!? Mine would definitely say homemade rolls! (And my personal favorite is this cranberry pomegranate jello.)
Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes
- 20+ Recipes for Thanksgiving Leftovers
**Special shout out to this LEFTOVER TURKEY SOUP that has more than 500 5-star reviews. It’s one of the best ways to use those turkey leftovers!
Thanksgiving Dinner Menu Planner
Link to full post here:
Free Printable Thanksgiving Dinner Planner
Downloadable files here:
50+ Thanksgiving Recipes
Turkey/Ham
Homemade Rolls
Veggie Sides/Salads
Cranberry + Fruit Sides
Potatoes
Pies/Desserts
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Thank you Mel! We had our Thanksgiving dinner early over the weekend and all the recipes came from here. My all time favorite every year is the confetti corn and. The new ones for us this year were the slow cooker turkey breast (total game changer with how yummy and easy it was!) and the pumpkin rosemary rolls. I forgot to pickup fresh rosemary so just left out and they were so delicious! I also used the planner you posted and it really helped. Everyone went so smoothly time wise.
Thank you!!!! This is amazing and such a help in planning Thanksgiving dinner!
My absolute favorite Thanksgiving food, to prepare and share, is Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie. It is a recipe that I got from The Pie Lab, in Greensboro, AL , several years ago. The Pie Lab is no longer in Greensboro, but the recipe lives on, in our family! It is delicious, and loved by everyone in our family, and extended family.
Sounds amazing, Frankie!
Mel,
You mentioned that you were going to take a smoked turkey from Costco with you to Montana. Do you recommend their smoked turkeys? How do you serve them?
Hi Amy, good question. I think the smoked turkeys from Costco are pretty good! They aren’t as good as the turkeys my BIL has smoked on the pellet grill before, but we’ve enjoyed the Costco ones in the past. It might sound strange, but we love it sliced cold. However, it can easily be warmed up in a pan with a little broth covered with foil – in a 250 degree oven for about an hour (but watch closely so it doesn’t dry out).
Mel,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. You are truly amazing! You bless the lives of so many families. Thank you for sharing your gifts, talents, knowledge, and experience with all of us.
Almost every item on our Thanksgiving menu is one of your recipes. As we gather around the table, I often think about how grateful I am for you and the countless recipes you have shared with us through the years. We appreciate the time and effort you put into creating this treasure trove of recipes.
You’ve helped me to grow as a “chef” and taught me to cherish the opportunity to cook for friends and family. Thank you for inspiring us and for all that you do!
Happy Thanksgiving 🦃! 🍁
Amy, what a sweet and beautiful comment. Thank you! It brought tears to my eyes. I am really just so grateful for this corner of the internet, and for how I get to interact with all of you. I’m really grateful you have found recipes to love and make – and I hope they inspire wonderful memories with the people you love. Thank you for being here and for your kindness.
Mel, I’ve made many, many breads and rolls from your site, but I’ve never made them for Thanksgiving, believe it or not. I am not hosting but wanted to bring some to my brother’s house for our meal this year. If I made that morning and baked at home, how could I reheat them before the meal? Sometimes when I put breads in the oven (wrapped in tin foil) to heat, the crust becomes a little hard. I want the rolls to still be soft and fluffy when heated. Is it best to reheat the rolls in the microwave? It’s a mad rush to eat that day when everything is hot so I am reluctant to use the oven as so many other dishes are reheating in there already.
Hi Teresa! My unpopular opinion is that if you are making the rolls fresh that day, you don’t need to reheat them. I’ve found when I do reheat rolls, by the time everyone has been served/served themselves, the rolls are at room temperature again anyway, since they don’t hold heat for long. If they are fresh from being baked that same day, I think you’ll be fine! Having said that, if you want to reheat them, I’ve had good luck reheating in batches in the microwave (too long in the microwave and the rolls can develop hard spots…so I do about 30 seconds on 50% power for a plate of rolls – maybe about 8 rolls?).
GREAT job Mel.Thanks for all your hard work.Enjoy your holiday and relax!!
Thank you so much, Donna – you, too!
How did I not know that I needed this?! You are THE best!
You’re wonderful – good luck with your busy fun week! I hope that it is filled with so much love, laughter and sweetness. Thank you for all you do to help us all 🤍 Sending lots of love
I am definitely making this as I am a chutney fan (mango chutney and shrimp).
I have a question: It says yield 8 servings 4 cups which would be a serving of 1/2 cup.
Then under nutrition is says 1 serving is one cup. Is the nutrition serving one cup? I am sorry to bother you but I am making this for our apartment building seniors for our Thanksgiving get-together and I always try to include on the recipe card I put with the dish all the nutritional info as there are a lot of diabetics.
Thank you
Sorry for the confusion on that. One serving is actually about 1/3 cup, so I edited the serving amount in the recipe and recalculated the nutrition facts to reflect that.
Thank you for the menu planner and timing sheets! It made my Thanksgiving day go so much better! Thank you for providing my family with excellent recipes for years. You have helped me feel confident in the kitchen and when I’m hosting or have a reason to try something new, I know I can come to your site for tried and true recipes that everyone will love. Thank you Mel! And thanks to your family for supporting this endeavor! You all are awesome!
Thank you for taking the time to share your appreciation, Shannon – that means a lot to me!
I just want to say thank you for sharing all of your cooking and recipe wisdom. my sister and I have been using your recipes from when we were in college and now you are still my go to for recipes with my family of 5. You do a fantastic job of explaining how to make things and I love the step by step and pictures, it helps new recipes seem doable. I also really enjoy your random banter and genuiness to your posts. Anyway, I was just on your webpage looking up which thanksgiving recipes I wanted to use for my family while we are living in Belgium and craving those traditional thanksgiving meals and I just thought after all these times of coming to your site I would leave you a thank you. Thank you for sharing your talent with the world. I hope your family has a fantastic Thanksgiving and holiday season.
Best wishes
– a random mom who loves your recipes
Melissa! This was such a sweet comment to read. Thank you for taking the time to share with me! I am so honored that you are still here after all these years, and I am so happy you still enjoy the recipes. Thank you so much! I appreciate you!
Hi Mel! Off topic, but will you be offering a special Bosch deal this year like you have in the past? I would finally like to purchase one, but would prefer you to get the referral credit if so.
Thank you!
Thank you, Sarah! Yes, the Bosch sale just went live and it’s one of their best sales ever! Here’s the link.
Hosting 45 people, you are a saint! I’m hosting 7. Trying your cranberry jalapeño dip and the tried and true instant pot mashed potatoes. For dessert doing Paula Deen’s pumpkin ooey gooey butter cake. Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful for all the recipes you post. Cannot wait to purchase your cookbook!
Thank you so much, Amy!
Thanks so much! Love all this help. I was just filling out the Thanksgiving Menu Planner and I think adding a category for what type of cookware and serving dish could be super helpful. Last year all of my assignments required 9×13’s and I didn’t have enough so I was scrambling with random smaller dishes and it could have been avoided if I had thought it through earlier. Just a heads up for anyone else that might run into this.
Thanks Mel!
Can’t believe I’m already planning for Thanksgiving! Where did this year go? These recipes look delicious! I will 100% try some of these out this year. I’m trying to get ahead on meal planning for this year so I’m not rushing to get everything done. Needless to say, I will be referencing this post a lot over the next month. Thank you for sharing!
I can’t live without your coconut cream pie recipe at Thanksgiving! Love it!! Been dreaming about it for about a month just waiting for Thanksgiving so I can make it!! And I had to look through your dessert section twice to make sure I wasn’t missing it, and no it really wasn’t on the list! It’s seriously the best pie ever! I’m excited to try your new upside down apple pie recipe though, it seems like a combination of my hubs 2 favorite pies, apple and pecan! And of course homemade rolls are a must for Thanksgiving at our house as well! So I’m excited to check out your new roll recipe as well! Thanks for all this yumminess that makes our thanksgiving perfect!
Your Thanksgiving printables are so helpful!! I’ve used them the last two years, and they are the best!
The food we can’t have Thanksgiving without is carrot casserole (cooked carrot rounds in a basic white sauce 9×13 pan, topped with cheese and buttered breadcrumbs. So yummy!)
The tradition we can’t live without is pie night. The night before Thanksgiving is pie night. Family and friends gather and everyone brings 1-5 pies and we eat as much as we can 🙂 After the full Thanksgiving meal, everyone is too full for pie- or you wait and make room for at least a piece. Having pie night the night before fixes that!
I love, love, love your Apple Cranberry Pie! It’s beautiful and tastes so yummy the next morning for breakfast too. Can’t wait to try several of these ideas.
For any reader who has not yet tried Amazing Easy Fluffy Blender Rolls – try them! They are the best rolls I have ever tasted or made. In fact I had taken a many year break from making homemade rolls due to an unfortunate Christmas roll making experience, and this is the recipe that convinced me to try again, and I am so glad I did!
Your cream spinach gratin and parker house rolls are Thanksgiving staples ! I roll the Parker house rolls like regular rolls though.
Thank you so much for all the lovely recipes all year. You are always my go to site for any recipe I need & your never disappoint.
Happy Thanksgiving
No way!! This is sooo great to have all these fun Thanksgiving favorites in one place, right at the top of your site. Thank you! I just logged on this morning to decide what sides and desserts I’m bringing. You’ve given me so many options. Always just what I need, thankyouverymuch!
Ever since you posted them, I have made pumpkin cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning…and I think and hope it may be one of those things my kids look forward to/think fondly about into their adulthood.
Didn’t you use to have a recipe that was rolls shaped like pumpkins? I can’t find it anywhere.
No, I haven’t posted a recipe like that. Sorry!
I almost exclusively use your recipes for thanksgiving because I just trust your recipes so much. Made pumpkin cheesecake and apple cranberry pie last year and I can’t wait to again this year!
I spent all last year on Thanksgiving day making the traditional food that nobody really enjoyed and I thought to myself why am I doing this?! So this year everybody got to pick their favorite food that and we’re combining them to make our version of Thanksgiving! So we’ll have hash brown casserole for breakfast and then pork, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese!
Love this, Keri!
Happy Thanksgiving
Mel! I used to make your overnight crescent rolls. So good, highly recommend. BUT last year I tried your fluffy blender rolls. Oh my goodness. We will never go back! So easy and so good! Thank you so much for all of your wonderful recipes. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Pretty much everything I make for Thanksgiving comes from you! It’s all sooooo delicious. This year I’m not hosting, but I couldn’t decide which side I love the most, so I’m making 3 to take for dinner with my in-laws. My husband is so happy, too, because he LOVES all of your recipes. Thank you for sharing!
Shout-out to you for your article on BYU Today. I love how it starts with chickens, donkeys, and pigs! I come for your recipes but I stay longer for the pig videos!
Wow! You have some delicious looking recipes to try! This year we will be doing a turkey breast from R&R BBQ, made from scratch: pumpkin pie, sourdough sage stuffing, and mashed potatoes. I have no energy for more this year.
We’re having my husbands family over here for Thanksgiving. We cook the Turkey and then try to divide out other responsibilities, but this year I keep wanting to be in charge of everything so I can try all your recipes. I selfishly assigned myself dessert so I can make all the treats that have been calling my name from your site — hahaha!!
We are hosting and only immediate family due to covid. Menu is roast turkey, ham, fresh cranberry sauce, twice baked potatoes, cheesy potatoes ( I LOVE both versions of potatoes!), stuffing (I do not like the stuff and hubby likes stovetop GAG so he’s in charge of that), dinner rolls (hubby is very picky about these and only likes one store-bought brand which I will not touch yuck LOL), a fresh salad which I haven’t decided on yet, and homemade apple pie. Sorry Mel, I do not use any of your recipes for this dinner…I just love reading the recipes and seeing the comments!
Happy Thanksgiving – I am thankful for you and your blog. It’s my GO-TO to find a recipe for anything. Yesterday I made your New England clam chowder for the first time. My picky (again!) hubby loved it which is nothing short of a miracle! LOL
We had Thanksgiving a month ago. We did a turkey, roasted in a paper bag, stuffing, cranberry sauce (jellied from a can ♀️), mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams, peas, pumpkin pie. All family recipes!
I am hosting our annual family thanksgiving with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents from both side of our family. We cook a lot of family recipes but your chocolate chip pie and apple cranberry pie have become favorites! One year my daughter got so deeply offended when she saw her aunt eat the last bite of chocolate chip pie that I now have to make a few extra pies just to keep a fight from breaking out. I hope your family has a sweet day!
Hey! Helping host a 60 person family reunion and have a question? How would you suggest doing the rolls/bread for the event? Make dough into rolls and freeze, then cook day of, make dough and refrigerate until day of, cook rolls fully then warm somehow? Make loaves? Up for suggestions!! Thanks!
Hey Rebecca, for that size of group, I’d definitely make, bake, cool and freeze. And then warm for the dinner.
Thank you so much!! Very helpful, as always, Mel!!
I think Thanksgiving Day is the only time I don’t follow your recipes. Oh wait – I do make your Roasted Chicken with ice cream salt – delicious!! It’s only the four of us – so I make a chicken instead of turkey (and secretly like the less gamey chicken over turkey!). I make my late mother’s dressing (not stuffing!) and her famous rolls (which is the only recipe I will never share). I also make green bean casserole without an recipe and my late father’s pumpkin pie. Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
My sister and her husband are the best cooks in our family, and they know it So they volunteered/said they’d only come if they got to cook it all! We all graciously agreed to that! I know she’s using several of your recipes. One of my favorites is the pumpkin white chocolate mousse cheesecake!
How amazing is that?? Enjoy not having to cook!!
Your pumpkin cinnamon rolls have become our family breakfast tradition on Thanksgiving since you posted them! I’ll also be using a handful of your other recipes for our dinner.
That’s a great idea for Thanksgiving morning!
Your Thanksgiving menu planner saved me last year when we did Thanksgiving by ourselves at home. It was so handy and just perfect for organizing! Many years ago I tried making the turkey for the first time and failed miserably. I avoided it at all cost until fate put a free turkey in my lap just a few years ago. I used your “No-Fail” recipe with the greased brown paper bag (only using parchment paper instead of the bag), and baked the world’s most delicious turkey! I no longer fear turkey duty! I’ve made it several times and it is always perfection. Thank you!
Oh that’s awesome, Kat! I’m so proud of you! Once you conquer turkey, you can make anything! 🙂
We had “fakesgiving” last weekend since my son is a pilot and works on Thanksgiving and it’s cheaper for the other siblings to fly everyone home. As usual, it was a repeat of “Mel’s greatest hits”. Slow cooker turkey w/ no fuss gravy, parmesean cream corn, amazing instant pot potatoes, chocolate mousse cheesecake pie, and peanut butter cup cheesecake were all on the menu. Your recipes never disappoint! Thank you for sharing your talent for easy, delicious food with us.
I’m actually kind of jealous you’re done with the big meal!! Glad it went well and glad your family could be together.
Will celebrate it with friends this Saturday. In Europe, it’s not a thing (obviously) so there’s no holiday time off. We usually do the weekend before or after. I’ll be making my staple caramel walnut tart and I think I have to try to make your pumpkin rosemary rolls. They look divine!!
That caramel tart sounds divine, Elita! I hope you have an enjoyable holiday whenever you end up celebrating!
I’m headed to my sister’s house this year. Not too far to drive and she has the biggest yard for kids to run around if the weather is nice. I get to make grandma’s rolls and the mashed potatoes.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Oh, that sounds dreamy, Misti! I love it when the weather holds and the kids can run around outside, too. My boys are already planning their epic turkey bowl game the morning of Thanksgiving.
Your parmesan cream corn has become a holiday staple in our house! Can’t wait to make it again this Thanksgiving.
It’s a staple here, too!
I think I’m making Life Changing Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes and a pumpkin cheesecake. I may have to make a pumpkin pie for the purists in the family.
I think I’ll end up with a pumpkin pie, too, just for the few in the group who ask for it (it never gets eaten all the way, though!). I might go with the crustless pumpkin cupcakes, on second thought.
Thanks Mel! I love your recipes! We are hosting my brother’s family this year. Should be fun! And so much better than last year when we (and most people in the world) were alone. You didn’t say what you are doing??
I agree about this hopefully being a more fulfilling year for holidays than last year in terms of spending it with friends and family! Thanks for asking about what we’re doing. We’re staying home and hosting two of Brian’s sisters and their families and my sister and her family. Will be loud and fun!
Sounds fun! I actually tested positive for COVID yesterday so we will be alone after all. I can’t taste anything and I’m feeling pretty bummed about Thanksgiving now. 🙁 Trying to count my blessings and look for things to be grateful for.