19 Thanksgiving Side Dishes and Holiday Extras
Build your Thanksgiving menu around the oven space and equipment you have. These 19 Thanksgiving side dishes and holiday extras include casseroles, breads, potatoes, vegetables and a few sauces and appetizers. Start with a favorite, then choose another dish that uses a different appliance.
Oven planning · Baked sides and breads · Instant Pot sides · Slow cooker sides · Stovetop dishes and extras
Plan your oven space first
These temperatures and cooking notes come from the linked recipes, checked October 22, 2026. They are scheduling notes, not a combined cooking schedule: follow each full recipe for its ingredients, pan size and doneness instructions. Several dishes use 350°F, but they still need adequate space and their own cooking time.
| Oven setting | Recipes to consider | Planning note |
|---|---|---|
| 350°F | Dressing; French onion mac and cheese; green bean casserole; yeast rolls; sweet-potato casserole; cornbread muffins | Dressing: about 1 hour. Green bean casserole: about 30 minutes. Rolls and muffins have shorter bakes; rolls also need rising time. |
| 400°F | New potatoes with sweet brown onions | Potatoes roast 35–40 minutes across two stages; make the onion topping separately. |
| 450°F | Butter dip biscuits | Allow 20–25 minutes and a separate hotter-oven slot. |
| No shared oven slot | Instant Pot potatoes and carrots; slow cooker potatoes, mac and cheese or green beans | Schedule one recipe at a time if you own only one cooker. Pressure time does not include coming to pressure. |
What can you do ahead?
Grandma’s dressing recipe specifically allows making and crumbling its cornbread the day before. Start the apple butter well ahead of dinner because of its long cooking time. Measure ingredients and check serving dishes before cooking; use the individual recipes for chilling, storage and reheating instructions.
For a shopping list and menu worksheet, use our free Thanksgiving meal planner.
Baked sides and breads
1. Grandma’s Homemade Thanksgiving Dressing
Cornbread, sage, celery and onion make this the family dressing I call my favorite. Its recipe explicitly allows making and crumbling the cornbread the day before. The assembled dressing bakes at 350°F for about an hour.
2. French Onion Mac and Cheese
This version uses fried onions for its crunchy top. Cook the pasta and assemble the dish first; the 350°F oven finish is about 10–15 minutes, until the cheese melts and onions are crisp.
3. Homemade Yeast Rolls
Choose these when you have time for yeast dough: the directions include about an hour for the first rise and another 30 minutes after shaping, followed by 12–15 minutes at 350°F. The short bake is only one part of the schedule.
4. Not Your Mama’s Green Bean Casserole
Fresh green beans, mushrooms and a homemade sauce make this different from a canned-soup casserole. There is stovetop preparation before the approximately 30-minute bake at 350°F; reserve time for both.
5. Sweet Potato Casserole with Ruthie’s Twisted Harvest
This is a product-specific shortcut using Ruthie’s sweet-potato mash, pecans and marshmallows. Check that you can get the required mash before choosing it. The recipe calls for 25–30 minutes at 350°F.
6. New Potatoes with Sweet Brown Onions
Roast the potatoes at 400°F for 20 minutes, turn them and roast another 15–20 minutes. The onion topping is made separately on the stove, so this one needs both oven and skillet space.
7. Butter Dip Biscuits
These biscuits bake in an 8×8 dish with melted butter. They need a hotter oven than most of this list: 450°F for 20–25 minutes. Plan a separate oven slot rather than treating them as a 350°F side.
8. Sweet Cornbread Muffins
A from-scratch option with cornmeal, flour and melted butter. The refreshed recipe makes 12 muffins and gives a 12–14-minute bake at 350°F, with a visible shortcut to the recipe card.
Instant Pot sides
9. Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes with Maple Pecan Glaze
Use the pressure cooker for the potatoes and the microwave for the maple-pecan topping. The directions call for 20 minutes under pressure and about 10 minutes for release; the cooker also needs time to come to pressure.
10. Instant Pot Candied Carrots
Carrots get a brown-sugar, butter and spice coating. The recipe uses a short pressure-cooking stage followed by about five minutes on Sauté to thicken the coating. Keep the pot available for that finishing step.
11. Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
An alternative when the oven is full. The directions call for six minutes at high pressure, a 3–5-minute rest, then releasing the steam and mashing with the remaining ingredients. Add time for the cooker to reach pressure.
Slow cooker sides
12. Slow Cooker Garlic & Herb Mashed Potatoes
The linked directions give two choices: high for 2–3 hours or low for 5–6 hours, until fork-tender. Butter, herbs and the remaining ingredients go in before mashing. Choose this when you can start early.
13. Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
This is the long-cooking mac-and-cheese option, rather than the oven-finished French onion version above. The recipe cooks on low for about four hours and calls for stirring midway.
14. Canned Green Beans with Bacon
This Roaming My Planet recipe uses canned green beans, cooked bacon and a slow cooker on low for four hours. The bacon is cooked separately first; it is a convenient ingredient list, rather than a last-minute cooking method.
Stovetop dishes, sauces and appetizers
15. Bacon Mac and Cheese with Gruyere
Choose this version if you want a stovetop cheese sauce. The recipe combines cooked pasta and bacon with Gruyere, white cheddar and cream, then serves it without an oven-baking stage.
16. Cranberry Sauce Ideas
The Oklahoma Homesteader guide includes a dressed-up store-bought cranberry sauce with orange. For the holiday meal, choose that serving recipe if you want to start with a can; its separate home-canning section is not needed to make this side.
17. Deviled Eggs
A familiar appetizer to put alongside the sides. The Oklahoma Homesteader tutorial covers cooking the eggs and making the filling. Use its chilling and storage directions when deciding how far ahead to prepare them.
18. Bacon Apple Onion Jam
This Roaming My Planet recipe is a savory-sweet topping for a bread or appetizer plate. It combines bacon, apples and onions; treat it as an extra for the table rather than a replacement for a vegetable side.
19. Slow Cooker Apple Butter
An apple-and-spice spread to pair with rolls or biscuits. Its listed cooking time is about ten hours, so it belongs on the early-preparation list. Follow the linked recipe’s storage instructions for the version you make.
Choose a manageable Thanksgiving menu
You do not need all 19 ideas for one dinner. Pick a potato dish, a vegetable, a bread and the extras your family enjoys, then check their equipment and timing together. For the next holiday, browse our homemade Christmas gift ideas.
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