Easy Thanksgiving Recipes | Thanksgiving Recipes 2025 | NYT Cooking

These unsubdivided recipes for joint republic of turkey, dressing, pie crust and more will set you up for a spectacular meal.

By Margaux Laskey and Sharon Attia

Published Nov. 6, 2020Updated Nov. 19, 2025

Between work deadlines and family obligations, holiday travel or hosting relatives, spending hours cooking Thanksgiving dinner can feel impossible. But there’s no need to panic. Plan ahead, keep it simple and delegate when necessary. Below are 29 foolproof recipes to guarantee a memorable meal for you and your guests.

Depending on the size of your crowd, serve this succulent turkey breast from Sarah DiGregorio as a simple substitute for a whole roast turkey. The herby dry brine helps ensure moistness and flavor, so don’t skip it. The recipe tester called results “really, really good. So juicy, tender and not at all dry.”

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Turkey Breast

Is it stuffing, or is it dressing? Whatever you call it, it’s arguably the best part of the Thanksgiving table. This simple version from Lidey Heuck works with almost any kind of bread, even the store-bought stuffing cubes. (Just make sure you get the plain, unseasoned kind.)

Recipe: Easy Herb Stuffing

More than the sum of their parts, these potatoes from David Tanis are extremely simple to make, but deeply satisfying. Boiling the potatoes with eight garlic cloves and then mashing them with olive oil, some cooking liquid and plenty of salt results in the “lightest and fluffiest mashed potatoes ever made.”

Recipe: Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes

According to Melissa Clark, brussels sprouts are one of the best vegetables you can make in an air fryer because the little leaves turn brittle and delightfully crunchy. In this recipe, you get the bonus addition of garlic slivers, which turn into flavorful chips. Dress everything with balsamic vinegar simmered until thick and then spiked with lime juice and soy sauce for freshness and umami.

Recipe: Air-Fryer Brussels Sprouts With Garlic, Balsamic and Soy

Naz Deravian’s buttermilk biscuits come together quickly in one bowl — no rolling required. The batter is spread over a pool of melted butter in a baking pan, which is where the name comes from. While the biscuits bake, they absorb all the buttery goodness and crisp up around the edges.

Recipe: Butter Swim Biscuits

Gather your cranberries, orange juice, orange zest and sugar. Simmer until the berries burst. That’s it. If you’d like, Sam Sifton said you could add an allspice clove or two, a little freshly grated ginger or a handful of chopped nuts.

Recipe: Cranberry Sauce

For a lovely sweet-and-sour side dish to serve as a lively counterpart to the rest of the brown foods on the table, try this Priya Krishna recipe for butternut squash gently stewed with spices, tomatoes and brown sugar.

Recipe: Kaddu (Sweet and Sour Butternut Squash)

In the category of bright and snappy, serve up a big bowl of green beans like these from Kia Damon. Skip the big pots of boiling water, and cook the beans in a little butter and olive oil, so the beans will release their natural water content in a smart combination of steaming and sautéing.

Recipe: Sautéed Green Beans

Julia Moskin’s brilliant recipe has over 15,000 ratings and is easy as can be. Whiz together some cottage cheese, milk and seasonings in a blender, combine with uncooked pasta and grated Cheddar, and then bake until golden and bubbly.

Recipe: Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

“This was a bright and crunchy alternative to all usual heavy dishes and it was great in turkey leftover sandwiches the next day!” one reader wrote about Hetty Lui McKinnon’s autumnal salad. The 20-minute recipe features shaved brussels sprouts, apples, shallots, pecorino cheese and slivered almonds in a sweet-tart maple-mustard dressing.

Recipe: Crunchy Brussels Sprouts and Apple Slaw

Hungry guests are not happy guests. While you put the finishing touches on the meal, set out a platter of something that isn’t too filling and tastes completely different from the rest of the menu, like Alexa Weibel’s bright, spicy marinated feta with herbs and peppercorns. (It takes just a few minutes to set up the night before.)

Recipe: Marinated Feta With Herbs and Peppercorns

Ina Garten’s festive holiday drink can be made quickly: Throw dried cranberries, cranberry juice cocktail, good vodka, Triple Sec and some ice into a large shaker and shake when guests arrive. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the annual “going around the table and sharing what you’re thankful for.”

Recipe: Cranberry Martinis

For a foolproof, 45-minute (really!) roast turkey, try Mark Bittman’s spatchcock version. Cut out the backbone — or ask your butcher to do it for you — and spread the bird out flat before roasting. If you want an organic, farm-raised bird, be sure to place your order a few weeks in advance, and invest in both oven and meat thermometers. (Accurate oven temperature is a key to success here.)

Recipe: Roast Spatchcock Turkey

This classic pan gravy from Sam Sifton is whisked together in the same pan you roasted the turkey, so you make the most of all of those flavorful bits. Warm your gravy boat or pitcher by rinsing it in hot water (or in a warming drawer) before filling it with gravy. This will help keep your gravy warm as it is passed around the table.

Recipe: Turkey Gravy

In Puerto Rico, yuca is one of the most popular viandas, a regional word for starchy fruits and vegetables, such as plantain and taro. It has a subtly sweet and somewhat nutty flavor that’s complemented nicely by a garlicky citrus mojo dressing in this recipe from Von Diaz.

Recipe: Yuca con Mojo

Swirl cranberry sauce into a light and tangy mixture of whipped cream and Greek yogurt, and you’ve got yourself an easy, cooling dessert to finish off the big meal. For a little crunch, Ali Slagle recommends pairing it with gingersnaps, or adding a dollop atop slices of pie.

Recipe: Cranberries and Cream

Salty, crispy and cheesy, these petite appetizers from Melissa Knific are precisely what you’ll want to nibble on while you sip an Old Fashioned as the turkey rests. They’re not at all sophisticated, and that’s part of the charm: Squares of white bread are spread with a savory combination of butter, Cheddar, egg, heavy cream, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and dry mustard, and then baked until warm and browned on top.

Recipe: Cheese Dreams

An artfully arranged platter of deviled eggs is always a welcome — maybe a little nostalgic? — addition to the holiday table. This recipe, which was adapted from “U.S.A. Cookbook,” by Sheila Lukins, an author of the Silver Palate cookbooks that were popular in the 1980s and ’90s, is pretty much perfect.

Recipe: Classic Deviled Eggs

You could go to all the trouble of mashing a bunch of sweet potatoes and covering them with a blanket of marshmallows, but it’s not necessary. In this simple recipe from Lidey Heuck, cubed (peeled or not) sweet potatoes are roasted on a sheet pan until crisp-edged and soft-centered.

Recipe: Roasted Sweet Potatoes

When you’re cooking what feels like a zillion homemade things for Thanksgiving dinner, a bag of frozen hash browns is your best friend. Also known as funeral potatoes, this creamy, cheesy casserole from Naz Deravian is made by combining the hash browns with cheese, sour cream and homemade cream of chicken soup, and then baking until brown-edged and bubbly.

Recipe: Hash Brown Casserole

Alexa Weibel took baked Brie and brilliantly made it into a vegetarian Thanksgiving centerpiece packed with roasted butternut squash, seared mushrooms, herbed brussels sprouts and tangy red onions. Cook the individual components in the days leading up to the holiday, and then assembly and baking will be a breeze.

Recipe: Baked Brie and Caramelized Vegetable Pie

Save yourself the stress of trying to make gravy under the hungry eyes of your waiting guests. This one from Mark Bittman can be made ahead, so all you have to do is heat it over low heat and add some drippings from the turkey before transferring it to Grandma’s gravy boat.

Recipe: Make-Ahead Gravy

For perfectly moist and tender meat, brine your turkey first. This recipe is for a classic wet brine, which was adapted from an old Yankee Magazine recipe for a traditional New England roast turkey. (We also have a dry-brined turkey recipe.)

Recipe: Turkey Brine

Like a fresher, deconstructed version of classic green bean casserole, this dish from Kay Chun features green beans simmered in a classic flour-butter-broth gravy swirled through with miso, sour cream and lemon juice. Top with the classic French fried onions, of course.

Recipe: Miso Gravy-Smothered Green Beans

The peeling, deseeding and cutting involved in prepping butternut squash can be a real bummer, but this dish from Ali Slagle eliminates peeling, so you’re one step closer to getting it on the table. Just roast slices of squash, and then toss them with brown butter that’s been spiked with vinegar and red-pepper flakes for a lively holiday side dish.

Recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash With Brown Butter Vinaigrette

Real talk: Samantha Seneviratne’s apple crumble tastes just as good as pie, and it’s so much easier to make. When shopping for apples, select a combination of tart and sweet, like Granny Smith and McIntosh. They’ll cook and soften at slightly different rates, which will make the filling jammy and pleasantly firm all at once.

Recipe: Apple Crumble

If you love pecan pie, but the thought of eating an entire piece after the feast seems impossible, serve these treats, adapted from Hannah Kaminsky, a columnist at VegNews Magazine, for an adorable and slightly boozy finish to the meal. Combine pecans, graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, maple syrup, bourbon and vanilla, shape them into balls, and then dip them into dark chocolate. Brown the butter first, as some readers do, for a nuttier, toastier flavor.

Recipe: Pecan Pie Truffles

Do not fear making your own pie crust. Melissa Clark’s recipe is hard to mess up and works with practically whatever kind of pie you like on your Thanksgiving table.

Recipe: Pie Crust

“This pie got rave reviews at our Thanksgiving!” one happy reader wrote about Melissa Clark’s much-praised pumpkin pie. Yes, you can roast and purée your own butternut squash, but the canned pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling) will do just fine. The spice combination and two tablespoons of brandy (budget tip: buy an airplane bottle) are what make it really special.

Recipe: Brandied Pumpkin Pie

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