15 Iconic Thanksgiving Dishes, Ranked Worst To Best

Thanksgiving is one of the most food-centric holidays, and the menu has become standardized. Sure, some rogue recipes have flitted in and out of the picture, from Jell-O to Tofurky, but the key components have been consistent over the past decades. Turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and stuffing are necessities, while potatoes (in one form or another), apple pie, pecan pie, mac and cheese, Brussels sprouts, and casseroles like sweet potato and green bean are mainstays.

But just because something is traditional does not mean it's beloved. Most of us would never question having turkey as the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving meal, but how many of us are actually excited to eat it? Wouldn't we be more enthused if it were, say, succulent pork or roast duck? And isn't sweet potato casserole, with its cinnamon and marshmallow topping, stealing some of the thunder from pumpkin pie? You don't have to be a grinch to acknowledge that not all Thanksgiving dishes are created equal. Opinions vary, of course, but here is my ranking of Thanksgiving dishes, based on their flavor, texture, and versatility.

How did turkey end up being the single most iconic Thanksgiving dish of them all? It might make an impressive centerpiece and serve more hungry eaters than a chicken, but what else does this bird have going for it? Because of their size, turkeys take a long time to thaw and a long time to cook. Once in the oven, the outside of the bird can overcook and become dry and leathery while the inside remains raw. Even if you do nail the temperature and duration, it's just not a particularly flavorful meat. You can brine it, fry it, roast it, or spatchcock it, but there's really no way to make it compete with juicy ham or brisket.

If you think about it, nearly all of the side dishes that are popular for Thanksgiving exist purely to offset the dryness and blandness of the turkey. Gravy is there for moisture, cranberry sauce is there to cut through the dullness and maybe (just maybe) give the illusion of tenderness. Mashed potatoes provide some indulgence to liven up a bird that is often lacking in fat. At best, turkey is a good source of lean protein on a day when you'll be eating very rich fare. At worst, you can get food poisoning if you incorrectly thaw or cook it. Neither option is particularly festive.

Mac and cheese is objectively delicious. It's creamy, cheesy, and carb-dense and has all the factors to make mouths water. But that indulgence is precisely why it has no place at the Thanksgiving table. On the one day of the year when everyone rallies around overindulging, adding a dish to the table that could, on its own, make you feel stuffed for hours is counterproductive. You need every centimeter of real estate in your stomach to fit the pumpkin pie and potatoes. It's not like mac and cheese is a seasonal food, either. Unlike pumpkin, cranberries, and green bean casserole, you can make it any time of year.

Besides, in the context of a classic Thanksgiving meal, mac and cheese is redundant. Stuffing is full of carbs already and is much more holiday-specific. Mashed potatoes are already creamy and full of delicious fat, and if we had to pick between the two, most of us would choose the potatoes. Save the mac and cheese for every other day of the year so you have room to spare when the dessert arrives.

There are quite a few Thanksgiving dishes that are polarizing, and Brussels sprouts land near the top of the list. Even if you, like me, love the taste of them, you can admit that they're hard to cook. If you're roasting them, should you boil them first and risk a mushy mess, or roast them raw and risk rubberiness?

Then, there's the gastrointestinal element. Sprouts contain a sugar called raffinose, which can only be broken down in the large intenstine. An unfortunate byproduct of that breakdown is (as many diners are all-too aware) flatulence. Gas is not conducive to holiday cheer, especially when everyone at the table is afflicted. Along with the gas, of course, is mild intestinal discomfort, something that most of us are guaranteed to have on Thanksgiving anyway thanks to all the food. If you're going to have some digestion troubles from eating yummy foods, why add to them with a mediocre vegetable? There are countless other options that are neither polarizing nor flatulence-inducing. Just roast some carrots or make a salad and move on to the cranberry sauce.

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who has strong negative feelings about bread rolls, unless they can't eat gluten. But just because a food is uncontentious does not mean it belongs on the Thanksgiving menu. Rolls are pretty much pure carbohydrate. They can soak up gravy and fill out a plate, but let's face it: Neither of those things are needed at this particular meal. Turkey is so dry that you'll need every drop of gravy just for the meat, and in most cases, you'll struggle to fit all the food on your plate even without bread. There is nothing inherently bad about rolls; they're just unnecessary. You can get all the carbs you need from potatoes and stuffing — the latter of which is essentially bread. Why double up on it when there is so much delicious variety to be had?

The one exception is if the bread rolls are as distinctive as other dishes at the table. If you've spent hours making them by hand, or if you've purchased some bakery-fresh brioche buns with a golden egg wash that makes them as decorative as they are delicious, then they've earned their place on the table.

If you, like me, were that kid who always made a beeline for the sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving, this might be hard to hear, but I am convinced that there is no imperative to have this dish on the menu. Yes, it's hard to turn down anything covered in marshmallows, but when you think about the rest of the meal, what function does this casserole actually serve? It doesn't add moisture to balance the dryness of the turkey, and it doesn't balance the creaminess of the mashed potatoes. And if there are spices in it, they probably won't be strong enough to light up your taste buds. 

Most important is its resemblance to pumpkin pie — one of the true non-negotiables of the holiday. With a similar color, texture, and flavor profile, mashed sweet potatoes covered in sweet marshmallows and cinnamon edge dangerously close to pumpkin pie territory. By the time the dessert rolls around, you might not even be interested.

Green bean casserole is a friendly face among the side dishes. It's relatively uncontentious and a great way to convince yourself you're eating vegetables while indulging in some creamy mushroom soup and fried onions. It was invented in 1955 by a Campbell's Soup employee, and is more of a canned soup showcase than a veggie recipe, harkening back to a time when a significant proportion of dishes came straight out of a tin can or the microwave. Nowadays, it's still a quaint side dish with balanced textures and pleasantly mild flavors, but it doesn't deserve to be one of the defining recipes of the holiday.

These days, most households in the U.S. have access to fresh produce and an internet full of from-scratch recipe alternatives. You could make an elaborate green salad that steals the show, creamed spinach to hit similar texture notes, or make things extra simple with lemon garlic green beans. If green bean casserole really is a dish you crave, by all means, make it, but don't be limited by it, either.

How can anyone choose a dessert for Thanksgiving? There are just too many good options. Pie is traditional, of course, but if you can only choose one or two recipes, which would you leave out? Pecan has my vote. An excellent pecan pie is crunchy, nutty, caramelized, and a little salty. It's thick enough to qualify as a pie rather than a praline-filled pastry shell, and it's not pure sugar.

But pecan pie is very easy to get wrong. It can be too dry, too thin, and, most often, so sickly sweet that you can practically feel the cavities developing as you eat. Unless you have a go-to recipe that yields predictably top-notch results, or a store that sells a pie that you can't get enough of, pecan pie is a gamble that isn't always worth taking. Luckily, there are plenty of other Thanksgiving desserts to choose from that don't suffer from so many pitfalls.

Where rolls are an unnecessarily filling and bland addition to Thanksgiving, cornbread is a flavorful alternative worth serving. It has enough moisture to distinguish itself from the other starches on the plate and enough sweetness to balance the dry savoriness of the turkey. Recipes that err more towards corn than bread are all the better. Add a bit of butter and honey, and you have a truly moreish Thanksgiving side dish that will contrast beautifully with the other items on your plate.

The exception is when the cornbread is too bready and has to compete with a heavily bread-based stuffing. It isn't necessarily unwanted in this case, but it isn't necessary, either. You're better off having one or the other, or, the best of both worlds: gracing your guests with cornbread stuffing. There are many types of stuffing out there, but from-scratch cornbread dressing is right at the top of the heap.

When it comes to crowd-pleasing Thanksgiving recipes, few are as universally beloved as mashed potatoes. They're velvety, buttery, and salty — exactly what you want to eat on the one day of the year where there's no such thing as too much. They are the ideal carbohydrate alongside stuffing — moist and fatty enough to balance the dryness of turkey and mild and creamy enough to contrast with the tartness of cranberry sauce. They are even appealing to picky eaters, which makes them all but a requirement when you're having dinner with small children.

They are also versatile. You can make them with roasted garlic, miso, nutmeg, or mustard, or add Boursin cheese to make them 10 times more flavorful and creamy. Ultimately, though, mashed potatoes are at their best when they're at their simplest. A bit of salt, pepper, garlic, and a lot of butter is all you need to make this beloved side dish a slam-dunk.

Fall is apple and cinnamon season, which makes Thanksgiving the obvious time to serve an apple pie. The tartness and lightness of the fruit are a great way to round out a meal in which you may have eaten a little more than your stomach is comfortable with. Instead of weighing yourself down even further with more cream and carbohydrates, grab a slice of apple pie as a palate cleanser. It's a sweet, but not overly sweet, curtain call for a heavy meal. 

The only downsides to apple pie are that it hits a similar register to cranberry sauce with its tart fruitiness, and it isn't decorative enough. Despite taking hours to make, and considerable skill if you're making the pastry from scratch, most apple pies look humble compared to a multi-layered cake or even a tray of fancy cookies. There are plenty of ways to compensate for this, of course, such as latticing the top crust or decorating it with cut-out pastry leaves, but when you're already juggling multiple recipes, going the extra mile with decorations is a lot to ask. 

It may be controversial to promote a potato dish over mashed potatoes, but hear me out on this one. Scalloped potatoes have a lot going for them. In addition to all the starchy, buttery deliciousness that mashed potatoes provide, scalloped potatoes, with their thin, butter-smooth layers, offer more textural variation. Those layers also provide an excellent structure for carrying cream, which helps the gravy and cranberry sauce moisten the turkey and stuffing. Unlike mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes also undergo the Maillard reaction, whereby sugar and protein release new flavor compounds when exposed to heat.

As if all that weren't enough, scalloped potatoes are more aesthetically pleasing than mashed potatoes. You can put mashed potatoes in a nice bowl and add a little parsley garnish, but you're never going to achieve much of a wow factor. Scalloped potatoes, on the other hand, look as intricate as a heavily layered pastry, especially when you make sure not to hide them under cheese and breadcrumbs.

Cranberry sauce is not universally beloved, apparently, but it serves a vital function in Thanksgiving meals. The tartness that makes it an acquired taste is also what prevents the rest of the meal from drowning in salt and fat. Its moisture makes turkey more bearable, and its sweetness adds nuance to the savoriness of the meat, potatoes, and veggies. Perhaps the problem is that some people approach it like a side dish rather than a condiment. Most of us wouldn't want to eat ketchup by the spoonful, but wouldn't dream of eating fries without it. Similarly, cranberry sauce is just a pop of flavor, not a dish unto itself.

It is also highly versatile. Depending on the flavors and ingredients you're using in the rest of the meal, you can pick a cranberry sauce recipe that leans sweet, savory, tart, or creamy. You'll find recipes made with sour cream, chipotle peppers, and even horseradish. If you're ever questioning whether to put this pivotal condiment on the menu, know that there are countless ways to upgrade cranberry sauce – and one of them is bound to hit the spot.

For years, Americans have ranked stuffing as their favorite Thanksgiving dish, and it's easy to see why. What could be tastier than a pan full of toasted, spiced morsels of bread covered in butter, herbs, and onions? It's no secret that stuffing is significantly more popular than the bird it's meant to accompany. A lot of it comes down to flavor, of course, but according to Campbell's annual State of the Sides report, most Americans enjoy cooking the sides (stuffing included) more than the turkey as well. Again, there's no mystery here. While turkey is labor-intensive and allows for little creativity, the sides, and stuffing in particular, can be experimented with.

Stuffing's simple name belies the fact that it can include anything from a classic bread-based dish to ones that revolve around rice, walnuts, and vermicelli. It is, quite simply, the most versatile part of a Thanksgiving meal, allowing you to choose what to make rather than having to tick another seasonal box just because tradition demands it.

I get it: Salad is not the most glamorous of dishes. It's not going to win any popularity contests for festive dining options or draw a crowd at the Thanksgiving buffet, but like cranberry sauce, it plays an integral role in the meal. Crisp lettuce leaves provide a welcome variation to the heavy, savory items on your plate, giving you a burst of freshness that you might not have realized you needed. Plus, it's even more customizable than stuffing.

Think about it — you can make a salad that cuts through all the other flavors on your plate with lots of citrus, fresh greens, and refreshing cucumbers. Provide acidic contrast with a vinegar-based dressing and some creaminess with sharp feta. You can even make a salad that adds a sweet element, like fresh orange or pear slices. Perhaps the best option of them all is to combine all these possibilities to produce a roasted pear and manchego cheese salad. With fresh ginger, mustard, and balsamic vinegar, it's a flavor-packed side that might turn out to be the biggest hit of the meal.

What would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie? It is the most perfectly calibrated dish of the holiday lineup, balancing decadence with restraint and spiciness with sweetness. When you're already stuffed at the end of the meal, you don't want to dig into a heavy trifle or a dense chocolate cake. You want something indulgent but light, festive without being a complete sugar overload. Pumpkin pie has all these qualities, thanks to its combination of a creamy custard filling and spicy flavors. If you still somehow have room in your stomach, you can make it more luxurious with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream, but in its purest unaccompanied form, it does not ask too much of your stomach and saturated taste buds.

Simple yet sophisticated, pumpkin pie is a crowd-pleaser for any audience, be it a table of picky children or a lineup of adults with high culinary standards. It strikes just the right closing note to a Thanksgiving meal, encapsulating the season with its ingredients and leaving a spicy-sweet taste in your mouth.

To rank these popular Thanksgiving dishes, I considered multiple factors, including flavor, texture, and visual presentation. I also approached the meal from a holistic standpoint, assessing which dishes are redundant in the context of the entire menu (such as bread rolls) and which are indispensable (like cranberry sauce). 

Other factors that played a role in the ranking were versatility, hassle-to-enjoyment ratio, and availability outside the holidays. Where possible, I used surveys to assess public opinion, while also considering my own preferences.