Southern Thanksgiving Side Dishes
It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner and will be here before you know it. Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday. Everything about this day is wonderful—good food (Southern Thanksgiving Side Dishes),watching the parade, and family gathering together to talk, laugh, and to catch up.
Thanksgiving is a stress-free holiday for me. I’ve hosted this day at my house for the past 30 years and plan to have it for 30 more.
Why is this day Stress-Free?
Each family is in charge of bringing something for dinner. This means everything is covered from the plates to the drinks, to the sides and desserts. This takes so much pressure off of the hostess and makes the day a lot less stressful.
I am in charge of the turkey, dressing, and dessert. Over the past few years, I’ve added a few extras- sweet potato casserole and a Carrot Cake. I love to cook, and I just can’t seem to help myself. 🙂
Today I am sharing with you 13 Thanksgiving Side Dishes to serve on Thanksgiving Day. These dishes are expected to be on the menu each and every year and are missed when they are nowhere to be found. 🙂
Southern Style Chicken and Dressing
Chicken, cornbread, cream of mushroom soup, milk, eggs, onion, and butter all come together to make this delicious pan of dressing that has been served in our house for at least 40 years. This dressing is not your boxed dressing by any means. This dressing is made from scratch and it begins with homemade cornbread. If you prep everything the day before, you can prepare this dressing in no time.
Carrot Apple Salad
Carrot Apple Salad– Carrots, pineapple, apple, and raisins make for a delicious salad for just about any occasion. This is an easy dish to throw together with only a few ingredients and little prep work plus it is super yummy!
If you are looking for a colorful, easy, and flavorful side dish, then this is definitely the salad for you!
Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Garlic Mashed Potatoes make the perfect side dish to any meal. Potatoes, garlic, cream cheese, and butter. Creamy, fluffy, and totally yummy!
Southern Fried Cabbage and Onion
Fried Cabbage and Onion is something you will find on many tables around the south. It’s just cabbage, and onion sauteed in a little fat and cooked down until tender.
Easy Baked Mac & Cheese
Homemade Mac and Cheese is a rich and creamy side dish that will win your family’s approval every time. Made with freshly grated cheddar cheese and baked with a bread crumb topping. It’s creamy, delicious, and has a special ingredient that puts it over the top.
Sweet Potato Casserole with Brown Sugar Pecan Topping
Sweet Potato Casserole — sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, vanilla, and pecans. Loaded with all kinds of goodness and deliciousness!
Southern Style Cornbread Salad
A crowd pleasing layered salad with bacon, cheese, and cornbread that comes together easily for all of your gatherings. Perfect for any time of the year.
Crock Pot Creamed Corn
Crock Pot Creamed Corn is a simple side dish for any night of the week or special occasion when you need to feed a crowd. Whole kernel corn, cream cheese, butter, heavy cream, sugar, salt, and pepper tossed in a crockpot and turned on. In a few hours, your corn is steaming hot and ready to eat.
Hashbrown Casserole
Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole is the perfect side dish made with shredded hashbrowns, cheddar cheese soup, sour cream, and onion. Quick and easy and perfect for a crowd.
Be sure to check out my post on How To Cook a Turkey for a moist and delicious turkey every time.
Bacon and Broccoli Salad
It’s perfect served as a side dish for dinner, a cookout, or a holiday celebration. Bacon and Broccoli Salad is a quick salad that is sure to please your family and guest and make your taste buds dance.
Pineapple Casserole
A savory and sweet southern casserole. Only 6 ingredients–Pineapple, butter, sugar, eggs, bread, and milk. Perfect for a side dish but could easily be a dessert. This is truly the Best Pineapple Casserole you will ever taste.
Yellow Rice and Corn Casserole
This yellow rice and corn casserole is seriously the best casserole you will ever eat. No joking–it is that good!!
Coleslaw
If you are looking for a fast and easy side dish, this is it! Easy Oriental Coleslaw with Ramen Noodles is delicious! Seriously delicious! Ramen noodles, olive oil, slaw mix, green onions, roasted sunflower seeds, sugar, and rice vinegar.
More Southern Thanksgiving Side Dishes
Southern Candied Sweet Potatoes
For More Holiday Desserts
Be sure to check out Thanksgiving Hacks to Make Your Day Stress Free. With these plan-ahead tips, you will also be able to have a stress free holiday and enjoy the day with little to no stress.
If you are hosting the dinner this year, there will be lots for you to do–including decorating the table with an eye-catching centerpiece. Be sure to checkout Thanksgiving Centerpieces for your table.
I hope your Thanksgiving Holiday is lovely, and you can share this day with your loved ones! Make this day extra special– Eat great food, fix to-go plates, laugh, tell stories, talk, and swap recipes. But most importantly, enjoy your family and enjoy the holiday season.
Much Love,
Gina
Oh man, there are so many great sounds side dishes here. We tend to be boring with our side dishes on Thanksgiving, doing the exact same thing every year – plan mashed potatoes, corn, and stuffing. Though we have already had Thanksgiving this year, I am going to give some of these a try.
I’ve had most of these and several others. There are so many good Thanksgiving sides.
Great list of recipes! It’s making me hungry to look at them. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I love southern cooking – there’s always so much flavor to it!
OOh, some of these look really good. I would love the Mac and Cheese. I haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving in a long time. I live in the UK now, but it is nice to every now and again make something that reminds me of my childhood in the USA.
Some of these side dishes sound amazing! Thank you for sharing.
These all look so yummy! I’m definitely looking for some new dishes to change up Thanksgiving this year and there are several in your post that I definitely want to try!
Thanks for this! It’s about time to change some of our side dishes.
Definitely some unique and AMAZING non-traditional Thanksgiving side dishes here as well as some yummy twists on the staples! I’m would love to give some of these a try!
That Mac n Cheese recipe just might make it to our Thanksgiving Dinner table. We don’t usually have that as a side dish, but it looks delicious!
What a fantastic selection of sides for Thanksgiving! It’s going to be hard to pick which one to try first!
I really enjoyed all the great side dish suggestions. Definitely going to use some for my own Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks!
I love the idea of carrot and apple salad! It sounds OK for any occasion. An impressive list for those looking for fresh ideas!
So many of these Thanksgiving side dishes are making my mouth water! I really want to try the rice and corn casserole, and the sweet potato casserole, to name just a couple. I also appreciate the tips for a stress-free Thanksgiving. We could all use a little less stress over the holidays!
Yes, less stress makes for a better holiday. I hope you try a few of the Thanksgiving Side Dishes. They are great!
OMG I just gained 30 pounds reading all this.
This looks like my family’s Thanksgiving celebrations from the past 🙂 Thanks for the recipes and bringing back memories!