Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes (Make-Ahead Friendly)
The oven is the bottleneck on Thanksgiving, not the cooking. A turkey owns it for hours, and every side you planned is queued up behind it.
So the useful question is not which sides are best. It is which ones you can make on a quiet Sunday and still be proud of on Thursday.
Fourteen below, grouped by how far ahead they can be made, with what is left to do on the day. Two of them have to happen on the day and I have said so.
The make-ahead plan at a glance
| Side dish | Make it ahead | On the day |
|---|---|---|
| Stuffing | Assemble and freeze up to a month | Bake from frozen, covered, with extra time |
| Baked Mac And Cheese | Bake and freeze up to three months | Thaw overnight, reheat covered with a splash of milk |
| Cornbread | Bake and freeze up to three months | Reheat wrapped in foil for about fifteen minutes |
| Dinner Rolls | Bake and freeze up to two months | Five minutes in a hot oven straight from frozen |
| Sweet Potato Casserole | Freeze the filling up to a month | Thaw, add the topping, bake uncovered |
| Cranberry Sauce | Make up to a week ahead | Serve cold, straight from the fridge |
| Turkey Gravy | Make up to three days ahead | Reheat gently, whisking, and add the roasting juices |
| Green Bean Casserole | Assemble a day ahead | Bake covered, then add the onions for the last ten minutes |
| Scalloped Potatoes | Assemble a day ahead | Bake covered, uncover for the last twenty minutes |
| Broccoli Salad | Chop three days ahead, dress on the day | Toss two hours before the meal |
| Mashed Potatoes | Make a day ahead | Reheat in a slow cooker with butter and warm cream |
| Glazed Carrots | Parboil two days ahead | Ten minutes in the glaze on the stove |
| Roasted Brussels Sprouts | Trim and halve two days ahead | Roast hot on the day, nothing sooner |
| Roasted Butternut Squash | Peel and cube three days ahead | Roast or air fry while the turkey rests |
Sides you can make weeks ahead and freeze
1. Stuffing
Stuffing takes the freezer better than anything else on the table.
Assemble it unbaked in the dish you plan to serve it in, wrap it twice, and bake it straight from frozen with the foil on until the middle is hot.
Drying the bread cubes is the part you can do weeks early. Our guide to the best bread for stuffing explains which loaves hold up, and freezing stuffing covers the wrapping.
2. Baked Mac And Cheese
Mac and cheese is the side that keeps children at the table, and it survives the freezer if you go heavy on the sauce.
Sauce always tightens as it sits, so make it looser than you want to eat it and hold back a little milk to whisk in on the day.
We have notes on freezing mac and cheese and on getting the sauce right if yours breaks.
3. Cornbread
Cornbread goes stale in a day and freezes for months, which makes baking it early the obvious move.
Cool it completely before it goes in the bag or the steam turns the crust to sponge.
See freezing cornbread for the wrapping, and reheating cornbread for getting the edges crisp again.
4. Dinner Rolls
Rolls out of the freezer beat rolls out of a bag, and nobody can tell the difference once they are warm.
Bake them a shade under, so the reheat finishes them instead of drying them out.
Our notes on freezing rolls cover the sweet ones, which dry out fastest.
5. Sweet Potato Casserole
The filling freezes cleanly. The topping does not, and that is the whole trick with this one.
Marshmallows go rubbery and pecans go soft, so leave both off until the casserole is already hot and give it ten minutes uncovered at the end.
Freezing sweet potato casserole has the timings.
Sides that are better made two or three days ahead
6. Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce is the one side that is genuinely better for sitting. It sets properly and the raw edge comes off the fruit.
Make it the weekend before and forget about it.
If you are starting from dried fruit, this dried cranberry sauce works, and there are ways to make canned sauce taste homemade if the day gets away from you.
7. Turkey Gravy
Making gravy while everybody waits is the worst ten minutes of the day, and it is completely avoidable.
Roast a couple of turkey wings the week before, build the gravy from those, and stir in the real pan juices at the end so it still tastes like today’s bird.
Our turkey gravy guide covers the base.
8. Green Bean Casserole
Assembled early, this bakes straight from the fridge. Just keep the fried onions in the bag until the end.
Onions stirred in the night before turn to paste, which is the single most common complaint about this dish.
See reheating green bean casserole, or freeze it if you want it done even earlier.
9. Scalloped Potatoes
Sliced potatoes go gray in the fridge unless the cream covers them completely, so assemble the whole dish rather than prepping the potatoes alone.
Pull the foil for the last stretch or the top never browns.
The right cheese matters more than the recipe here, and yes, you can freeze them.
10. Broccoli Salad
Something cold and sharp cuts through a table of butter and cream, and this is the easiest version of that.
Keep the dressing in a jar and the broccoli, bacon and onion in a box, then combine a couple of hours out so it softens slightly without going limp.
A good store bought dressing is a fair shortcut, and freezing it works for the leftovers.
Sides to finish on the day, with the prep already done
11. Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes made the day before are fine. Mashed potatoes reheated badly are wallpaper paste.
Hold them in a slow cooker on low with extra butter and a splash of warm cream, stirring now and then, and they come back better than they went in.
Season harder than feels right, because cold potatoes swallow salt. Our seasoning notes help, butter substitutes cover the dairy-free table, and here is how long they keep.
12. Glazed Carrots
Carrots are the side that always gets forgotten until the last twenty minutes, when there is no burner free.
Boil them until barely tender, cool them, and keep them in a box. On the day they need one pan, butter, brown sugar and ten minutes.
Softening carrots covers the timings, and cooked carrots freeze if you want them done even earlier.
13. Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Roast these early and you get khaki mush. This is one of the two things on the table that has to happen on the day.
What you can do ahead is all the knife work, plus rendering the bacon if you use it.
Hot oven, cut side down, no crowding. If you want the steakhouse version, our Longhorn copycat sprouts is the one people ask for.
14. Roasted Butternut Squash
Peeling squash is the whole job, and it keeps perfectly in a box for a few days once cubed.
It roasts in the residual heat while the turkey rests, or goes in the air fryer if every rack is full.
Air fryer butternut squash takes about fifteen minutes and frees the oven completely.
What to store it all in
Three things do most of the work here, and none of them are exciting. A dish with a lid, something disposable for the overflow, and a way to hold finished food warm while the turkey rests.
Pyrex Deep 9 by 13 Glass Baking Dish With Lid
Make-ahead falls apart at the storage step, when the casserole is in one dish and the fridge only fits another.
A deep 9 by 13 with its own lid goes from fridge to oven to table, which means one dish to wash and no foil tenting.
4.7 stars across more than 9,000 reviews, and the deep version holds a full stuffing without spilling over.
Check Pyrex Deep 9 by 13 Glass Baking Dish With Lid on Amazon
Aluminum Foil Pans With Lids, 9 by 13, 10 Sets
Foil pans are how you cook for more people than you own dishes for.
They also solve leftovers. Guests take a pan home and you keep your bakeware.
4.3 stars across nearly 600 reviews. Put them on a sheet pan before they go in the oven, because the bases flex.
Check Aluminum Foil Pans With Lids on Amazon
Proctor Silex Electric Buffet Server And Food Warmer
The real problem on the day is that everything is ready at a different time and the first three sides go cold waiting.
Three warm trays hold the finished sides at temperature while the turkey rests and the gravy gets sorted.
4.4 stars across more than 3,800 reviews. It is the splurge on this page, and it earns its space if you host every year.
Check Proctor Silex Electric Buffet Server And Food Warmer on Amazon
Reheating without ruining it
The rule that covers almost everything: lower temperature than you baked it, foil on, and a splash of liquid stirred in before it goes back in the oven. Around 325 is right for a casserole.
Crisp toppings go on at the end, never before. Fried onions, marshmallows, breadcrumbs and pecans all get their own ten minutes uncovered once the dish underneath is already hot.
Our guide to reheating a casserole goes through it dish by dish, and what goes with green beans is useful if you are still filling gaps in the menu.
Related questions
How far ahead can you make Thanksgiving side dishes?
Two to three days for anything that lives in the fridge, and up to three months for anything you freeze. Cranberry sauce, gravy and any assembled casserole are safe made ahead. The exceptions are the things you want crisp or bright green.
Which Thanksgiving sides freeze the best?
Stuffing, mac and cheese, cornbread, rolls and the filling of a sweet potato casserole. All of them are starch or sauce, which is what survives freezing. Salads, roasted vegetables and anything with a crunchy topping do not.
Can you make mashed potatoes the day before?
Yes, and they reheat well in a slow cooker with extra butter and warm cream stirred through. Make them slightly wetter and saltier than you want them, because they tighten and go flat in the fridge.
What is the best way to reheat sides without drying them out?
Covered, at a lower temperature than you baked them, with a splash of liquid added first. Around 325 with foil on gets a casserole hot without cooking it a second time.
