The 10 Best Thanksgiving Potato Recipes To Try This Year
It wouldn't be the perfect Thanksgiving without *at least* one potato side dish.
Simply Recipes / Photo by Andrew Bui / Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Turkey, check! Gravy, check! Potatoes, of course! You can't have the perfect Thanksgiving dinner without at least one potato side dish. Whether that's mashed potatoes, the most indulgent casserole, or something crispy and cheesy, it's a must-have.
Here are 10 of the best Thanksgiving potato recipes—determined by our readers—along with smart tips by Simply Recipes editors and contributors.
1. Fondant Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
Get Recipe: Fondant Potatoes
"Fondant potatoes (sometimes called melting potatoes or pommes de terre fondantes, for you Francophiles) is a French method for preparing potatoes. But that’s underselling it. It’s a side dish that looks and feels oh-so-fancy but is actually very easy to make. The mostly hands-off process yields impressive potatoes that are crisp on the outside and meltingly tender and flavorful on the inside." —Laurel Randolph, Senior Editor
2. Duchess Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Elise Bauer
Get Recipe: Duchess Potatoes
"Usually the mention of "piping" is enough to send me running to the hills. But making these pretty little potatoes isn't so bad, assuming you have a piping bag and a large star tip.
"If not, you can pipe them into florets using the cut corner of a freezer bag. Or just skip the piping all together and spread the mashed potatoes into a casserole dish, create peaks on the surface with the tines of a fork, and bake." —Elise Bauer, Simply Recipes Founder
3. Perfect Mashed Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Photo by Andrew Bui / Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Get Recipe: Perfect Mashed Potatoes
"Most people use starchy Russets for mashed potatoes. With their high starch and low water content, they're good for baking, for making French fries, and for mashing. Here's my secret though—even better than Russets for mashing are Yukon Golds." —Elise
4. Sheet Pan Au Gratin Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm
Get Recipe: For the Best Cheesy Potatoes, Make Them In a Sheet Pan
"Normally, when I make potatoes au gratin, I will stack up several layers of potatoes in a deep baking dish. The problem with this method is that it takes a very long time to bake that many layers of potatoes.
"The sheet pan method means less layers and more surface area. It cooks faster and you get more crispy surfaces on the bottom and edges of the casserole. Win-win!" —Nick Evans, Contributor
5. Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
Get Recipe: Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
"You can also freeze these mashed potatoes for up to two weeks. The high fat content in these mashed potatoes means that they will freeze and thaw just fine." —Elise
6. Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes
Get Recipe: Garlic Mashed Potatoes
"Even though we are using an entire head of garlic, we are roasting the garlic first, so you get all the flavor without it seeping through your pores." —Elise
7. Scalloped Potatoes with Caramelized Onions and Gruyere
Get Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes with Caramelized Onions and Gruyere
"For this recipe I wanted a somewhat "lighter" version of the classic, so we skip the cream and bacon that you would normally find in a more traditional scalloped potatoes dish, and instead flavor the potatoes with darkly caramelized onions, nutty Gruyere cheese, some Parmesan, and a sprinkling of rosemary." —Elise
8. Crispy Smashed Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Sally Vargas
Get Recipe: Smashed Potatoes
"There are plenty of ways to gussy up these potatoes, but a bit of flaky sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper highlight the sublime simplicity of these spuds. You could also embellish them with sour cream, chives, chopped fresh herbs like parsley or rosemary, Parmesan, or other grated cheese." —Sally Vargas, Contributor
9. Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
Get Recipe: Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
"The beauty of using a slow cooker is that you can keep foods warm for a while while you're prepping other parts of a meal. You can hold them on the "warm" setting for up to two hours without noticeable loss of flavor or texture. How, note that the color does begin to deepen the longer you hold them." —Lisa Lin, Contributor
10. Crispy Parmesan Potatoes
Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm
Get Recipe: Crispy Parmesan Potatoes
"These crispy Parmesan roasted potatoes are what dreams are made of. They don’t require any special ingredients or tools and are as simple as tossing the ingredients together and arranging them flat-side down on a baking sheet. An extra garlicky olive oil mixture coats the potatoes, giving the generous dousing of Parmesan something to stick to." —Kayla Hoang, Contributor
