15 Thanksgiving Potluck Concepts That Are 100% Foolproof

If there’s at some point of the 12 months to create a show-stopping desk, it’s Thanksgiving. Ideally, the meal itself ought to stir cozy meals reminiscences like apple pie, heat mashed potatoes with melty butter, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and extra. However have you ever ever been to a Thanksgiving potluck and your meals hasn’t traveled properly? It may be disheartening to make a dish that appears beautiful at house, just for it to look not so nice as soon as it’s on the desk at your vacation spot. Deciding on the dish can encourage some psychological gymnastics within the first place: what travels properly, seems stunning, and tastes simply nearly as good hours later? 

15 Thanksgiving Potluck Concepts That Are 100% Foolproof

If you happen to’re like me, you need your meals to look nearly as good because it tastes, particularly on Thanksgiving. In an effort to take some stress off your in all probability very busy plate, I’ve rounded up a couple of Thanksgiving potluck concepts that journey properly, look stunning, and are whole crowd pleasers. Scroll on for the recipes, and ahead this as a PSA to all your mates!

The Finest Thanksgiving Aspect Dishes

As a rule, the host can have the chook dealt with. A complete turkey isn’t precisely travel-friendly anyway. However the sides? Now we’re speaking. The next side dishes are the last word crowd pleasers that may add much-needed coloration and vibrancy to the desk. Additionally, full transparency: the edges are my favourite half!

Pesto Parmesan Potatoes

5-ingredient, flavor-packed potatoes? Music to my ears. Choose quite a lot of small potatoes (Yukon, fingerling, and child potatoes) and toss them in pesto, fruity olive oil, and an enormous pinch of salt and pepper. Add roasted garlic and parmesan for good measure. Additionally, I like a very good home made pesto, however within the phrases of Ina Garten, “store-bought is okay.”

Journey tip: These potatoes are finest served heat, so examine in along with your host in regards to the oven. Allow them to know they’ll should be reheated when you’re not consuming straight away! I promise it’s price it—heat, crispy potatoes at all times are.

Fall Harvest Salad

I like a easy, swoon-worthy salad. Entertaining extraordinaire Sophie Collins created this recipe that provides recent taste and beautiful coloration to all your fall gatherings. Hardy greens and crunchy seeds mix to create a salad that proves: it’s not simply in regards to the vitamins—salads may be scrumptious, too.

Journey tip: Pack up your brie and sliced pears. When it’s time to serve, slice the wheel of brie in half, then tear up and toss in bite-sized items, adopted by the pears. You’ll be so comfortable you probably did.

Butternut squash may be a crowd-favorite (and I actually adore it, too), however for me, acorn squash reigns victorious. On this recipe, half moons are tossed with olive oil, brown sugar, rosemary, and purple pepper flakes and roasted till they’re golden and tender. Additionally, for the file, brown butter makes the whole lot higher.

Journey tip: Garnish your squash with sage leaves! A garnish actually takes a dish to the subsequent stage so far as presentation, and also you need to pull out all of the stops for Thanksgiving.

Easy Roasted Greens

This recipe comes courtesy of our resident wellness skilled, Edie Horstman. Not solely is that this dish stuffed with nutrient-packed goodness (a serious win for any Thanksgiving desk), nevertheless it’s additionally crammed to the brim with taste. Wild rice lends a pleasant chew to the bottom whereas a rainbow of heirloom carrots brings a bit much-needed coloration to the desk. The crumbled goat cheese over prime? *Chef’s kiss*

Journey tip: The actual show-stopper of this vacation aspect is the tahini sauce. Pack it up in a small container and drizzle it on, together with the goat cheese and pepitas, when you plate at your host’s house. 

Cauliflower Tabbouleh

In your gluten-free mates, this salad manages to be concurrently mild and hearty. It harnesses all the colour and taste of the vacation season and is the right accompaniment to any festive essential dish. In different phrases, it’s precisely what you’ll want to convey to each potluck this season.

Journey tip: Make this in a lovely serving bowl and canopy it with plastic wrap when it’s time to go away. It would journey simply high-quality—simply put it within the fridge when you arrive at your vacation spot. And make certain you’ve got additional pomegranate seeds and pistachios for garnish!

Vacation Jewels Chopped Kale Salad

Suppose you’re not a kale salad fan? Suppose once more. Whenever you add pear slices, crumbled gorgonzola, pomegranate, and a mustard-shallot French dressing, it’ll go from bland to the perfect factor you’ve ever eaten. It’s good for Thanksgiving—and excellent news: when you go house with leftovers, it’s scrumptious for lunch the subsequent day.

Journey tip: Add your cheese, nuts, and dressing only a few minutes earlier than the meal is served. Candied walnuts are even higher than precise sweet when you ask me, but when it’s intimidating to make them your self, you should purchase them on the grocery retailer.

Apple Walnut Salad

This salad is an ode to all of our favourite fall flavors. It makes a wonderful case for why we must be consuming apples by the bushel. It’s fruity, peppery, crunchy, and salty, with a mixture of substances that mix for an ideal steadiness of taste and coloration. Plus, it’s simply the refreshing chew you’ll want while you’re midway by means of your annual turkey consumption quota. Who doesn’t love a burst of coloration amidst an array of beige-colored meals?

Journey Tip: Wait so as to add goat cheese, walnuts, and the dressing till it’s virtually time to eat. Including them too quickly will make your salad soggy!

Salt & Vinegar Pan-Roasted Potatoes

Let me introduce you to probably the most crave-worthy spuds round. Simply 5 easy substances and 40 minutes of mixed prep and cook dinner time, and also you’ll have these delights able to go. (Bonus: They’re simple to switch and even simpler to reheat.) You may simply rename them crack potatoes…

Journey tip: 1 / 4-cup drizzle of apple cider vinegar sends the traditional salt and vinegar taste house—simply do it proper earlier than serving! Sprinkle some flaky salt and chopped chives to make it much more attractive.

The Finest Thanksgiving Desserts

OK, I do know I stated aspect dishes had been my favourite a part of Thanksgiving, however I’d change my thoughts and swap for dessert. I like dessert and can at all times provide to bake as an alternative of cook dinner. Thanksgiving potluck concepts wouldn’t be full with out one thing candy! The next dessert recipes are in fact scrumptious, however are additionally stunning and ultimate for touring.

Buttermilk Pie

That is Camille’s mom’s recipe, so that you already understand it’s going to be good. Buttermilk pie is a southern staple that—as Camille agrees—undoubtedly doesn’t get the eye it deserves. It boasts a creamy, custard-like filling that’s mild, ethereal, and a bit tangy due to the buttermilk. And with a tablespoon of vanilla blended in, it’s superbly, splendidly candy.

Journey tip: Similar to cake carriers—you may put money into pie carriers as properly! It may also be a enjoyable DIY venture when you’re up for a bit stitching!

Spiced Candy Potato Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Throughout a season when it’s all about pumpkin, it’s a welcome transfer to throw a candy potato dessert into the combo. This cake is greater than deserving of its spot in your Thanksgiving buffet. It’s additionally made gluten-free, so everybody can take pleasure in a slice. Mixing the candy potato, a neutral-tasting oil, and eggs makes for a moist crumb, and pairing almond flour with sorghum flour retains each forkful mild and laced with cinnamon-ginger goodness.

Journey tip: If the highest of your journey container squishes the cream cheese frosting, don’t freak out. You may slather it again on with a butter knife as soon as it’s time to serve. That is additionally the time to prime it with candied ginger!

Chewy Pumpkin Spice Cookies

If you happen to’re headed to a extra informal Thanksgiving potluck, these pumpkin spice cookies are required. The cinnamon glaze could seem elective, however belief me—it’s not. They completely seize the candy and spicy deliciousness of the season, and when you desire a cookie that leans on the chewier aspect, then these are precisely what you’re craving.

Journey tip: Cookies may be probably the most transportable dessert of all time, and when you’re feeling additional, convey them in a cake dome. They’ll really feel much more particular and alluring in your Thanksgiving dessert desk—like a bakery show!

Pumpkin Snack Cake

Snack muffins, by our definition, are informal, comforting confections that don’t require an excessive amount of thought or effort in your half. That being stated, they’re nonetheless infused with love and care and must be eaten with pleasure. This pumpkin model advantages from a espresso cake-like crumble and a moist, spice-laced crumb. All that’s to say, it’s completely acceptable to take pleasure in your leftovers for breakfast the subsequent morning.

Journey tip: Make certain your cake is cooled fully earlier than packing it away to journey. If you happen to don’t have a cake service, line a Tupperware container with parchment as an alternative.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars

I’m all for taking a traditional, crowd-favorite recipe and switching issues up—and these pecan pie bars do precisely that. Whereas it’s arduous to enhance upon the unique, including chocolate and bourbon to the combo makes it occur. The result’s a bar that’s thick, chewy, nutty, and precisely what you need while you suppose you may’t eat something extra.

Journey tip: Bars are notoriously glorious vacationers, so don’t be afraid to toss them in a storage container for the drive. However when it’s time for dessert, take into account serving them on a big, picket slicing board. It’s easy—however beautiful.

Wholesome Pumpkin Bread

Simply because the recipe contains “wholesome” within the title doesn’t imply that this pumpkin bread isn’t full-on dessert-worthy. Bonus: the substances that make it more healthy are the identical parts that lend tons of taste and moist texture to every chew. Applesauce, Greek yogurt, coconut oil, and maple syrup naturally sweeten your bread whereas making clear that you just’re nonetheless indulging. Might this be the right Thanksgiving potluck dessert? You determine.

Journey tip: Put money into a cake service! This makes packing up your cake extremely simple, and so they even make ones particularly for bundt muffins.

Dairy- and Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie’s a traditional—and it’s a vacation dessert that everybody ought to get to take pleasure in. That’s why we tailored our favourite recipe so our gluten-free mates can take part, too. And don’t fear, these fluted edges are wayyy simpler to create than they appear. Get our step-by-step ideas within the publish.

Journey tip: Pies generally journey fairly properly, simply wait so as to add your cashew whipped cream till serving time!

This publish was final up to date on November 9, 2025, to incorporate new insights.