Five-Ingredient, Easy Thanksgiving Recipes – NYT Cooking

You don’t have to plan and cook for days to have a memorable Thanksgiving meal this year. These simple recipes for turkey, side dishes and more call for five ingredients or fewer (not including salt and pepper), so you can get dinner on the table and get to the best part: eating. For more easy five-ingredient recipes, visit our collection.

This three-ingredient, one-pan side dish from Sheela Prakash adds a little color and freshness to the table. Plenty of ground black pepper adds heat, while Parmesan lends umami.

Recipe: Cacio e Pepe Green Beans

If you don’t like the traditional sweet potato casserole, try Julia Moskin’s smoky, spicy, just-sweet-enough dish that gets its heat from Thai curry paste and its nuttiness from coconut milk.

Recipe: Fiery Sweet Potatoes

A scattering of pomegranate seeds makes this brussels sprouts dish from Colu Henry look fancy. But it’s really just a matter of roasting the sprouts with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then tossing with chopped walnuts and the ruby seeds.

Recipe: Brussels Sprouts With Walnuts and Pomegranate

Chili powder and cayenne accentuate the natural sweetness of butternut squash in this cozy recipe from Vallery Lomas. It doubles seamlessly for a crowd. Just be sure to spread out the squash on a sheet pan so it cooks evenly.

Recipe: Chili- and Cinnamon-Roasted Butternut Squash

Samin Nosrat’s buttermilk-brined roast chicken has long been one of New York Times Cooking’s most popular recipes. It stands to reason then that the same technique applied to a whole turkey and turkey breast would yield extraordinary results.

Recipes: Buttermilk-Brined Roast Turkey Breast | Buttermilk-Brined Roast Turkey

The key to Mark Bittman’s five-star potatoes au gratin is to season as you go so that each slice of potato has flavor. (Potatoes suck up a lot of salt.) If you’re looking to up your game, add fresh thyme or chopped rosemary to the half-and-half before pouring it over the potatoes.

Recipe: Potatoes au Gratin

Instead of taking up valuable real estate on the stovetop, let your slow cooker do the work. This complex cranberry sauce from Sarah DiGregorio uses a combination of cooked cranberries and crisp, fresh cranberries. Leave out the port if it’s not your thing, and don’t worry if you don’t have a slow cooker; there’s a stovetop method, too.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce With Port and Orange

You’ve never seen anything like this on your Thanksgiving table. Inspired by pommes aligot, in which cheese is added to mashed potatoes until it’s stretchy like fondue, Ham El-Waylly adds mozzarella cheese to broccoli purée for a verdant holiday side dish.

Recipe: Broccoli Aligot

This glossy four-ingredient dish, which Melissa Clark adapted from “The Harvey House Cookbook,” calls for just sweet potatoes, butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt. It’s best served warm, not blazing hot, so it’s ideal for Thanksgiving, when sides have to wait around patiently for the turkey to finish.

Recipe: Candied Sweet Potatoes

OK, so it’s not traditional pumpkin pie, but this cold and tangy dessert by Joyce LaFray Young will cheer up your taste buds after all of that rich Thanksgiving fare.

Recipe: Key Lime Pie

Lidey Heuck adds lemon zest and crisped pancetta to roasted green beans for a simple, yet special side dish. This recipe serves eight to 10, but it halves easily for a smaller group.

Recipe: Roasted Green Beans With Pancetta and Lemon Zest

Save yourself the stress of making gravy under the watchful eyes of hungry diners by making it in advance. Mark Bittman’s version is one of our most popular Thanksgiving recipes because you can make it up to five days early. When you’re ready to eat, reheat and stir in some turkey drippings.

Recipe: Make-Ahead Gravy

This sunshiny side from Ali Slagle can be made with fresh, frozen or canned corn. Blending one cup of the corn and adding it back to the pot lends creaminess, while also amplifying the delicate corn flavor.

Recipe: Creamed Corn

End the meal with something special and luxurious like this crème brûlée from Mark Bittman. You don’t need a blowtorch; your oven’s broiler will do. One important note: Chill the custard for several hours before browning the top, otherwise you’ll end up with custard soup.

Recipe: Vanilla Crème Brûlée

With more than 8,000 five-star reviews, this is our most popular roasted brussels sprouts recipe year after year. Mark Bittman brought the straightforward recipe to The Times in 2005.

Recipe: Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Garlic

Don’t bother peeling the butternut squash. Ali Slagle cuts it in half-inch slices before roasting, then finishes it with a tangy, spicy brown-butter vinaigrette and fresh mint.

Recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash With Brown Butter Vinaigrette

Here’s a fun magic trick of a dessert that Melissa Clark adapted from the molecular gastronomist Hervé This: Melt good bittersweet chocolate, place it in an ice bath, then whip it by hand for 3 to 5 minutes (you’ll want help) until thick and fluffy. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

Recipe: Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse With Fleur de Sel

Genevieve Ko argues that preparing mashed potatoes ahead of time is not only convenient, it actually guarantees better results. When potatoes chill, their starches firm up, so when they’re reheated, they slump into a satiny mash.

Recipe: Make-Ahead Potatoes

Martha Rose Shulman’s crisp cranberry relish, which is made by whizzing fresh cranberries, a whole orange, pecans and honey in a food processor, is a refreshing break from mushy, brown Thanksgiving foods. Save leftovers to top leftover turkey sandwiches or swirl into plain yogurt.

Recipe: Cranberry-Orange Relish

It’s not often that carrots get a starring role on the dinner table, but when they’re roasted with olive oil, thyme and oregano like Martha Rose Shulman does it, they’ll steal the spotlight. Use rainbow carrots if you can find them.

Recipe: Roasted Carrots

After making these easy, buttery and flaky drop biscuits from Samantha Seneviratne, you’ll never go back to the roll-and-cut version. Try stirring in some cracked black pepper, Parmesan or finely chopped tender herbs.

Recipe: Drop Biscuits

This classic from Pierre Franey calls for a full two and a half pounds of fresh spinach, and it has more than 1,500 five-star ratings. You can’t go wrong.

Recipe: Creamed Spinach

The secret to the silkiest mashed potatoes? Roasting the potatoes instead of boiling them, then stirring in just enough milk and butter to make them creamy, but not soupy or sticky. Try it, and we bet Kay Chun’s recipe will become your new go-to.

Recipe: Creamy Mashed Potatoes

These make-ahead butterscotch puddings from Melissa Clark are a creamy, less-fussy alternative to pie. Top them with fresh berries, if you can find them, or for a more traditional Thanksgiving take, a spoonful of apple pie filling. Add a dollop of whipped cream, of course.

Recipe: No-Bake Butterscotch Custards

An Instant Pot will make quick work of mashed potatoes. (We’re talking 10 minutes from start to finish.) In this recipe, Melissa Clark adds fresh chives and Parmesan. For a stovetop version, go with Julia Moskin’s mashed potato recipe. It’s always perfect.

Recipe: Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes With Sour Cream and Chives

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