The MUNCHIES Guide to Thanksgiving

Like most things, the pre-party jitters surrounding Thanksgiving are usually more fun than the day itself. In the early weeks of November, you thumb through recipes, pinning impulsively and fantasizing about emerging from the kitchen with course after course of traditional-enough-to-invoke-nostalgia-yet-funky-enough-to-showcase-our-cooking-prowess dishes.

Of course, these things rarely go as planned. Your tween niece has suddenly gone vegan, your cousins are too wine-drunk to even make it to the table, and damnit, why does it smell like burning hair?

Please, enjoy this period of daydreaming. Hey, maybe this is the year that everything goes right. We've got recipes on recipes, and they're even good eaten alone, standing at the kitchen counter with the door locked behind you.

We've got your perfect turkey—duh—and all of the essential dishes that make up the backbone of your Thanksgiving dinner. Bonus points if you can escape your family for once and do a proper Friendsgiving.

Nailing the bird only gets you so far—a perfect turkey is moot without a kickass lineup of side dishes. We're upping the ante on traditional sides this year, with Korean sweet potato casserole with maple sage brown butter and this swiss chard pie.

Speaking of pie… It's important. Don't let dessert fall by the wayside—even if everyone is too full to eat it on Thanksgiving, it's gonna be hanging out in your fridge for a week, so it better be good. We like our pecan pie with a kick of bourbon, and our pumpkin pie with goat cheese. But hey, if you want the classics, we've got those too.

And then comes the calm after the storm. We've got Thanksgiving leftover recipes that'll put your morning-after sandwich to shame. Turkey and sweet potato pizza? Sign us up for a week of no-complaints leftover destruction.

No matter what goes wrong this Turkey Day, these recipes won't fail you. Now that's something to be thankful for.