10 Thanksgiving Potato Recipes to Impress Your Family

Though it's hard to find a Thanksgiving table that doesn't have potatoes on it, all too often that means a bowl of dry mashed potatoes or bland roasted ones. But as easy as it is to mess up potatoes, with a little know-how, it's almost just as easy to make them one of the most delicious parts of the meal. Instead of settling for mediocre spuds on Thanksgiving, wow your guests this year with potato recipes like pommes aligot (a.k.a. super-gooey mashed potatoes packed with cheese), the crispiest roast potatoes you've ever had, or a beautiful hasselback potato gratin.

Mashed Potatoes

Ultra-Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

If you want fluffy mashed potatoes, just know that starch is your biggest enemy. The secret is dicing the potatoes and rinsing them well before and after cooking, which will get rid of that excess starch and leave the mashed potatoes super light. Even if you usually prefer creamier mashed potatoes, as I do, this recipe is the best for making gravy volcanoes.

Pommes Aligot (Cheesy Mashed Potatoes)

If our ultra-fluffy mashed potatoes still aren't quite luxurious enough for you, you've got to check out pommes aligot. This traditional French dish packs potatoes with so much melted cheese, it practically looks like fondue. For the most interesting flavor profile, use a mix of Alpine cheeses, such as Swiss, Gruyère, and Comté.

Roasted and Pan-Fried Potatoes

The Best Crispy Roast Potatoes Ever

We have lots of roast potato recipes, but if you're going to try just one, make it this one. Here, we parboil the potatoes in water spiked with baking soda to make it alkaline, then toss them roughly in fat before roasting; the aggressive handling batters the potatoes' exteriors slightly, which builds up a starchy slurry. You'll end up with potatoes that are soft and creamy on the inside and fantastically crispy on the outside.

Ultra-Crispy New Potatoes With Garlic, Herbs, and Lemon

One of the hardest parts of roasting potatoes is dealing with the skins (assuming you're leaving them on). We want our potato skins nice and crispy, yet they often come out papery or tough. To avoid those outcomes, we parboil the potatoes in vinegar-spiked water—the acidity helps build up a layer of starch that gets crusty in the oven—and toss the potatoes with plenty of fat before roasting.

Crispy Smashed Potatoes

This isn't the most straightforward potato recipe in our collection—parboiling the potatoes, smashing them with a skillet, and frying them slowly in small batches is a minor pain. But the incredibly crispy potatoes that result are well worth it. Plus, you can do most of the work Wednesday evening and reheat the potatoes in the oven, without sacrificing crispness.

Skillet Potatoes With Cajun Blackening Spices and Buttermilk-Herb Sauce

Looking for a potato recipe that will really stand out on your Thanksgiving table? These potatoes make a serious statement, thanks to an intense Cajun-style blackening rub made with smoked paprika, cumin, garlic and onion powders, brown sugar, oregano, and cayenne. To balance out the spice and heat, we serve them with a creamy buttermilk-based sauce flavored with garlic, dill, chives, and parsley.

Casseroles and Gratins

Classic Rich and Silky Potato Gratin (Scalloped Potatoes)

This is potato gratin the way it should be: rich, melt-in-your-mouth creamy, and loaded with flavor. We layer russet potatoes with Gruyère cheese to add earthy nuttiness, while a mixture of cream and milk slowly bubbles and cooks down as the potatoes bake. A crispy golden crust of additional Gruyère and Parmigiano-Reggiano is the finishing touch.

Hasselback Potato Gratin

Remember the Hasselback potato trend? The photos always looked terrific on Pinterest, but the gimmicky recipe never seemed to work well enough in real life to be useful. This recipe keeps the best part of the idea (the abundance of crispy potato edges) by making what's essentially a sideways gratin. We arrange the potatoes, sliced on a mandoline, in a baking dish and cover them only partially with a mixture of cream and cheese. That leaves the tops exposed, allowing them to crisp up well.

Crispy Mashed Potato Casserole With Bacon, Cheese, and Scallions

Mashed potatoes don't tend to reheat well, meaning you need to time your Thanksgiving prep precisely in order to finish them right before serving dinner. There is a workaround, though: Combining the mash with lots of sour cream gives the potatoes enough extra moisture to allow them to keep in the fridge for up to five (!) days. All you'll need to do before serving is top the casserole with diced bacon, cheese, bread crumbs, and scallions and bake until it's hot.

Tater Tot Casserole (Hotdish)

Tater Tot casserole—or "hotdish," as it's called in its Midwestern birthplace—is great for gatherings any time of year, and Thanksgiving is no exception. Sure, most likely your Tater Tots will come frozen from a bag (though you can try making your own if you're really hardcore!), but combining them with a flavorful homemade mushroom sauce and carefully seasoned ground beef makes this version extra special.