3 Brilliant Thanksgiving Sides You Can Make Without Using the Oven

One of the biggest challenges to getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table is finding room in the oven for all those side dishes! Kelsey Nixon has the solution – cook all your sides on the stove top or in the crockpot! Read on for three recipes for traditional Thanksgiving sides that don’t use the oven.

No. 1: Kelsey Nixon’s Skillet Candied Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Pecans

This recipe couldn’t be easier – it’s really a “set it and forget it” method. Kelsey melts a stick of butter in the bottom of a heavy-bottomed pot, then adds sweet potato rounds sliced to about 1/3 inch thick. She mixes in a combination of brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, then covers with a tight-fitting lid and cooks for an hour. When they’re done cooking, add a dash of vanilla and stir. Top with toasted pecans before serving. That’s it!

Tip: If your sweet potatoes break down too much for your liking, these are also excellent served mashed.

No. 2: Kelsey Nixon’s Slow Cooker Thanksgiving Herbed Stuffing

This game-changing idea is truly brilliant and we can’t believe we haven’t always done it this way – Kelsey cooks her stuffing in the crockpot! She mixes up her stuffing like she normally does, and then just puts it in the slow cooker and cooks on low for 3-4 hours. Wow!

No. 3: Kelsey Nixon’s Stovetop Green Bean Casserole

This is a pretty traditional green bean casserole that Kelsey simply modified so that you can make it on the stove in a cast iron pan. She makes a mushroom cream sauce from scratch, and even tops it with fried onions! Who needs the stove?