You can do better than microwave mashed potatoes and store-bought pies for Friendsgiving this year.

Before sitting down with your family, Friendsgiving lets friends get together to share gratitude for the non-familial relationships in life. While it might be tempting to order a pizza for Friendsgiving and call it a day, it’s nice to be able to make a meal with friends.

If you decide to take the homemade route, you might be at a loss for what to cook. It doesn’t matter whether you want to spend an hour cooking or if you’re willing to dedicate a whole day, here are plenty of recipes you could make.

Turkey is hands down the hardest dish to cook for Thanksgiving. I can’t for the life of me understand why you would want to put your name down for turkey. However, if you’re feeling particularly masochistic and insist on cooking turkey for Friendsgiving, please, for the love of all things fall, spatchcock it.

A spatchcocked turkey, also known as butterflied, involves removing the backbone of the turkey and laying it flat. With this method, the dark and white meat of the turkey reach their respective temperatures at the same time, resulting in a juicier and faster turkey.

Now, maybe you’re sick of turkey, or maybe you don’t want to spend an entire day cooking one dish. But if you still want to bring some kind of meat for Friendsgiving, I suggest frying up some chicken cutlets. 

The ingredients are simple: chicken breasts, flour, eggs, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning and olive oil. If you don’t have olive oil on hand, you can substitute it for any neutral oil with a high smoke point. Canola oil works fine, but for all you health nuts out there, avocado oil is just as effective.

I wholeheartedly believe that mac and cheese belongs under the main course category. A good baked mac and cheese always steals the show, so why fight it? If you are going to bring some, try Tini’s mac and cheese recipe. I made it last year for my Friendsgiving, and everyone went feral.

Friendsgiving simply isn’t Friendsgiving without mashed potatoes. Now, if you want to impress your friends with your amazing cooking skills, but don’t want to put in much effort, garlic confit is a fantastic solution.

Garlic confit is an originally French technique that involves cooking something at low temperature while it’s submerged in fat. When you confit garlic, it results in milder, softer garlic cloves. Plus, the olive oil you cook the garlic in gets infused with all that delicious garlicky flavor. 

There are two ways to confit garlic. The longer process is cooking it in the oven. To save time, I recommend cooking it on the stove. Put the cloves of garlic and olive oil in a pot or pan and cook them low and slow until the garlic gets golden brown. Combining this decadent cooking technique with mashed potatoes results in an impressive and easy side.

If you aren’t in the mood for mashed potatoes, don’t fret, because there are no limits on how many potatoes you can have for Friendsgiving, and smashed potatoes are just as tasty and three times as crispy.

Smashed potatoes involve two cooking methods: boiling and baking. First, you boil small potatoes and then you smash them, drizzle them with oil and bake them in the oven. They come out both delightfully fluffy and very crispy. 

If you want some variety for your Friendsgiving, consider making balsamic-glazed Brussels sprouts. If you don’t like Brussels sprouts, try making them this way and then reassess your flawed opinion. If you want to add a garnish, you can sprinkle some slivered almonds over the top — just make sure to check your friend’s allergies.

Moving on to desserts, there are so many more options than just pie. An easier sweet treat that’s pie-adjacent would be pecan pie bars. Rather than making the shortbread yourself, try these no-bake pecan pie bars. If you’re not much of a pecan person, or if someone you know is allergic, any kind of cobbler would also be well received. I’m nominating apple cobbler since apples are in season in the fall.

There is no shame in no-bake desserts. In my experience, banana pudding is always a hit at parties. In that same vein, the people who don’t like banana pudding usually like tiramisu. If you’re feeling creative, combine the two and make caramelized banana tiramisu. I’ve made this miso caramel banana tiramisu recipe dozens of times and loved it.

The best part about Friendsgiving isn’t about getting to eat a coma-inducing amount of food, although that’s definitely a perk. At the end of the day, the main part of Friendsgiving is showing your friends how much you appreciate them. What better way to do that than bringing a dish that you put time, effort and love into?