Per-person amounts
These are cooked portions per adult; count kids as about 60% of an adult. They assume a full table — turkey plus five or six sides plus dessert — where everyone takes some of everything but not a lot of anything. If you're only serving two or three sides, increase each by about a third.
| Dish | Per adult | What that means in the store |
| Mashed potatoes | 0.4 lb raw potatoes (≈¾ cup mashed) | 5-lb bag feeds 12 |
| Stuffing / dressing | ¾ cup cooked | 9×13 pan or 12-oz box ≈ 12 servings |
| Gravy | ⅓ cup | 1 quart per 12 people |
| Cranberry sauce | ⅓ cup | 14-oz can ≈ 1½ cups ≈ 4–5 people |
| Green beans / vegetables | 4 oz cooked | 1 lb feeds 4 |
| Sweet potatoes / casserole | 4 oz (½ cup) | 1 lb feeds 4 |
| Dinner rolls | 1½ | Dozen per 8 people |
| Salad | 1 cup greens (≈2 oz) | Big clamshell feeds 8 |
| Pie | 1 slice (⅙–⅛ of a 9-inch pie) | 1 pie per 6 guests |
| Whipped cream | 2 Tbsp | 1 pint heavy cream whips for 16 |
Shopping chart by guest count
Adults only; add roughly 60% of a portion for each child. Amounts are rounded up to what you'd actually buy.
| Guests | Potatoes | Stuffing | Gravy | Cranberry | Veg | Rolls | Pies |
| 8 | 3½ lb | 6 cups (1 pan) | 2¾ cups | 2 cans | 2 lb | 12 | 2 |
| 12 | 5 lb | 9 cups (1 pan) | 1 quart | 3 cans | 3 lb | 18 | 2 |
| 16 | 6½ lb | 12 cups (1 pan, heaped) | 5½ cups | 4 cans | 4 lb | 24 | 3 |
| 20 | 8 lb | 15 cups (2 pans) | 6½ cups | 5 cans | 5 lb | 30 | 4 |
| 30 | 12 lb | 23 cups (2 pans, heaped) | 10 cups (2½ qt) | 7 cans | 7½ lb | 45 | 5 |
Same numbers the Thanksgiving turkey calculator produces alongside your bird size, thaw date and roasting timeline.
Notes on each dish
Mashed potatoes are the side people take seconds of, so the 0.4 lb figure is a floor, not a ceiling. If potatoes are the star (or you want leftover shepherd's pie), go to ½ lb per person. Russets mash fluffiest; Yukon Golds need less butter to taste rich. A 5-pound bag is the unit that matters: one bag per 10–12 guests.
Stuffing at ¾ cup per person sounds small until it's next to potatoes, rolls and sweet potatoes. One 9×13 pan holds about 12 cups, so a single pan covers 14–16 people at this portion. If you're stuffing the bird, the cavity of a 14-lb turkey holds only about 6 cups — bake the rest in a dish, and remember stuffed birds roast 30–45 minutes longer.
Gravy is the thing hosts run out of. A 12–16 lb turkey yields 3–4 cups of usable drippings, which covers about 12 people. For more, make a stock-based gravy the day before (turkey wings or necks roasted, simmered, thickened with a roux) and enrich it with drippings on the day. Plan a quart per dozen guests and you'll never see an empty boat.
Cranberry sauce is ⅓ cup per person, but plenty of guests skip it. A 14-oz can holds about 1½ cups; homemade from a 12-oz bag of berries makes about 2¼ cups, enough for 6–7.
Vegetables — green beans, Brussels sprouts, glazed carrots, corn — total about 4 oz cooked per person across all of them. If you're serving three vegetables, that's roughly 1½ oz of each. A pound of raw green beans feeds four as the only vegetable, eight as one of three.
Rolls at 1½ per person means a dozen for eight. Buy the extra half-dozen; they're cheap and they get eaten with leftovers.
Pie: a 9-inch pie cuts into 6 generous or 8 modest slices. One pie per six guests, and at least two varieties, because the person who takes "just a sliver" of each is really taking a full slice. For 12 people that's two pies (pumpkin and pecan or apple); for 20, three or four. Add a quart of ice cream per 8 people if you're serving it à la mode.
Make-ahead, so you're not cooking everything at once
- Two days before: cranberry sauce, gravy base, pie crusts (or whole pies), cubed and dried bread for stuffing.
- Day before: assemble the stuffing and casseroles (bake on the day), peel potatoes and hold them in cold water, trim vegetables, set the table.
- The day, while the turkey rests: the bird needs 30–40 minutes of rest anyway — that's when the stuffing, rolls and casseroles go into the hot oven and the potatoes get mashed.
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Frequently asked questions
How many pounds of potatoes for 20 people?
About 8 pounds for mashed potatoes at 0.4 lb per person; 10 pounds if you want leftovers.
How much stuffing per person?
¾ cup cooked. A 9×13 pan makes about 12 cups, or 14–16 servings.
How much gravy for 12 people?
About a quart (4 cups) at ⅓ cup each.
How many rolls per person?
1½ — a dozen for every 8 guests.
How many pies for 16 people?
Three 9-inch pies, ideally two or three different kinds.
How much green bean casserole per person?
About ½ cup (4 oz). A standard 9×13 casserole serves 10–12 as one of several sides.