Pennsylvania’s Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dishes

With Thanksgiving arriving on Nov. 28, countless residents of the Keystone State are bound to be hitting the road to celebrate the holiday with friends and family, with the nation’s eminent food-centric holiday allowing dishes like turkey and a litany of side dishes to be the star come the fourth Thursday of the month.  

In places like Pennsylvania, sides like stuffing (16 search interest score), mac & cheese (seven search interest score), mashed potatoes and green bean casserole (five search interest score each) took home top honors when it came to search interest scores for each dish, while sweet potato casserole placed in a distant fifth with a search interest score of three.  

Utilizing Google Trends, PennStakes.com analyzed the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes of Pennsylvania residents by looking at the search results of each side dish from 11/01/2023 to 11/30/2023. The dishes analyzed were the most in total searches in the United States, including Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Mac & Cheese, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Candied Yams, Brussel Sprouts and Cranberry Sauce. 

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Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dishes of Pennsylvania Residents

Rank 

Side Dishes 

Interest Over Time Period 

Stuffing 

16 

Macaroni & Cheese  

T-3 

Mashed Potatoes 

T-3 

Green Bean Casserole 

Sweet Potato Casserole 

Most Popular of Each Major City Area 

Pittsburgh 

  • Stuffing – 48% 
  • Mac & Cheese – 15% 
  • Green Bean Casserole – 15% 

Philadelphia 

  • Stuffing – 44%  
  • Mac & Cheese – 24%  
  • Mashed Potatoes – 14% 

Harrisburg-Lancaster-York 

  • Stuffing – 41% 
  • Mac & Cheese – 20% 
  • Mashed Potatoes – 14% 

Erie 

  • Stuffing -46% 
  • Green Bean Casserole – 21% 
  • Mac & Cheese – 15%

Which Side Dish is PA’s Favorite?

When broken down by metropolitan area, stuffing was clearly the top dog of Thanksgiving side dishes this year, with scores that ranged from 41% in places like the Harrisburg-Lancaster-York DMA to 48% in Pittsburgh, while mac & cheese was second statewide with percentages that ranged from 15% (Pittsburgh and Erie) to 24% (Philadelphia).  

Three of the state’s four largest DMAs had mac & cheese second overall and either green bean casserole or mashed potatoes third, though Erie broke the trend with 21% of respondents picking green bean casserole to place second overall while mac & cheese finished third, at 15%.  

Both Philadelphia and the Harrisburg-Lancaster-York DMA had mashed potatoes third overall, with scores of 14% for each, while Pittsburgh had green bean casserole and mac & cheese side by side with each dish scoring 14% in total.  

Overall, no dish could hold a candle to stuffing in Pennsylvania, though, with the holiday stalwart taking home top honors for the Keystone State’s favorite Thanksgiving side dish honor for 2024 over a host of delicious dishes that also vied for the title.  

USA Today photo by Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar.

Author

Christopher Boan

Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.

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