These Are Iowa & Illinois’ Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dishes

'Tis the season for all kinds of comfort food and stretchy pants.

Happy Thanksgiving Week! Hope you'll be stuffing your face with good food. Turkey may be the entree, but for a lot of us, it's the sides that really shine on Thanksgiving. It's just food you rarely or don't get for the rest of the year. A bunch of different casseroles, potatoes made any number of ways, warm rolls, and cranberry sauce. Yum.

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But with so many choices for side dishes, how do we narrow it down to our favorites? Zippia looked at each state's favorite Thanksgiving side dish with stats from Google Trends. Mashed potatoes are America's overall favorite Thanksgiving side but Iowa and Illinois have their own preferences.

Iowa

Iowa's favorite Thanksgiving side dish are green beans! Not the casserole, just green beans. They're delicious, especially if you pair them with flavor enhancers like garlic or bacon bits.

I'm surprised corn isn't our favorite. Only 3 states picked green beans as their favorite Thanksgiving side: Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio.

Illinois

15 states chose some form of potatoes as their favorite Thanksgiving side, and Illinois is a fan of the mashed method. And who doesn't love a big dollop of mashed potatoes with a healthy pour of gravy?

Side dishes really are our favorites. Stats show 74% of Americans plan to eat 4 or more sides today. 75% of American Thanksgiving meals include mashed potatoes and stuffing (or dressing). 69% of meals have dinner rolls, 64% have cranberry sauce, and 59% of meals serve sweet potatoes.