21 Christmas dinner recipes (2024)

Best Christmas dinner recipes

Perfect roast turkey

Discover everything you need to know about cooking the perfect roast turkey – including how to keep it tender and juicy – plus storage and reheating tips, along with the complete recipe. Serve it alongside our easy homemade turkey gravy for a classic Christmas dinner that's sure to impress.

Stuffed turkey breast with maple bacon lattice

This easy stuffed turkey breast looks a lot more complicated than it really is, thanks to the bacon lattice. The lattice also helps keep the meat moist and flavourful. Discover our best turkey recipes, as well as ideas for using up your leftover turkey.

Quince-glazed ham with pineapple relish

This ham can be scaled up or down in size – just use the calculations in the recipe. Rather than the fuss of boiling then baking, we prefer to tent the ham with foil and bake in its own juices before glazing. Why not serve this alongside your Christmas Day turkey?

More like this

Maryland stuffed ham

Want an impressive ham recipe for your Boxing Day buffet? Check out this unusual brined ham, with a piquant mix of spiced greens. Not only does this cut through the rich meat beautifully, but it looks great on the plate. The glaze is less traditional (and optional), but will give the ham a nice finish.

Spiced gammon with chilli crisp roasties

Flavour your gammon joint with orange, star anise, honey and chilli for an effortless Christmas centrepiece, paired with fiery roast potatoes.

Two-tray Christmas dinner

Cook all the components of a Christmas lunch on oven trays – the turkey, golden roasties, pigs in blankets and all the trimmings – in just two hours with this effortless recipe.

Turkey au vin

Cook your turkey legs and breast in a heady red wine sauce for a Christmassy take on coq au vin. Once it's in the oven, this effortless dish takes care of itself.

Roast duck with crispy potatoes and mulled-wine cherry sauce

Check out our indulgent roast duck legs with super-crispy potatoes and spiced cherry sauce. You can scale this up or down, with one leg and 200-250g of potatoes per person.

Roast beef with marsala wild mushrooms

This rib of beef is the ultimate showstopper – crisp on the outside and blushing pink on the inside – served with a rich mushroom and marsala sauce for an umami hit.

Roast duck with plums and star anise

With crispy skin and melt-in-the-mouth duck served with rich plums, this recipe with star anise makes a perfect Sunday roast, or try making it for Christmas lunch. Discover our best plum recipes.

Parsnip, sage and apple Wellington

Our best vegan Wellington recipe, stuffed with fried parsnips, mushrooms, lentils, crispy sage and sweet apple. It's the perfect Christmas Day centrepiece.

Duck with lavender honey and spinach, ricotta and pine nut dumplings

Looking for an impressive alternative to your turkey this Christmas? This recipe is a great alternative to you usual Sunday roast. The lavender honey is subtly floral but not overpowering, and is used as a glaze. The dumplings, resembling a light gnocchi, are a lighter alternative to traditional roast potatoes.

Roast partridge and cinnamon pears with warm barley and roots salad

Need an impressive centrepiece for your Christmas feast? Chef Mark Lloyd nestles whole partridges in a warm barley base for an easy game recipe to cook at home.

Roast chicken with kiev butter

Thinking of serving chicken instead of turkey this Christmas? Smother a whole chicken in garlicky, lemony butter and roast for an easy, flavour-packed festive family meal.

Capon cooked in spiced mead wine with roasted carrots, sprouts and croutons

Capon (large chicken) is a really special meat to cook over the festive season. The spiced mead gives Ben Spalding's showstopping recipe a wintry edge. Serve with roasted carrots, sprouts and croutons.

Roast goose with madeira gravy

Our roast goose is delicious with madeira gravy, and makes a great alternative to turkey to serve guests at your Christmas Day feast. It's also easier to make than you might think.

Salmon with crispy spuds and zhoug

Perk up your party buffet with this punchy side of salmon served with crispy potatoes, perfect for entertaining over the festive season.

Herb-stuffed rolled lamb breast

Roll up this great-value cut of lamb with mustard and herbs, then bake until soft and tender so it falls apart into the white wine onion gravy – an easy yet flavour-packed festive centrepiece.

Hog roast with spiced apple stuffing

Looking for a hearty centrepiece to serve friends and family over the festive season? Check out our impressive pork shoulder hog roast with easy spiced apple stuffing. You’ll need butcher’s string to tie this up – if you get your pork from a butcher, ask for some string when you buy it.

Beef recipe for Christmas with chestnuts

This recipe for beef fillet with spiced pears and chestnut pickle is easy to make, but offers something a little bit different during the colder months. Make this as an alternative for Christmas dinner this year.

Discover more beef recipes.

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Maple-glazed ham

Allspice, cinnamon and star anise bring festive flavour to this maple-glazed ham – the slow simmering technique keeps the meat succulent and juicy.

21 Christmas dinner recipes (21)
21 Christmas dinner recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is a traditional Christmas dinner menu? ›

Traditional Christmas dinner features turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and vegetables. Other types of poultry, roast beef, or ham, are also used. Pumpkin or apple pie, raisin pudding, Christmas pudding, or fruitcake are staples for dessert.

What is the best meal for Christmas dinner? ›

Traditional Christmas Dinner
  • 1 / 16. Grilled Beef Tenderloin. ...
  • 2 / 16. Slow Cooker Roast Beef. ...
  • 3 / 16. Dorie Greenspan's Herb-Butter Chicken. ...
  • 4 / 16. Brown Sugar & Mustard Glazed Ham. ...
  • 5 / 16. Sheet Pan Beef Tenderloin with Mushrooms and Brussels Sprouts. ...
  • 6 / 16. Roast Leg of Lamb. ...
  • 7 / 16. ...
  • 8 / 16.

What makes the best Christmas dinner? ›

Christmas dinner ideas
  • Easy Christmas roast duck with crispy potatoes and port gravy.
  • Gorgeous dinner of porchetta stuffed with wild mushrooms, celeriac mash and gravy.
  • Marinated & grilled salmon.
  • Wood-fired shellfish.
  • Pot roast pork.
  • Fabulous fish stew.
  • Sea bass in puff pastry.

What are 3 food items that are popular for Christmas dinner? ›

They cover the savory side of Christmas dinner, from prime rib, baked ham, and roast turkey to scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce.

What is the most eaten meat on Christmas? ›

1. Turkey. Let's admit it, a whole turkey is the best and most traditional meat for Christmas dinners. Originally gracing our plates in the 16th century, popular history tells of King Henry VIII being the first English monarch to have turkey for Christmas.

What do Americans have for Christmas dinner? ›

Roast turkey and ham are popular for Christmas dinner throughout the country, but depending on the region, so are tamales, roast goose with red cabbage, crawfish jambalaya, roast pork or “seven fishes” seafood salad.

What is the most popular Christmas dinner item? ›

Roast potatoes and gravy are the most ubiquitous items on the Christmas dinner, with only around half opting for turkey.

What is the most popular Christmas Eve dinner? ›

Turkey is classic, of course, as is ham, but you could also serve a roast chicken, roast beef, or pork tenderloin. Fill out your meal with some Christmas-y side dishes, and you'll be all set for the perfect holiday dinner.

What is usually cooked for Christmas dinner? ›

Serve a traditional Christmas dinner menu filled with classic dishes, including smoked salmon starters, roast turkey with all the trimmings and Christmas pudding. We're all for breaking with convention and trying something new on special occasions, but sometimes only classic dishes will do on Christmas Day.

What vegetables do you have for Christmas dinner? ›

Discover the perfect amounts of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, peas and red cabbage to serve with your roast turkey. Need help planning your Christmas dinner?

What ingredients do you need for a Christmas dinner? ›

  • 1Spice roasted turkey and gravy. ...
  • 2Gingerbread men. ...
  • 3Roasted root vegetables with fennel, garlic & thyme. ...
  • 4Mulled wine. ...
  • 5Baked ham with barbecue glaze. ...
  • 6Christmas pudding. ...
  • 7Easy muffin-pan Yorkshire puddings recipe. ...
  • 8Roast beef with sweet roasted garlic.

What is traditionally eaten for Christmas dinner? ›

Popular Christmas side dishes include mashed potatoes & gravy, dinner rolls, corn, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and roasted vegetables.

What are 5 Christmas foods? ›

Candy Cane can be hung as edible decorations.
  • White Christmas, a sweet slice made of copha and mixed fruit.
  • Cold ham and cold turkey.
  • Seafood and salads.
  • Roast chicken, ham and turkey.
  • Stuffing.
  • Christmas cake or Christmas pudding.
  • Custard.
  • Gingerbread in Christmas shapes.

What foods would be appropriate for a Christmas dinner party? ›

Christmas dinner party
  • Christmas pudding ice cream. ...
  • Christmas pudding sundae. ...
  • Goose breast with goose leg sausage roll, kale and cranberry relish. ...
  • Christmas gin fizz. ...
  • Aebleskiver – Danish fritters. ...
  • Festive quails. ...
  • Dark chocolate soufflé with Christmas pudding ice cream and cinnamon sugar.

What was the original Christmas dinner? ›

It is believed that the forerunner of the Christmas dinner was the midwinter feast enjoyed by our ancient ancestors. Feasts were held to celebrate the pagan midwinter solstice, and archaeological digs have discovered that the most popular meats served up were pork and beef.

What veg do you have with a Christmas dinner? ›

Discover the perfect amounts of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, peas and red cabbage to serve with your roast turkey. Need help planning your Christmas dinner?

What do people traditionally eat on Christmas Eve? ›

The Christmas Eve menu depends on preferred tastes as well as family traditions.
  • Christmas borscht with ravioli. ...
  • Mushroom soup. ...
  • Cabbage with mushrooms or peas. ...
  • Cabbage and mushroom dumplings. ...
  • Fish on Christmas Eve table. ...
  • 6 Herring alongside carp. ...
  • Fish in greek. ...
  • Poppy seed cake for dessert.
Dec 1, 2022

What are all the kinds of traditional Christmas food? ›

10 Traditional Christmas food
  • Gingerbread cookies.
  • Fruit cakes.
  • Roast carrots.
  • Eggnog.
  • Plum puddings.
  • Mashed potatoes.
  • Roasted potatoes.
  • Pineapple glazed ham.
Dec 17, 2021

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