19 Festive Christmas Roast Recipes
The holiday season calls for festive and celebratory meals, and a showstopping Christmas roast definitely fits the bill. Try your hand at a simple Three-Ingredient Prime Rib Roast, Garlicky Roast Pork Shoulder, or an impressive platter of Roasted Goose Legs with Sour Cherry Glaze and Gravy. With more than a dozen Christmas roast recipes to choose from, you can find the centerpiece of the season here.
Standing Rib Roast of Beef
Cara Cormack
Bruce Aidells' easy standing rib roast beef recipe uses an adaptation of the classic English approach to a beef roast. It's a perfect centerpiece for a British-style Sunday lunch, as a Christmas roast, or any celebration or holiday meal.
Leg of Lamb with Fingerling Potatoes and Leeks
Incredibly easy to prepare, this bone-in leg of lamb is coated with an herby, pleasantly salty crust before marinating in the refrigerator for about eight hours. The dry brine results in a juicy, tender, and deliciously garlicky lamb roast.
Juniper-Rubbed Roast Duck with Cherry Jus
Chef Angie Mar's succulent roast duck brings new meaning to the term "show-stopper." It's served with a rich sauce of reduced duck broth and tart cherries as a nod to the cherry trees in the Pacific Northwest where she grew up. If you have a smoking gun, use it to give a hint of smoke to the duck.
Crown Roast of Lamb with Jeweled Rice Stuffing
Jordan Provost / Food Styling by Thu Buser
This dramatic roast is served with tender rice spiced with cumin and turmeric and studded with almonds, raisins, and currants.
Garlic-Butter Rib Roast
This impressive, flavor-packed rib roast is perfect for a celebration. The secret? A compound butter made with garlic, anchovies, herbs, and shallot. Half of it is slathered all over the roast before it goes into the oven; the other half is rolled up into a log, chilled, and then cut into medallions to serve with each slice of beef.
Picanha Roast
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Christine Keely
Picanha, a tender and flavorful cut of beef, is roasted to medium-rare and then sauced in a peppercorn-infused brown butter. After resting, the steak is very juicy on its own, but with the warm, pink peppercorn–infused sweet-and-sour brown butter sauce, it’s downright swoon-worthy.
Roasted Goose Legs with Sour Cherry Glaze and Gravy
Food & Wine editor Melanie Hansche reimagines the traditions of her hometown in Bavaria, Germany, in her recipe for sour cherry–glazed roasted goose legs. In Bavaria, it's not Christmas without roast goose, but roasting individual legs makes it a more manageable endeavor.
Sea Salt Rib Roast
Longtime friends James Knappett and Shaun Searley teamed up to deliver this grand rib roast with creamy mushroom gravy — a crowning moment for any meal.
Duck à l'Orange
Because a single duck rarely has enough meat to feed more than two or three people, Jacques Pépin prepares two ducks side by side when serving this classic dish to guests. And because he's roasting whole ducks, he cooks them until they're well done, which results in the crispiest skin and best flavor.
Goose Stuffed with Apples and Armagnac-Soaked Prunes
Cookbook author Nadine Levy Redzepi hits the nail on the Christmas roast head with her elegant stuffing that combines plump Armagnac-soaked prunes, apples, and garlic. If boozy flavors aren't your thing, you can soak the prunes for as little as two hours instead of a full week.
Rosemary-Pepper Beef Rib Roast with Porcini Jus
In this recipe from the late renowned chef Floyd Cardoz, beef rib roast is seared in a preheated pan in the oven, which saves stove space and helps the meat cook more quickly. Pair it with a peppery California Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pork Roast with Sausage, Fruit, and Nut Stuffing
Pork and fruit is a classic pairing around the world, but this dish from chef José Andrés gets a particularly Catalan flavor from the combination of dried fruit and butifarra (a Catalan cured pork sausage) in the stuffing. The stuffing cooks inside the roast, which gives it a deep, marvelously porky flavor.
Three-Ingredient Prime Rib Roast
Coffee and prime rib seem like unlikely partners, but chef Ryan Farr's recipe reveals they both have an earthy quality that makes for a natural match. Just be sure to scrape off any excess coffee rub from the meat before serving. To further complement the roast's coffee notes, pair with Australian Shiraz or another red wine that's been aged in highly toasted oak barrels.
Harissa-Crusted Pork Crown Roast
For this regal pork crown roast recipe, the usual garlic-herb coating is swapped out for a smoky harissa version, which transforms from a paste into a crispy crust in the oven. A Zinfandel from older vines is the perfect match for the spicy, intense harissa.
Poblano Pimento Cheese–Roasted Chicken
Ashley Christensen, the chef at Poole's in North Carolina, kicks up her pimento cheese with mildly spicy poblanos and green hot sauce. In this brilliant riff, Food & Wine Culinary Director at Large Justin Chapple spreads the creamy dip under the skin of a whole bird before it's roasted to get both crispy skin and juicy meat.
Pomegranate-Jalape?o Glazed Ham
At Akasha in Los Angeles, chef Akasha Richmond prepares a sweet and spicy glaze for ham using house-made pomegranate-jalape?o jelly. As an easier alternative, this recipe calls for doctoring store-bought jalape?o jelly with pomegranate juice.
Garlicky Roast Pork Shoulder
Chef Jose Enrique's version of the Puerto Rican classic pernil asado is extra flavorful because he marinates the pork in lime and orange juices, as well as plenty of garlic, before roasting until the meat is caramelized and crispy. It can be carved, shredded, or pulled into large pieces for serving. It's no wonder that pernil is a traditional Christmas dish that's ideal for family gatherings.
Standing Pork Rib Roast with Cracklings
Aside from the pork itself, there's only one other ingredient in butcher Erika Nakamura's succulent rib roast: kosher salt. The pork skin, which is used to seal in the juices, puffs and becomes crispy as it cooks, creating irresistible cracklings to eat with the meat.
Horseradish-Crusted Roast Beef
This roast — deliciously crusted with horseradish and black peppercorns — is perfect hot out of the oven, but it's also amazing cold on a sandwich: Thinly slice the roast beef and serve it on white bread with horseradish mayonnaise and juicy tomatoes.
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