17 Festive Christmas Roast Recipes

By making a stuffing that combines boozy prunes with apples and garlic, Nadine Levy Redzepi hits the nail on the Christmas roast head.

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.

Aside from the pork itself, there's only one other ingredient in butcher Erika Nakamura's succulent rib roast: kosher salt.

This crowd-pleasing porchetta, made from brined, seasoned pork belly, has crisp, crackling skin and tender meat flavored with rosemary, garlic and fennel.

Coffee and prime rib seem like unlikely partners, but Ryan Farr's recipe reveals they both have an earthy quality that makes them a natural match. Just be sure to scrape off any excess coffee rub from the meat before serving.

In this beef rib roast recipe from the late renowned chef Floyd Cardoz, the meat is seared in a preheated pan in the oven, saving stove space. The method also helps the meat cook more quickly.

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.

Chef Akasha Richmond prepares a sweet-and-spicy glaze for ham using house-made pomegranate-jalapeño jelly. An easier alternative: doctoring store-bought jalapeño jelly with pomegranate juice.

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.

For this pork crown roast recipe, Melissa Rubel Jacobson replaced the run-of-the-mill garlic-herb coating with a smoky harissa version. "I love the way it turns from a paste to a crispy crust," she says.

This roasting method is an adaptation of the classic English approach, and who can argue with the Brits when it comes to roasting a joint of beef? This roast is cooked to medium rare; it comes out of the oven at 120°F and reaches 130°F to 135°F as it rests before carving. If you like your meat cooked to medium, roast it to 130°F.

Chef Angie Mar's succulent roast duck brings new meaning to the term "show-stopper."

Food & Wine editor Melanie Hansche reimagines the traditions of her hometown of Garmisch-Partenkirchen 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. Geese are fatty birds and will render a lot of delicious fat, which you can keep on hand for roasting vegetables. Draining off the fat halfway through cooking will yield better pan juices for gravy at the end. The goose legs cook for a total of two hours. Basting regularly and glazing in the last 15 minutes of cooking time give these goose legs their gorgeously crisp, lacquered skin.

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.

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.

Ashley Christensen, the chef at Poole's in North Carolina, kicks up her pimento cheese with spicy poblanos and green hot sauce. In this brilliant riff, 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.

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 sliced into medallions to serve with each slice of beef.