Christmas Roasts

Chef Christina Lecki of NYC’s The Breslin makes a quick and easy compound butter with parsley, marjoram and peppercorns to melt over tender beef rib roast. The dish is paired with a creamed escarole and spinach that can be made ahead and reheated before serving. It's the perfect option for a holiday dinner.

Mario Batali creates a simple version of Italian porchetta, wrapping butterflied pork shoulder around a sausage-and-fennel stuffing before roasting.

“I love this dish,” says Stuart Brioza. “It’s a pretty traditional roast beef, almost like an Italian tagliata [sliced steak], but then you shake it up by serving it with crispy garlic chips and a fresh-chile hot sauce.” The beef is salt-cured, so it’s extra juicy; served on a bed of arugula, with the bright red hot sauce, it’s a very Christmassy dish.

Pork and fruit is a classic pairing around the world, but this dish from Washington D.C. 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.

The inspiration for this delicious roast comes from chef John Besh’s father-in-law, Pat Berrigan, who serves it every Christmas with horseradish sauce on the side. Besh opts to smear the roast with a horseradish, garlic and herb butter, which bakes to form an irresistible crust.

While author Luke Barr's research shows that Julia Child prepared a roast goose stuffed with pork, prunes and chestnuts for Christmas dinner in 1970, no such exact recipe exists in any of her cookbooks. Inspired by the goose recipes in Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, F&W's Kay Chun perfected this delicious version, which calls for techniques—like basting the goose with boiling water—that Child most likely used as well.

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.

“The great thing about doing a whole rib roast is that you don’t have to concentrate,” Michael Mina says. “Season it right with salt and pepper, put it in the oven and then you can focus on all the dishes that go along with it.”

Marinated boneless leg of lamb is tender and incredibly delicious alongside creamy polenta with mascarpone.

“When entertaining at home, I'm always hard-pressed for stove space,” says Floyd Cardoz. To save room, he sears the meat in a preheated pan in the oven. The method also helps the meat cook more quickly.

Luisa Weiss marinates this pork loin roast with a sweet-and-spicy combination of maple sugar, ginger and crushed red pepper; the sugar melts to form a luscious glaze as the meat roasts.

Lydie Marshall likes to marinate duck breasts in Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, a sweet wine from a village near where she lives. The dish is equally good made with port. The sauce is a reduction of the duck marinade and Enriched Chicken Stock.

This veal dish is particularly good with slightly tannic "orange" wines like Gravner’s Ribolla Gialla.

This Mediterranean pork roast is super-versatile: Excellent right out of the oven, it's also delicious at room temperature or served cold, making it ideal for a holiday buffet.

The 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.

Pork shoulder is a succulent cut that’s best braised or roasted slowly, so it stays tender and juicy. The sweet-and-savory glazed pork here is terrific with or without the garlic-and-dried-apricot stuffing.

Lamb, says Marcus Samuelsson, is one of Africa’s most popular meats. Here, he butterflies a leg to help it cook more quickly and rubs it with paprika, ancho chile and ground cardamom—recalling the fiery Mozambique condiment piri-piri.

“I like that all of the ingredients in this dish get a chance to meet each other,” says Alexandra Guarnaschelli. She roasts the carrots and shallots along with the mustard-coated pork loin; then she uses the drippings to make a sauce. “The idea is that you never throw flavor away,” Guarnaschelli says. “In fact, you collect flavor. It’s a good philosophy for healthy cooking.”

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 the regal—and expensive—pork crown roast, 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° and reaches 130° to 135° as it rests before carving. If you like your meat cooked to medium, roast it to 130°.

Gerry Hayden’s succulent sweet-;tart pork is inspired by a classic glazed ham.

This luxurious oven-roasted beef tenderloin is a super sophisticated and easy holiday main course—it takes only one hour to prepare from start to finish.