12 Meaty Mains for Your Holiday Table

Thanksgiving belongs to turkey, but the rest of the holiday season is less rigid. Beefy tenderloins, pork roasts with shatteringly crisp skin and legs of lamb are all on the table, though probably not at the same time. Below you’ll find our favorite meaty centerpieces for festive feasts. We even included a few turkeys.

Porcini-Rubbed Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Portobello Mushrooms

Mushrooms co-star in this succulent beef tenderloin dish that’s packed with woodsy, autumnal flavors. We pulverize dried porcini mushrooms and rosemary to create a punchy, umami-packed rub, then roast the tenderloin over portobellos and onions for a juicy, richly flavorful accompaniment.

Puerto Rican Slow-Roasted Pork (Pérnil al Horno)

This tender, slow-cooked pork with shatteringly crisp skin is our recreation of Teryluz Andreu’s lost family recipe for an exceptional pérnil, served up on holidays at their beach town of Humacao. The challenge lay in getting the skin beautifully crisp while keeping the meat juicy. To achieve this contrast of textures, the pork slow-cooks at 350°F for hours, then finishes for a few minutes at 500°F to get the golden, crackling-crisp skin that’s characteristic of the dish. We make use of the cooking liquid for a tangy, herbaceous and garlicky sauce that beautifully balances the deeply savory meat.

Reverse-Seared Pork Loin with Roasted Shallots and Pears

Boneless pork loin is notorious for turning out dry, tough and tasteless. Our solution is to reverse the order of operations. Instead of searing the meat at the start, we roast it low and slow for most of the cooking, then crank the oven to 450°F at the end to get rich caramelization with no risk of overcooking. For good air circulation, use a rimmed baking sheet, not a deep roasting pan, fitted with a V-rack to cradle the pork. Golden pears and savory shallots are the perfect accompaniments.

Maple and Soy Glazed Dry-Brined Turkey

Chris wanted his Norman Rockwell moment this year. He got it, in the form of this lacquered centerpiece bird. We use a two-step method to get juicy meat and crispy skin: First, we apply a dry brine with salt, powdered buttermilk and a little sugar, then brush on a soy sauce-maple glaze, which adds a beautiful finish from the sugar in the syrup, and a salty umami boost from the soy sauce.

Paprika-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

“I found myself wanting to lick my plate to get every last bit of sauce,” a reader writes of our paprika-rubbed pork tenderloin. It’s an excellent last-minute holiday main; another reader writes that they served it for Christmas Eve, and it did not disappoint. “We had leftovers the day after that were just as juicy and delicious (even though we had used up all the sauce).” The key is lots of quick, high-impact seasonings—a mix of paprikas, garlic, and honey. The smoky, spicy-sweet flavor profile is used often for pork seasoning, and it's always a home run.

Reverse-Sear Leg of Lamb with Garlic, Fennel and Herbs

Conventional roast-cooking wisdom would have you sear the exterior hot and fast, then finish it in the gentler heat of the oven. The reverse-sear method, which we use here, flips the order. We slow-roast a boneless leg of lamb until just shy of perfectly done, then blast it with high heat for browning. It’s an easy, hands-off method that results in evenly cooked meat, from edge to center. We toss sliced Yukon Gold potatoes into the roasting pan under the lamb; they soak up the drippings to make an effortless, delicious side.

Caramelized Pork with Orange and Sage

“[N]othing signals pleasure more than the crunch of a crust and the taste of caramelized and crisp bits,” Argentine chef Francis Mallmann has said. “Crust concentrates the taste of everything you cook.” His savory-sweet, succulent pork tenderloin, with a shatteringly crisp crust of caramelized orange confit, proves his point for him. Here, we streamlined the dish for a version that hits the table in 25 minutes. Rather than cook the pork in a cast iron skillet over an open flame, a la Mallmann, we opted for the more home kitchen-friendly broiler. We mimic the flavors of orange confit with a rub of orange zest, sage, cayenne and sugar, then whip up a quick pan sauce with orange juice. (Pork lovers know why this works; bright, sweet-tart fruit and spice pair perfectly with pork.)

Barolo-Braised Beef Short Ribs

Brasato al barolo, or beef braised in Barolo wine, is a classic dish from Piedmont in northern Italy. Customarily, the beef is a roast that is slow-cooked, then sliced and served like a pot roast. The cooking liquid, rich with the essence of wine, beef and aromatics, becomes a resplendent sauce. For a more elegant take on the dish—one that can be the center of a special-occasion dinner—we opted for bone-in beef short ribs. Short ribs start out tough but are well marbled; slow, gentle braising renders them succulent and tender.

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Fennel, Garlic and Rosemary

For our take on Tuscan-style porchetta, we found that collagen breakdown is the key to perfectly tenderized and moistened meat. The collagen has to heat enough to melt, but not so long that the meat dries out. Low and slow at 300℉ did the trick. An earthy, herbal rub adds depth, and a zingy-fresh parsley-caper sauce cuts through the meaty richness.

Two-Hour Turkey

"I've made turkey dozens of ways, and this is by far the easiest," Chris Kimball told us of two-hour turkey. We didn’t believe it possible to get a turkey in and out of the oven that fast, but he proved us wrong. Spatchcocking, i.e., removing the backbone so that the turkey can lie flat, ensures the bird cooks quickly and evenly. (This is not complicated; it boils down to a good pair of kitchen shears and two cuts.) He also skips the vat of salt water and opts for a dry brine, so you can store the whole flattened turkey on a shallow refrigerator shelf. The result is tender and moist, with skin golden-crisped, and white and dark meat both cooked to perfection.

Prune, Peppercorn and Fresh Herb-Rubbed Roast Beef

A prune-based marinade helped us transform an economical eye round into a tender and juicy roast. The sugars in the prunes and ketchup create a nicely caramelized crust, while the salt and soy sauce provide seasoning that flavors the meat throughout. The anchovies may be an unexpected ingredient here, but they add rich umami notes without any trace of fishiness. To boost the marinade’s effect, we trim the silver skin and poke the meat repeatedly with a fork. The roast beef tasted best after marinating for 48 hours, but 24 will work, too. Serve thinly sliced with fresh horseradish sauce for a clean, contrasting bite.

Fennel-Rosemary Porchetta

This Umbrian-style porchetta is the perfect holiday project: It captures the core essence without requiring a whole hog. Loads of rosemary and oregano—paired with garlic, fennel, chili flakes and brown sugar—flavor this tender roasted pork butt. The leftovers make the best day-after sandwich.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.