How To Nail Christmas Dinner

Here we go – it’s the big day. Christmas. Maybe it’s the first time you’re cooking everything for everyone, or maybe you’ve lost count of how many times you’ve done it before. Either way, we’re here to guide you through the entire thing. This ultimate meal plan on how to make Christmas dinner involves us showing you the game plan for the perfect Christmas dinner from the very start to the very end (when you're piling the goods onto everyone’s plates). Follow this to the letter on Christmas day and you'll have some extremely well-fed folks around the dinner table.

Now, there's a few housekeeping notes to consider before we get started. Firstly, this plan is for six people, so if you’re cooking for more, adjust the quantities accordingly. If you're cooking for fewer people, you can do the same. Secondly, this plan assumes that you’re cooking alone – if you’re not, then delegate, delegate, delegate. Getting all of your friends and family involved as your handy festive sous chefs is the key to any successful Christmas lunch or dinner. The more, the merrier. Finally, as for the time plan: we're boldly assuming here that you're going to be serving Christmas lunch at 2pm on the dot. If you’re looking at serving earlier or later than that, you’ll need to adjust the times accordingly.

What have we got, then? Well, all the recipes are right here, so you can grab them as you need them. They’re not your average Christmas dinner recipes, either – they’ve all had a classic Mob twist, or include a little bit of a cheat or a knack to make them the very best version of themselves.

Main Dinner:

1. Christmas Roast Chicken

2. Gravy 101

3. Sticky & Spicy Roasted Roots

4. Foolproof Roast Potatoes

5. Cranberry Scotch Bonnet Chilli Jam

6. Christmas Stuffing Sausage Rolls

7. Really Cheesy Cheesy Leeks

8. ’Nduja Sprouts

9. Pigs In Blankets

10. Bread Sauce

Alternatives*:

1. Beef Wellington

(*not in shopping list or time plan)

Meat:

• 2kg Free-Range Chicken

• 2kg Chicken Wings

• 2L Chicken Stock

• 400g Sausages

• 80g ’Nduja

• 12 Chipolatas

• 12 Rashers Streaky Bacon

Eggs & Dairy:

• 250g Butter

• 1 Egg

• 1400ml Milk

• 375g Sheet of Puff Pastry

• 75g Grated Mozzarella

• 135g Grated Cheddar Cheese

• 50g Parmesan

Fruits & Vegetables:

• 4 Lemons

• 25g Sage

• 50g Rosemary

• 2kg Maris Piper Potatoes

• 1kg Carrots

• 750g Parsnips

• 2 Garlic Bulbs

• 6 Onions

• 2 Celery Sticks

• 7 Bay leaves

• 50g Thyme

• 25g Parsley

• 2 Garlic Bulbs

• 500g Frozen Or Fresh Cranberries

• 2 Red Chillies

• 1 Scotch Bonnet Chilli

• 40g Ginger

• 1 Apple

• 1kg Leeks

• 600g Brussels Sprouts

Pantry:

• ¼ Tsp Cinnamon

• 6 Cloves

• ¼ Tsp Nutmeg

• ¼ Tsp Allspice

• 1 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes, Plus Extra To Serve

• 1 Tsp Cumin Seeds

• 2 Tbsp Honey

• 2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

• 100g Toasted Sesame Seeds
• 2 Tsp Cornflour
• ​​30g Smoked Almonds
• 1L Vegetable Oil
• 220g Caster Sugar
• 120ml Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 50g Dried Breadcrumbs
• 110g Fresh Breadcrumbs
• 300ml White Wine
• 1 Tbsp + 6 Black Peppercorns
• 30g Plain Flour
• 3 Tsp Hot Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 80g Cranberry Sauce

The key to nailing Christmas dinner is prep. If you get these tasks out of the way the night before, you can rest easy, knowing that half of the hard work has been done already.

The night before Christmas, you'll want to do the following:

• Make Gravy and set aside, covered, in the fridge.

• Make Bread Sauce and set aside in the fridge.

• Make the Cranberry Chilli Jam, set aside in a container in the fridge. You can use this for the sausage rolls if you like!

• Wrap chipolatas for Pigs In Blankets and set aside on a baking tray in the fridge.

• Peel, boil and drain the potatoes for roasties, set aside on a tray, uncovered, in the fridge.

• Make Stuffing Sausage Rolls, but don’t bake them – just whack them in the fridge for now!

• Remember to leave a block of butter out of the fridge overnight, so it’s soft enough to make the butter for the chicken!

Here’s a loose guide to making the day go smoothly. You can keep dishes warm under foil and just give things a quick flash through the oven right before serving if you need to! Happy cooking.

9am

• Prepare the chicken/turkey. Make the christmas butter, then grab the chicken/turkey out of the fridge and cover with the butter. Set aside.

• Make the Cheesy Leeks (don’t grill yet!)

• Bake the Stuffing Rolls (set them aside for a quick reheat before serving)

10.30am

• If making the turkey, put it in the oven now.

• Prep the veg for the sticky roots and pile into the baking tray. Stir together the glaze and set aside.

• Make the rosemary salt for the roast potatoes.

• Bake the Stuffing Rolls (set them aside for a quick reheat before serving).

11am

• Prep the ’Nduja Sprouts. Crisp-up the ’nduja and garlic. Boil, ice and drain and halve the sprouts.

11.30am

• Turn the oven up (now the Stuffing Rolls are out) and put the chicken in the oven now (1.5 hours).

12pm

• Heat the oil for the roast potatoes, then get the roast potatoes in the oven. (1 hour)

• Slide the sticky roots into the oven. (15 minutes)

12.30pm

• Glaze and finish the roots.

1pm

DON’T STRESS. This is your power hour – if everything is going a bit slowly in the even, whack the temp up a bit! But relax, you’ve got this. The most important thing to remember is that no one cares if you have to serve up a bit later than planned AND, as long as the gravy is hot as lava, it’ll make up for anything being a little lukewarm.

• Remove the chicken by setting it aside lightly covered with foil.

• (If you’re making the turkey it’ll come and can be rested, the same as above now).

• Mix together pigs in blanket glaze. Slide the pigs in blankets in the oven (20 minutes cook + 3 minutes glazing)

• Fry up the sprouts, then set them aside for a quick heat before serving.

• Carve up chicken/turkey onto a platter (then just cover in a little foil until ready to serve)

• Reheat bread sauce.

• Get the potatoes, roots, and pigs in blankets out of the oven and whack the grill on. Grill the cheesy leeks.

• Turn the oven back to 200°C and reheat potatoes, roots, sausage rolls and anything that needs a quick blast in the oven!

• Reheat the gravy (make sure it’s super hot, it’ll save anything that would otherwise be lukewarm!)

2pm

• Serve... and enjoy yourself. It's Christmas.

A gorgeous Christmas roast chicken recipe that'll put any roast turkey recipe to shame.

Crispy, golden rosemary-infused roast potatoes. An essential part of the perfect Christmas dinner.

Nothing binds a roast dinner together like a few gallons of gravy. This Christmas gravy recipe is completely worth the time and effort.

Spiked with a ton of black pepper, and packed with all three of the major cheese players, these are the only leeks you need to bother with this Christmas.

Carrots and parsnips tossed in sweet, sticky, and spicy glaze. Christmas dinner sides don't get much better than this.

You've never had sprouts as good as this. These 'nduja sprouts are a serious upgrade on your bog standard boiled Brussels.

Flaky pastry and tender sausage stuffing. These Christmas stuffing sausage rolls are unbelievable. Delicious.

Bread sauce is one of the most underrated aspects of a Christmas dinner. This bread sauce recipe is the bread sauce recipe to end all bread sauce recipes. It's seriously that good.

These sticky pigs in blankets are going to rock your world. All sausages should be wrapped in bacon and slathered in hot honey.

Sweet, spicy, and extremely nice. This cranberry chilli jam will add an extra bit of oomph to your Christmas dinner.

This beef Wellington recipe is the be all and end all of beef Wellington recipe. Follow the steps here and you'll know how to make beef Wellington the proper way. The only way.