Our best Christmas roast recipes if you’re looking for roast dinner alternatives to a traditional roast lamb and ham include everything from an easy roast salmon tray bake with crispy-skin and a mouthwatering côte de bœuf from superstar French chef Pierre Gagnaire to our succulent spice-rubbed pork roast stuffed with garlic, herbs and spices that is as rich and delicious as it looks.
We have recipes for slow cooked pork belly roast that has crunchy skin and moist pork belly infused with spices and herbs, which we recommend serving with a big bowl of creamy mashed potatoes, and a mouthwatering mini porchetta for a small slow-cooked Italian style roast pork stuffed with rosemary, thyme, fennel and sage. For the most succulent roasts, make sure to use an instant-read thermometer.
Before you browse our Christmas roast recipes, we have more Christmas recipe collections that should provide inspiration, including recipes for Christmas day breakfast and Christmas day brunch, best dips for crackers and crudités and Christmas cocktails for festive parties, best Christmas starters, best Christmas salads, best Christmas seafood recipes, vegetable sides, and best desserts for Christmas.
We’ve also got recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts, my traditional Russian-Ukrainian Christmas food, Christmas menu ideas for casual gatherings for non-traditionalists, last minute Christmas meal ideas, and ideas for Christmas leftovers. We also have Christmas gift ideas for home cooks from pro chefs and last minute Christmas cooking and entertaining tips from the world’s best chefs, Australia’s finest chefs, and cookbook authors, food writers and editors.
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Now let’s tell you about our Christmas roast recipes for alternative roast dinners.
Christmas Roast Recipes – Roast Dinner Alternatives to Lamb and Ham
Now let’s tell you about our Christmas roast recipes for alternative roast dinners.
Salmon Tray Bake Recipe for Crispy Skinned Salmon with Spring Vegetables
If you’re still looking for fish recipes for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals and if you’re looking for easy fish recipes at that, then please consider my easy salmon tray bake recipe. It’s one of my favourite Christmas roast recipes. We also have more of our best salmon recipes here if you’re not inspired by this.
This easy salmon tray bake recipe makes crispy skinned salmon fillets baked so that the skin crackles but the flesh remains moist, with roasted vegetables that are just-done so that they’re still fresh and crunchy. Sprinkled with spring onions and fresh fragrant dill and served with lemon slices, it makes the lightest of roasts, perfect for a Christmas lunch.
We’re happy to have the salmon fillets and vegetables as is, drizzled with a little extra virgin olive oil, but a bowl of homemade tartare sauce on the table adds a nice touch if you’re feeding a group.
Easy Salmon Tray Bake Recipe for Crispy Skinned Salmon with Spring Vegetables
Italian Roast Chicken Recipe with Peppers, Leeks, Olives, Capers and Thyme
If you’re a lover of roast chicken that is so moist it falls from the bone and melts in your mouth, you’re going to adore this Italian roast chicken recipe with peppers, leeks, olives, capers and thyme – especially if you enjoyed our Spanish style braised chicken with olives and capers or Italian chicken cacciatore.
If you’re looking for en elegant chicken dish that’s foolproof, then this Italian roast chicken recipe is worthy of your consideration. Not only is it a set-and-forget chicken dish, so you can focus your time on your loved-ones, not the oven, it will fill your home with warm, welcoming and comforting aromas.
While this Italian roast chicken is perfectly satisfying with the leeks and red and green capsicums, you could always serve sides of crunchy Hassleback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes and we have lots more recipes for vegetable side dishes.
Italian Roast Chicken Recipe with Peppers, Leeks, Olives, Capers and Thyme
Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire
This côte de bœuf recipe from superstar French Chef Pierre Gagnaire became one of our most memorable souvenirs of a stay in Paris and has been one of our most popular recipes every year since we published it back in 2010.
The cut is bone-in ribeye and while it is an expensive cut, it’s incredibly delicious. That means if you’re unsure about oven temperatures or how to judge the doneness of the meat, use a meat thermometer. You don’t want to get this wrong.
First it’s done in a hot pan for a few minutes a side until brown and crusty, then it goes in the oven for 10 minutes for rare to medium-rare. The chef recommends pomme noisettes or potato Dauphinoise on the side, but we love creamy mashed potatoes fortified with mustard and a drizzle of red wine sauce or crunchy hasselback potatoes.
Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire in Paris
Roast Chicken Recipe with Aromatic Cambodian Herb Butter and Stuffing
Our best roast chicken recipe makes a fragrant, flavoursome and moist roast chicken thanks to my Cambodian inspired herb butter and a stuffing made with yellow kroeung, an aromatic Khmer herb and spice paste pounded from fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, galangal, turmeric, garlic, and shallots.
Baby carrots, corn, potatoes, and shallots are cooked with the chicken for a comforting Cambodian-inspired roast chicken. It’s another of my favourite Christmas roast recipes.
If you have any kroeung leftover, you can use it to make hearty Cambodian soups such as samlor machou kroeung sach ko (sour soup with morning glory and beef), these wonderful fragrant fish cakes, as a marinade for smoky grilled skewers, or in Cambodia’s famous fish amok, a rich steamed fish curry.
Best Roast Chicken Recipe with Aromatic Cambodian Herb Butter and Stuffing
Pork Roast Recipe for Spice Rubbed Roast Pork Stuffed with Garlic, Herbs and Spices
This pork roast recipe makes a spice rubbed roast pork stuffed with garlic, herbs and spices that is as rich and delicious as it looks and it’s another of our best Christmas roast recipes.
The slow cooked pork belly roast has a crunchy skin and moist pork belly infused with spices and herbs.
It’s so rich, you wouldn’t want to eat it every weekend, but it’s perfect for holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Serve the pork roast with baked vegetables and a big bowl of creamy mashed potatoes.
Pork Roast Recipe for Spice Rubbed Pork Belly Roast Stuffed with Herbs and Spices
Char Siu Pork Recipe for Chinese Roast Pork
This char siu pork recipe is dead easy to make. Sweet and sticky on the outside, tender and juicy within, this Chinese barbecue pork recipe is also very versatile. And while it’s called ‘barbecue pork’ this pork is done in an oven so it’s really roast pork.
I’ve made this char siu pork recipe both in a conventional oven and on a barbecue grill. I don’t mind a little bit of the smokiness you get from the grill, but in terms of controlling cooking times, unless you’re a real grill-master, the oven is easier.
Serve the pork with hoisin sauce on this side, steamed rice or fried rice, and Chinese greens. Use the leftovers to make some Vietnamese banh mi or mix it in some Hokkien Noodles.
Butterflied Roast Turkey with Stuffing Recipe by Chef Neil Perry
This butterflied roast turkey with stuffing recipe comes from one of Australia’s best chefs Neil Perry, who long helmed the Rockpool group of restaurants, and it’s another of our best Christmas roast recipes.
Neil shared his recipe for Butterflied Roast Turkey with Chestnut, Herb and Bread Stuffing – and some Christmas cooking tips. Over the years in the busy lead-up to Christmas when our readers are beginning to worry about what they’re going to cook for Christmas Day lunch or dinner, we have reached out to chefs we know to ask them to impart some of their worldly kitchen wisdom.
We’ve had some amazing Christmas tips from Australia’s best chefs, Asia’s best chefs and some of the world’s best chefs, such as chef Lennox Hastie who provided his Grilled Pipis, Garlic and Karkalla recipe and Chef Peter Gilmore of Quay, Bennelong, and some of Sydney’s best restaurants who shared his recipe for a frappe-style White Peach Bellini.
Butterflied Roast Turkey with Stuffing Recipe by Chef Neil Perry and Christmas Tips
Pork Belly Porchetta Recipe for an Italian Roast Pork with Herbs
Our Italian pork belly porchetta recipe makes a mouthwatering mini porchetta, a small slow-cooked Italian style roast pork stuffed with rosemary, thyme, fennel and sage.
Once reserved for celebrations, when a whole pig was deboned, layered, rolled-up and roasted, with enough to feed a village, our petite sized pork belly roast is perfect for Christmas, Easter or a Sunday dinner, feeding six or two or four with leftovers.
Kick off the meal with plenty of crusty bread and bowls of hearty Italian soup, such as this classic Tuscan ribollita or Italian wedding soup, and a big panzanella salad.
Easy Pork Belly Porchetta Recipe for a Slow Cooked Italian Roast Pork Stuffed with Herbs
Please do let us know if you make any of our alternative Christmas roast recipes as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
