These Sunday dinner ideas for families or if you’re feeding a crowd include everything from my pork Stroganoff recipe made with the Chinese velveting technique – but of course you could make my classic beef Stroganoff recipe – to a hearty, old-fashioned chicken stew, a retro chicken cacciatore with a luscious tomato sauce, and an authentic lasagne that I find addictively delicious.
This compilation of Sunday dinner ideas for families is the latest edition of our random series of our best Sunday night dinner ideas. If you can’t find something to make for your Sunday family dinner tonight from the comforting dishes below, browse this round-up of warming soup recipes if it’s as cold where you are as it is here in rural Victoria (bbrrr!!) or poke around our Grantourismo recipe archives where we have many hundreds of recipes.
But before I tell you all about our Sunday dinner ideas for families, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.
And don’t forget, if you’re looking for more cooking inspo, browse our recipe archives, which are heaving with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, travelled and loved. Or browse our most popular recipes of October which were the most searched-for recipes on the site. Now let me tell you all about these Sunday dinner ideas for families.
Sunday Dinner Ideas for Families – Stroganoff, Cacciatore, Chicken Stew and More
These Sunday family dinner ideas include old-fashioned favourites like Stroganoff, chicken cacciatore, chicken stew, and lasagna.
Pork Stroganoff Recipe for Tender Pork Made with the Chinese Velveting Technique
My pork Stroganoff recipe makes one of our best Stroganoff recipes and one of my best Sunday dinner ideas for families, an umami-rich, melt-in-the-mouth pork Stroganoff. The silky, tender-soft texture of the pork comes courtesy of the Chinese velveting technique, a method that calls for marinating and pre-cooking the pork before stir-frying it.
Braised with mushrooms in a richly-spiced sour cream-based sauce, my pork Stroganoff takes inspiration from the East-West Haipai cuisine of Shanghai and the Russian émigrés who escaped after the 1917 October Revolution and established vibrant communities there and in Harbin.
If you enjoyed my richly spiced chicken Stroganoff recipe and you’re a lover of Chinese cuisines and dishes made with the Chinese velveting technique – such as the popular stir-fried pork with mushrooms that partly inspired this dish – you’ll love this pork Stroganoff, especially with crispy shoestring fries, a classic Stroganoff side.
Instead of doing what we do with the beef in my traditional Russian beef Stroganoff recipe, and cooking the meat in the pan with the onion and mushroom sauce, which if you’re not careful can easily result in tough pork, I use the Chinese velveting method to create a silky-soft, super-tender pork.
Pork Stroganoff Recipe for Tender Pork Made with the Chinese Velveting Technique
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew
Our classic chicken cacciatore recipe will make you another of our top Sunday dinner ideas for families, a very traditional Italian chicken stew with an incredibly luscious tomato sauce, which we smother the succulent chicken thighs in and serve with thick slices of sourdough bread to mop up the rich sauce – just as the Italians do.
Chicken cacciatore is an old dish called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian, which translates to ‘hunter’s chicken’ – ‘pollo’ is ‘chicken’ and ‘cacciatore’ is ‘hunter’ – and historically, Italian hunters are said to have made the stew over an open fire while out on the hunt or en route home.
In Italy, Italians traditionally eat chicken cacciatore by itself as a main course or second course with crusty bread to soak up the rich sauce. Although in some parts of Northern Italy, chicken cacciatore is also eaten with polenta or risotto.
I think a panzanella – an Italian bread and tomato salad from Tuscany – is fantastic on the side. If I was feeding family, I’d also be inclined to serve roast potatoes, such as these hasselback potatoes or, in winter, creamy mashed potatoes. If you have leftovers, make this chicken cacciatore pasta recipe for spaghetti cacciatore – although you can use any pasta you have in the pantry.
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce
Chicken Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Old Fashioned Chicken Stew
My best chicken stew recipe will make you a deeply flavoured chicken stew with melt-in-the-mouth chicken that falls off the bone. It’s one of our best stew recipes and it’s another of our best Sunday dinner ideas for families.
Subtle use of spices such as turmeric and paprika add earthiness and warmth, while using two types of potatoes – waxy and starchy – ensure some potato pieces remain firm while others break down, creating a thick comforting stew.
I combine the ground paprika, ground turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, white pepper, and salt in a small dish so that they’re well blended, heat the spices in the oil, and fry the chicken in that spiced oil.
That will add plenty of flavour to the chicken, while ensuring that the chicken fries evenly, and that the skin doesn’t stick to the wok, Dutch Oven or pan or whatever you use. It’s a quintessentially Indian technique that I love to use in my chicken stew recipe.
Most recipes recommend waxy potatoes and then call for a roux to create a gravy, but if you use two types of potatoes a roux isn’t necessary and the result is so much more delicious. I’ve recommend a cooking time of one hour, but leave the chicken stew to simmer for longer for a richer, more deeply flavoured chicken stew.
Best Chicken Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Old Fashioned Chicken Stew
Classic Lasagne alla Bolognese Recipe from Emilia Romagne
Our lasagne alla Bolognese recipe makes a very traditional version of the Italian comfort food in the style that you’ll find in Bologna in Emilia Romagna in Northern Italy, one of our favourite regions in Italy. That means thinner sheets of pasta, a sparing use of besciamella, Italy’s version of France’s béchamel sauce, no mozzarella, and a flavour profile that’s more savoury than sweet.
Just a short drive from the Italian Lakes and its wonderful gastronomy, grand hotels and gorgeous gardens and villas, the Northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna is a paradise for foodies and wine lovers.
Home to Italian specialties such as Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan cheese), Prosciutto di Parma (Parma ham) and balsamic vinegar from Modena, along with so many wonderful Northern Italian wine varietals, the region is Italy’s gastronomic heart, and Bologna is its capital.
The origin of Mortadella, a tiny macaroni-like pasta called gramigna, and tagliatelle alla Bolognese (spaghetti is never used here), Bologna has also gifted the world lasagne alla Bolognese, or Bolognese lasagne – not lasagna, which refers to one sheet of pasta; lasagne is plural. This is another of our best Sunday dinner ideas for families.
Classic Lasagne alla Bolognese Recipe from Emilia Romagna – Best Lasagne Recipe Ever
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our Sunday dinner ideas for families as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
