Move Over, Turkey! Exciting New Mains for Thanksgiving


Hi Reader,

Some will call it sacrilege. I simply call it your Thanksgiving plot twist.

While everyone else wrestles with their 20-pound bird at 4 AM, you'll be calmly creating something that doesn't require a physics degree to cook properly.

Thanksgiving Main Courses (that Aren't Turkey)

Let someone else bring the turkey this year, while you collect the rave reviews for your delicious "change of pace".

Pork Loin in the Style of Porchetta

This pork loin in the style of porchetta is an Italian classic that blends pork loin with a pork shoulder, fennel, and rosemary filling, to make an impressive, celebration-worthy entrée.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Smoked Prime Rib

This smoked prime rib, coated with a sugar spice rub and smothered with a horseradish mustard mixture, becomes slowly infused with smoky flavor and is simply the best prime rib we've ever tried.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Mustard-Glazed Ham

This mustard-glazed ham is covered with mustard, brown sugar, and maple syrup and is simple, subtle, and super impressive. And is perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and any other holiday dinner (or insatiable pork craving).
☞ ​Try this recipe

Roast Leg of Lamb

This roast leg of lamb is a simple yet impressive recipe that celebrates the rich, sigh-inducing good flavor of the best, most perfectly cooked bone-in lamb accented with garlic and lemon. And in a shorter cooking time than usual.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Jamie Oliver’s Sunday Roast

Jamie Oliver's Sunday roast is entirely worthy of a special occasion although it's also an easy way to transform any old day or night into a meal to remember.
☞ ​Try this recipe

David Leite’s Best Brined Roast Chicken

This best brined roast chicken is the best method for brining your chicken, as far as I know. It blends aromatic vegetables and herbs to the brining solution before adding your chicken. The meat gets infused with lush flavors and juiciness beyond the average brined chicken.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Mustard and Garlic Roast Goose

This dish from my Connecticut neighbor is the best goose I've ever eaten. But in Danny's inimitable way, she simply insists it be served with red currant jelly. Nothing else will do.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Portuguese Carne Assada

This Portuguese carne assada from David's VERY Portuguese Mama Leite, is a traditional Azorean braised beef dish made with meltingly tender meat, small red potatoes, chouriço, and onions.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Mushroom Wellingtons with Spinach

This mushroom wellington with spinach is essentially a meaty portobello mushroom and spinach-walnut filling in flaky puff pastry. A spectacular vegan and vegetarian option, whether for Thanksgiving or any time of year. And you can easily assemble it ahead of time and bake it at the last moment.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Wine-Braised Pork Shoulder

This braised pork with red wine is an easy, set-it-and-forget-it one-pot meal. Made with meltingly tender shredded pork shoulder, red onions, and a rich red wine and herb sauce, it boasts French overtones but without any fussiness.
☞ ​Try this recipe

Leite's Culinaria

Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.

Read more from Leite's Culinaria

Hi Reader, I stood in front of the fridge, staring at a half-wilted bunch of kale like it had personally offended me. It’s mid-January, and my noble commitment to “light, clean eating” has officially crumbled—right around the same time the snowplow buried our mailbox.The One, ever the realist, walked in, glanced at the produce drawer, and said, “You’re making lasagna, aren’t you?” He knows me too well.January is not a month for restraint. It’s a month for bubbling casseroles, for soups that...

Hi Reader, In my twenties, I used to blow half a week’s paycheck at this impossibly chic restaurant in New York—low lighting, soft jazz, waiters who looked like they moonlighted as poets. I’d sit there, swirling my glass of something I couldn’t pronounce, thinking, One day, I’ll cook like this.Spoiler: I did not. Not at first.But over the years, I learned that “restaurant quality” doesn’t require a brigade of sous chefs or a copper pot the size of a Fiat. What it really takes is patience. And...

Hi Reader, On some special nights, The One and I play a game called “What Do You Want for Dinner?” It’s a full-contact sport.He’ll say, “I don’t know—something light.” Then immediately follow it with, “But not salad.” I’ll counter with, “How about chicken?” and he’ll wince like I’ve suggested boiled shoe leather. Twenty minutes later, I’m halfway through a mental Rolodex of recipes, he’s scrolling takeout menus, and the cat has judged us both.But somehow, chicken saves the day. Every. Single....