20 Winter Dinners to Make for a Hungry Crowd 

Let’s dig in! 

Our Braised Pork Marbella is adapted from chicken marbella, a well-known recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook (2007). We kept all the flavorful sidekicks—olives, prunes, and capers—and swapped out the chicken for succulent boneless pork butt. Make some egg noodles or couscous to go with, and spoon the pork and its luscious sauce right on top.

Choucroute Garnie is a rustic dish from the Alsace region in France. It’s a highly flavorful mix of sauerkraut, meats, and sausages. Ours has pork belly, kielbasa, bratwurst, and smoky ham hock. Serve it with plenty of whole-grain mustard and boiled potatoes, and it’s sure to satisfy after a day of snow sports.

Looking for a casual hand-held option? Meet our Sausage Sandwiches with Garlicky Mushrooms and Provolone. Rather than simply browning the sausages until they’re cooked, we sear them and then steam them. This prevents them from overcooking and becoming leathery. A topping of sautéed mushrooms and garlic and a mix of both provolone and Pecorino Romano cheeses ensure that these sandwiches are packed with flavor.

Sometimes it’s nice to just throw some ingredients in the slow cooker and all head out to play in the snow without worrying about cooking dinner. Our Slow-Cooker Pork Ragu is as easy as that. After the pork cooks all day with aromatics, vegetables, and pancetta, all you need to do is use a potato masher to break it up. Boil your pasta, and you are good to go. If you prefer a sausage ragu, we have one of those too.

Tacos are a crowd-pleaser, and our Pork Carnitas are no exception. Inspired by the carnitas at Carnitas Uruapan in Chicago, we season the pork with only salt and then cook it in lard (vegetable oil works too), so we can keep the focus on the porky flavor. The bits of pork that stick out of the lard take on deliciously crispy edges as they cook. Set out the pork, lots of warm corn tortillas, and a few toppings, and let your guests assemble their own dinners.

Nothing says dinner for a crowd like lasagna. Our Sausage Lasagna is hearty and superflavorful, with the spices in the sausage echoed by the additions of fennel seeds and chopped fresh fennel. Mozzarella, provolone, and cottage cheese ensure that it is extra-cheesy. Your dinner guests are guaranteed to love it.

Sure, you could order pizza, but isn’t it more fun to make it? We have lots of pizza recipes to choose from, but it’s our Stuffed Pizza that really satisfies on a snowy winter evening. It’s based on the stuffed pizza served at Michelangelo’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant in Sarasota, Florida, and packed with mozzarella, Italian sausage, ham, pepperoni, and salami. A meat lover’s dream.

Our Italian Meatloaf is a saucy, sausage-y take on the original comfort food. Making a tomato sauce and adding sausage, fontina, Parmesan, and basil to the typical ground beef mix results in a very delicious loaf. Serve slices with pasta, or take it one step farther and make everyone meatloaf sandwiches.

Goulash is a dish that can take quite a while, but our Instant Pot Transylvanian Goulash cuts the time down to just 1½ hours. A cousin to Hungarian goulash, Transylvanian goulash features tender pork, flavored with lots of sweet paprika, caraway, and sauerkraut. It is hearty and rib-sticking.

Another winning, streamlined dish from the Instant Pot is our Instant Pot Beef Ragu. To make it, you brown some chuck roast to build up flavorful fond in the pot and then sauté onion, carrot, tomato paste, garlic, anchovies, and pepper flakes. Add a little wine, tomatoes, and a Parmesan rind; cook under high pressure for 45 minutes; and you’ll have beef so tender you can mash it with a potato masher.

Looking for a dish that feels fancier than a stew but doesn’t break the bank? There’s our Red Wine–Braised Chuck Roast with Horseradish Gremolata. The braised and sliced chuck roast, topped with a citrusy parsley mixture, looks good enough to serve on a holiday table and will definitely impress at the ski chalet. It can also be made ahead, so the day-of work is as easy as reheating it and topping it.

Who can resist a Double-Crust Chicken Pot Pie? It’s so cozy and homey and filling. Ours starts with a very-easy-to-make pie crust and a rotisserie chicken to save time. Onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and peas ensure that it’s packed with vegetables too.

Our One-Pot Chicken Chili with Cornmeal Dumplings also uses a time-saving rotisserie chicken. It’s bolstered with hominy and cannellini beans and gets tons of flavor from another convenience ingredient: jarred green salsa. The cornmeal biscuits give it some heft.

If you just want to pass out bowls of something simple, stewy, and comforting, then it’s our Southern-Style Stewed Chicken and Rice you’re looking for. You cook chicken thighs in chicken broth until tender, shred them, and add the meat back to the pot with rice and butter until the rice is cooked. A bit of black pepper and onion is all the additional flavor it needs.

Chicken Biryani is a richly spiced dish of fluffy saffron-infused basmati rice layered with seasoned chicken and topped with fried onions and herbs. For our version we mix the herbs into a rich yogurt sauce to add a cool, creamy element to the dish. The complex, spicy flavor hits all the right notes for a winter dinner.

Our Slow-Cooker Lemon Chicken is so easy that all it takes is throwing bone-in chicken thighs, spices, and lemon juice into the slow cooker and letting it run for several hours. If you’re the cook, you won’t be stuck at home tending to dinner; you can hit the slopes too.

We already know how beloved tacos are. In our Braised Turkey Tacos, we give them a little twist by using turkey thighs and seasoning them deeply with oregano, cumin, cinnamon, and orange and lime juices. Braising makes the turkey tender and easy to shred. A fresh topping of radishes and cilantro and the vivid citrus notes are especially welcome on a cold evening.

When thinking of something to serve a crowd, fish isn’t usually the first thing to come to mind, but our Slow-Roasted Salmon with Parsley and Cayenne starts with a 2½-pound fillet and can serve six people. If you’re serving pescatarians or just looking for a non-meat main, you’ll want to try it. The fish gets rubbed with sugar, salt, and cayenne; slow-roasted for about an hour, and then sauced with a lemon-infused oil. It’s tender and bright and perfect with a green salad and some rice pilaf.

Another great option for non-meat-eaters is our four-chile Vegetarian Chili. With a mix of pinto beans, black beans, red kidney beans, and barley, it’s so hearty that no one will even miss the meat. Four types of chiles, cumin, oregano, and dried porcini mushrooms ensure that it is deeply flavored. Serve it with all the usual chili garnishes.

Last but not least, if you want a rich, indulgent option, you can’t do better than French Onion Soup. It does take an hour to caramelize the onions, but it’s so worth it for the depth of flavor they give the soup. Beef broth and a little dry red wine round it out. Top the soup with crisp croutons and a combination of Gruyère and Parmesan cheeses and set the bowls under the broiler until the cheese topping becomes irresistibly melty. It will warm everyone right up!