18 Tantalizing Holiday Main Dishes | Midwest Living
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18 Tantalizing Holiday Main Dishes

Add sparkle to this year's holiday menu with our fresh collection of main dish recipes.

Baked Holiday Spiral Ham with Raisin Sauce

Raisins dot the sauce and plump up as they're heated in this easy topper for traditional spiral-sliced holiday ham. Plan on leftovers for sandwiches and soups.

Baked Holiday Spiral Ham with Raisin Sauce

Tags:
Christmas recipes, Thanksgiving recipes, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Main Dishes, Pork, Beef, Chicken

Stuffed Beef Tenderloin Filet

Cheese, bacon and mushrooms create a mouthwatering beef main dish from White Gull Inn in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. "Wisconsin produces great beef," innkeeper Andy Coulson says. "The only way to improve upon a broiled tenderloin is to stuff it with onions and Wisconsin cheddar."

Stuffed Beef Tenderloin Filet

Baked Holiday Spiral Ham with Raisin Sauce

Raisins dot the sauce and plump up as they're heated in this easy topper for traditional spiral-sliced holiday ham. Plan on leftovers for sandwiches and soups.

Baked Holiday Spiral Ham with Raisin Sauce

Herbed Chicken With Wild Rice

For the holidays, guests savor this herbed chicken and vegetable main dish at Spa Shiki at the Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Missouri. Chefs cook and stir their own Alfredo sauce, but we skipped that step and used purchased sauce as the base.

Herbed Chicken With Wild Rice

Harvest Salad with Walnut Oil Vinaigrette

Cooked chicken turns this colorful salad into a quick main dish, or use your own bumper crop of leftover turkey. Walnut oil adds a nutty flavor to vinaigrette in this salad from Clabber Girl Bake Shop in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Harvest Salad with Walnut Oil Vinaigrette

Strongbow Turkey Pie

Turkey dominates the menu at the Strongbow Inn in Valparaiso, Indiana. Use their meaty turkey pie recipe as a new twist for a holiday main dish -- or save your leftovers and make the pie the day after the big event.

Strongbow Turkey Pie

Pot Pie Pastry

Pork Marsala

Saute thin-sliced pork tenderloin, then serve it with tomato-rich Marsala sauce, generously flecked with garlic. The recipe comes from Ohio's Shawnee State Park Resort near the town of Friendship.

Pork Marsala

Mediterranean Stuffed Breast of Chicken

Stuff chicken with a colorful mix of tomatoes, mushrooms, pine nuts and goat cheese or feta cheese in this recipe from the DeSoto House Hotel in Galena, Illinois. A rich cream sauce tops the chicken.

Mediterranean Stuffed Breast of Chicken

Tomato Pesto Turkey and sides

Our main dish turkey gets an extra sparkle of flavor from tomato pesto with herbs, salt and pepper slipped between the skin and meat of a turkey breast. The mashed potatoes mix yellow and sweet potatoes with cream cheese, butter, sour cream, bacon and canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. The Brussels sprouts are skillet-roasted and tossed with seasoned mushrooms.

Tomato Pesto Turkey

Chipotle Smashed Potatoes

Brined Brussels Sprouts with Lemony Mushrooms

Pheasant Breast Supreme

Serve this rich sherried mushroom sauce over either pheasant or chicken breasts. The recipe comes from a restaurant in South Dakota, where several areas claim to be the "Pheasant Capital of the World."

Pheasant Breast Supreme

Thyme Pork Chops

For this easy entree, just brush thick pork chops with a flavorful marinade of herb and olive oil, and then roast until done. Serve with cheesy Glad Tidings Potatoes. Both recipes come from the Latchstring Restaurant overlooking South Dakota's Spearfish Canyon.

Thyme Pork Chops

Glad Tidings Potatoes

Main-Event Turkey

A rub of pepper, paprika and your favorite herb gives an easy flavor boost to turkey. If you like, serve with one of our favorite stuffings, such as Herb-Sausage Dressing or Cranberry-Apple Cornbread Stuffing.

Main-Event Turkey

Herb-Sausage Dressing

Cranberry-Apple Cornbread Stuffing

London Broil with Marsala Sauce

Marinate beef flank steaks in a teriyaki-orange mixture before broiling. We tried our London broil with sides of Herbed Baby Carrots and Two-Rice Pilaf. All three recipes are from a Dubuque, Iowa, restaurant.

London Broil with Marsala Sauce

Herbed Baby Carrots

Two-Rice Pilaf

Dazzling Yuletide Chicken

Impress even the most persnickety guest with this five-ingredient main. Wrap the cheesy chicken like a present in phyllo dough. The recipe comes from a Northfield, Minnesota, restaurant.

Dazzling Yuletide Chicken

Mushroom and Gorgonzola Fettuccine

Tempt your holiday guests with this meatless main dish pasta from Herman's restaurant at Garland resort near Lewiston, Michigan. A creamy, colorful mushroom-and-sweet-pepper sauce coats the pasta.

Mushroom and Gorgonzola Fettuccine

Season's Best Shrimp Parmesan

Spoon this creamy, rich shrimp sauce over rice or pasta. It's a specialty from Cafe Beignet in St. Charles, Missouri.

Season's Best Shrimp Parmesan

DeSoto House Pot Roast

Four root vegetables combine with a tender, herbed pot roast for an old-fashioned holiday meal. The recipe comes from the Generals' Restaurant at the DeSoto House Hotel in Galena, Illinois.

DeSoto House Pot Roast

Unbelievable Les Bourgeois Beef

Guests can almost forget their knives when eating this tender beef draped with rich cream-and-wine sauce. The recipe comes from Les Bourgeois Vineyards in Rocheport, Missouri.

Unbelievable Les Bourgeois Beef

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