How to prepare a last-minute Christmas dinner for 10 people

This article was originally published in December 2021.

If Christmas has snuck up on you and guests are expecting a feast you have forgotten to plan, Lucy Corry has you covered with a last-minute festive dinner for 10.

One of my best Christmas presents was my sister’s battered copy of Delia Smith’s Christmas. This 1990 bible has all the advice a cook needs for the festive season, including a detailed and precise chronology of the 36 hours leading up to the Christmas feast.

My favourite instruction is for 1.30pm on Christmas Day, when Smith tells the cook that it is time to: “Turn the chipolatas and bacon rolls over, then you are free for a few minutes to go and have a pre-lunch glass of Champagne. You deserve it.” My sister underlined this six times.

While I know the things in this book are possible (I have enjoyed several Christmas banquets where my sister executed Smith’s turkey with all the trimmings perfectly), at this point they are a delicious fantasy.

Smith is a Christmas professional, an elite athlete with years of turkey-stuffing and ham-glazing under her belt. Few of us have that kind of muscle memory or the time to do the training.

So, with apologies to Smith, and with love and solidarity to everyone who has suddenly realised “the big day” is on Saturday and they have to whip up Christmas lunch for 10, here’s my stripped back survival guide. Don’t worry, you have this.

Survival Tips

Before we plunge into the details, let’s establish a few ground rules:

You are cooking lunch (or dinner), not preparing a hotel buffet. There is no need for three meats, six salads and four desserts.

Is over-catering part of your love language? Ditch it, unless you know for certain that your family will eat leftovers. Nigella Lawson says the more people you have to feed, the less they seem to eat.

No-one likes a Christmas martyr. Having the cook collapse from exhaustion or rage will ruin the vibe faster than any culinary shortcomings. Know the limits on your finances, skills and time, and stick to them.

Outsource where you can. It is too late to order a pre-planned Christmas food box, but there is no shame in asking friends and family to bring part of the menu. Unless they are lazy or shameless, people like having something to do. Non-cooks can bring Christmas crackers, drinks or, best of all, rubber gloves, dishwashing liquid and elbow grease with which to tackle the cleaning up.

Don’t go shopping hungry, or without a list. You will forget the useful things (dishwasher powder, teabags, milk), and come home with a multi-pack of chocolate Santas and weird cheeses that no-one will eat.

The menu

You are probably feeding 10 people from a range of age groups. Children under 10 will have been up since dawn, and may not be their best selves thanks to a mix of excitement and sugar. Adults may not be their best selves due to a heady cocktail of, well, cocktails, family drama, and the general stresses of 2021.

This is not the time for innovative or highly challenging food. Nor is it the time to introduce your guests to the benefits of special diets, no matter how much you might want to.

Christmas is the time to stick to the classics. Banish thoughts of turkey (even if you can find one, it might not defrost in time, you will stress over the cooking, then most people will say “I don’t really like turkey”). And forget ham (you will buy one that is too big for the fridge, and will be stuck eating it for weeks).

Don’t buy strawberries or other fresh soft fruit either, they mysteriously leap in price between December 22 and 24.

My last-minute, simple Christmas menu suggestion is this: take a leaf out of Smith’s book and start with pigs in blankets (chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon), with a glass of something cold and fizzy.

These will keep people entertained while you add the finishing touches to the main course: a couple of roast chickens, with crunchy, golden, roast potatoes, or butter-slicked baby new potatoes, and a bountiful green salad full of leaves, herbs and steamed asparagus or broccolini.

Dress the salad with a simple, homemade lemon juice and olive oil vinaigrette. Don’t fret about stuffing the chickens – bundle a few sliced lemons, garlic cloves, and a handful of herbs inside instead. Massage lavish amounts of olive oil and butter over the skin before roasting, and make twice as many potatoes as you think you will need. (I learnt this tip from my mother-in-law, who once cooked 50 for a family of five.)

There is no need to sweat over making gravy. Instead, stir together my special secret spicy sauce below, or use this clever idea from Lawson: stir together a jar of cranberry sauce and a jar of wholegrain mustard.

Both these sauces are excellent with leftover cold roast potatoes on Boxing Day.

Once the debris is cleared, whip out the Frozen Christmas Ambrosia (recipe below) that you made on Christmas Eve. Accept all compliments, as is your due, and retire to a comfortable chair, while you watch everyone else clean up. Merry Christmas!

Lucy’s special secret spicy sauce

2 tablespoons good quality hot curry powder

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup Greek-style yoghurt

½ cup mayonnaise

Salt and pepper

Put the curry powder and lemon juice in a bowl, and mix to a paste. Beat in the yoghurt and mayonnaise, then taste for seasoning. It may need a little salt, or a little more lemon juice. Store, covered, in the fridge for up to a week.

Frozen festive ambrosia

Serves 8-10

This is a simple and family-friendly dessert that requires about 15 minutes’ preparation and a nice, long rest in the freezer. If you don’t have a large loaf tin, use a 23cm cake tin, or similar plastic container. I have assumed the cook or helpers may need to eat some marshmallows to keep their strength up. Rest assured the dessert won’t fail if less than the 180g goes in.

750ml cream

1 x 397g can condensed milk

⅓ cup boysenberry or raspberry jam

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

180g packet marshmallows, snipped into quarters

1 cup frozen raspberries, plus 1 cup to garnish

100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped, to garnish

Dark chocolate sauce (an optional extra)

250ml cream

250g dark chocolate

Line a large loaf tin or plastic container with baking paper, foil or plastic wrap, allowing overhang on the sides to help you ease it out of the tin in one piece later).

Whip the cream in a very large bowl until it nearly holds its shape (it will be like thick pouring custard, but not thick enough to stand up in soft peaks when you lift the beater).

In a small bowl, stir together the condensed milk, jam, vanilla, and lemon zest and juice. Fold this very gently into the cream until combined.

Fold in the marshmallows and 1 cup of frozen raspberries. Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Freeze for at least six hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, remove the loaf tin from the freezer, and invert onto a serving platter. Lift off the loaf tin and peel away the baking paper or foil.

Scatter the remaining frozen raspberries and dark chocolate artistically over the top. Cut into slices to serve.

Christmas bonus: To make this more decadent, serve with the warm chocolate sauce. Just before you are ready to serve, heat 250ml cream until nearly simmering. Remove from the heat, and add 250g chopped dark chocolate. Wait for two minutes, then stir until smooth.

Scrape into a jug, and let diners pour chocolate sauce over the icy-cold pudding.