10 Classic Main Dishes for Your Easter Dinner

Easter Dinner

Celebrate Easter this year with a traditional Easter dinner of ham, lamb, or chicken. We have a wide range of Easter recipes from more casual options like the Lexington-Style Grilled Chicken all the way to an elegant Dijon Rack of Lamb. So set your table and serve up one of these Easter recipes for your family.

Round out your Easter meals with our complete Easter menus, sides, and desserts.

Easter Sunday Menus
Easter Sides
Easter Desserts 

Sweet-Hot Plum-Glazed Ham

Plum preserves spiked with fresh citrus, ginger, and crushed red pepper update the traditional Easter ham. Garnish with tropical fruits like kiwi and pineapple for a fresh look.

• Recipe: Sweet-Hot Plum-Glazed Ham

Honey-Curry Glazed Lamb with Roasted Grapes and Cranberries

A honey-curry glaze elevates this lamb to a whole new level. Roasted grapes and cranberries add a festive and tasty touch to this impressive meal.

• Recipe: Honey-Curry Glazed Lamb with Roasted Grapes and Cranberries

Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken

Aromatic apples and vegetables infuse Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken with amazing flavor. After baking, the unpeeled shallots slip easily from their papery skins adding a tasty side note to the sliced chicken.

• Recipe: Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken
• Video:  Easy Roasted Chicken Recipe for Easter

Roasted Lamb

Rub a lamb roast with lemon, oregano, salt and pepper; place garlic cloves around the roast; and drizzle with olive oil. Once cooked, garnish with roasted garlic cloves, baby carrots, radishes, and lettuce leaves.

• Recipe: Roasted Lamb

Lexington-Style Grilled Chicken

The inspiration for the marinade on this grilled chicken comes from Carolina-style barbecue sauce, which is a spicy, vinegar-based sauce. Be sure to marinate at least 2 hours or as long as overnight to get the most flavor from the marinade for your Easter dinner.

• Recipe: Lexington-Style Grilled Chicken

Brown Sugar-Bourbon-Glazed Ham

This classic recipe for glazed ham is not only delicious, but it is a beautiful dish for your Easter brunch. In three easy steps you can make this ham studded with cloves and flavored with a brown sugar-bourbon glaze.

• Recipe: Brown Sugar-Bourbon Glazed Ham

Dijon Rack of Lamb

Dijon mustard and focaccia breadcrumbs make the crust for this impressive, yet easy, rack of lamb. Serve this to your family for your Easter dinner.

• Recipe: Dijon Rack of Lamb

Ginger Ale-Can Chicken

Perfectly roasted chickens bake vertically over opened cans of ginger ale. In the hot oven, the ginger ale steams, keeping the chicken moist. This easy roasting method allows fat to drip through and around the chickens, giving them a rich roasted flavor and beautiful golden brown color.

• Recipe: Ginger Ale-Can Chicken

Citrus-Glazed Ham

This citrus-glazed ham is sure to please your family this Easter. Let it stand for 15 minutes when it comes out of the oven so the juices have time to settle.

• Recipe: Citrus-Glazed Ham

Grilled Lamb Chops with Lemon-Tarragon Aïoli and Orange Gremolata

The lamb chops are simply seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, but the over-the-top flavor comes from the lemon mayonnaise topping and the sprinkling of parsley, garlic, and orange rind.

• Recipe: Grilled Lamb Chops with Lemon-Tarragon Aïoli and Orange Gremolata

Rack of Lamb with Carrot Salad

Rack of lamb is actually pretty simple if you remember three main points:

1. Seasoning only with salt and pepper, instead of marinating, lets the flavor of the lamb come through.
2. Put the lamb fat side down in a smoking hot skillet and leave it alone for a minute until it's brown. Then flip it and let it brown; then flip it again. This crisps up the fat and gives a nice brown exterior while preventing the edges from overcooking in the oven.
3. Baking lamb at 300° keeps the meat from tightening up so that it comes out very tender. Putting the lamb on a wire rack allows the hot air to circulate around the lamb.

• Recipe: Rack of Lamb with Carrot Salad