12 Dinner Party Recipes for Big Gatherings

A dinner party is any type of gathering where people come together to share a meal, typically seated at a table. Most dinner parties involve serving a main entrée, but you can also serve snacks, side dishes, or appetizers as guests mingle.

A dinner party can be a potluck affair—where guests bring homemade dishes—or the host may prepare the entire meal. You can choose to make one main dish or prepare many party foods for your guests. When brainstorming dinner party ideas, consider easy-to-make weeknight dinners that could work well as party dishes.

Hosts can hold a dinner party to celebrate a special occasion, like birthdays, holidays, or housewarmings, or simply spend quality time with family and friends.

Here is a list of easy dinner recipes to consider when planning your next gathering:

1. 1. Baked chicken legs: Oven-baked chicken legs are easy to make and sure to please your guests. The dark meat in baked chicken thighs and drumsticks will stay tender and juicy even if you accidentally overcook them, and the legs are arguably the most flavorful part of the whole chicken. Oven-baked chicken legs work well with most side dishes, from salads to grains to roasted veggies. Make cauliflower salad, potato salad, braised greens, or frijoles refritos and salsa brava to accompany your chicken dinner.
2. 2. Beef wellington: Beef wellington can be a complex dish to make, but the result will be an incredible showstopper for your next dinner party. A traditional beef wellington consists of a beef tenderloin wrapped in layers of pâté, duxelles (a finely chopped mushroom mixture), parma ham, and puff pastry, then baked. This dish is an iconic example of decadent English cuisine and follows a long tradition of meats baked in pastry dough. This rich dish is the perfect show-stopping main dish to impress family and friends.
3. 3. Butternut squash bisque: Butternut squash bisque is a creamy winter squash soup that blends nutty, fragrant butternut squash with heavy cream. Traditional French bisque recipes feature seafood, like lobster, crayfish, shrimp, or crab, as the main ingredient. Still, modern bisques—like butternut squash bisque—may use puréed vegetables or aromatics in place of shellfish and thicken the base with rice or other starches.
4. 4. Chicken pot pie: Classic chicken pot pie is a comfort food staple. Pot pie is a savory dish of meat and vegetables cooked in a deep dish covered with a pie crust. Pot pie lacks a bottom crust, so you can make it in an oven-safe dish or small pot. Although a pot pie can have any savory filling, chicken is one of the best-loved options.
5. 5. Lasagna: Lasagna is a traditional Italian main dish consisting of alternating layers of long, flat pasta noodles, tomato or cream sauce, and cheese (typically mozzarella, Parmesan, or ricotta, or a combination of all three). Lasagna may also include layers of sautéed vegetables or ground meat, like beef or lamb. This easy casserole pasta dish is perfect for serving large crowds.
6. 6. Pasta bolognese: Bolognese is the international name for ragù alla Bolognese, a long-simmering, meaty Italian tomato sauce that traditionally dresses lasagna and tagliatelle. The bolognese starts with a base of soffritto—aromatic vegetables such as onion, carrot, and celery—cooked in olive oil until soft. Ground or diced meat, usually beef and pancetta, make up the body of the sauce, with wine, chicken stock, and tomato purée forming the braising liquid.
7. 7. Potatoes au gratin: Recipes for au gratin potatoes (or potatoes au gratin) combine sliced potatoes and cheese layers in a baked casserole dish, sometimes with a breadcrumb topping for a crispy contrast. People often confuse au gratin potatoes with scalloped potatoes, another classic potato side dish. Both are rich and creamy potato dishes that reheat well, but au gratin potatoes contain cheese, whereas scalloped potatoes contain a simple, creamy sauce. This comforting and loaded side dish makes a great holiday accompaniment to steak and red meat dishes.
8. 8. Roast chicken: Roasted chicken is a dinner classic that involves brining, air-drying, trussing, and roasting. Brining will improve the flavor of your roasted chicken while trussing the bird will help it brown more beautifully and evenly. Root vegetables make a perfect bed for the chicken, with rendered fat and juices from the chicken infusing the veggies with flavor.
9. 9. Slow cooker pot roast: Pot roast is classic comfort food and a great way to feed a crowd. Pot roast is an inexpensive, lean cut of beef that you brown in a skillet then stew in a pot, slow-cooker, or instant pot with vegetables and broth. Pot roast generally cooks, or braises, for hours, until the tough meat becomes fall-apart tender, savory, and moist. Mashed potatoes are a classic pot roast side dish. This slow-cooking main dish allows you to set and forget your main dish as you prepare the rest of your dinner party dishes.
10. 10. Swedish meatballs: Köttbulle, or Swedish meatballs, are made from ground beef (and sometimes ground pork) combined with milk-soaked breadcrumbs, onions, and beef broth. Almost every Swedish meatball recipe will include an easy recipe for meatball gravy. This tasty Swedish meatball sauce uses the drippings from the pan-fried meatballs to build a creamy gravy sauce. Serve these smothered meatballs as a main course with mashed potatoes or egg noodles or as an appetizer or smörgåsbord. Traditional accompaniments include lingonberry jam (or try cranberry sauce), mashed potatoes, and pickled cucumber (or other pickled veggies).
11. 11. Sweet potato bisque: Sweet potato bisque is a rich and creamy soup that pairs the natural sweetness of roasted sweet potatoes with aromatics and vanilla-infused heavy cream for a decadent soup that your guests will enjoy. Learn how to make sweet potato bisque.
12. 12. Tacos al pastor: Tacos al pastor—achiote-marinated pork tacos—are bursting with flavor. These Mexican tacos feature thin slices of pork stacked in a corn tortilla, topped with chopped white or red onions, fresh cilantro, fresh or grilled pineapple, and freshly squeezed lime juice. Tacos al pastor is a traditional street dish that has become popular worldwide.

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