With eight days of celebrating, there's no shortage of opportunity to create a festive and delicious Hanukkah feast. Perfectly crispy latkes, of course, are mandatory. But don't forget about the opportunity to braise a deliciously tender brisket, simmer a pot of matzo ball soup, and serve up sufganiyot doughnuts, honey cakes, and more sweet treats.
And while you can't go wrong with a traditional recipe, feel free to get creative with your ingredients and toppings—find our guide to modernizing your favorite Hanukkah classics here. Leftover brisket? Lucky you. Find our guide for putting that perfectly-cooked meat to work all week long here.
From start to finish, fill your holiday table with a host recipes that will leave your guests full and happy.
Unique Holiday Traditions You Might Want to Try This Year
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Red Wine Braised Brisket
Slow-cooked brisket is the ultimate minimal-effort, high-payoff main dish you can serve for Hanukkah dinner. This recipe incorporates red wine to make a savory, saucy gravy and infuse the tender meat with bold flavor. Serve your brisket with grains or roasted vegetables—think couscous, wild rice, egg noodles, or root veggies like carrots and beets—to soak up the extra sauce.
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Sweet Potato Latkes With Brie Cheese and Balsamic Vinegar
These slightly sweet latkes are paired with salty, creamy Brie and acidic balsamic vinegar. Let the Brie sit out of the refrigerator while you make the latkes so it’s flavorful and runny by the time you’re ready to eat.
This rich and hearty soup gets a boost of flavor from chicken thighs that are simmered in the broth and then shredded from the bone. To ensure the matzo balls are cooked correctly, remove a ball from the broth and slice it in half. The color should be light throughout—if the center is darker, continue to cook 5 to 10 minutes more.
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Root Vegetable Latkes
Using a combination of carrots, parsnips, and beets—plus the traditional onions and scallions—as the latke base makes the dish lighter and slightly sweeter without sacrificing anything about that crispy, piping hot patty. Plus, the gorgeous, deep orange hue makes these a fun festive twist on a Hanukkah classic.
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25 Easy Party Side Dishes That Work For Any Occasion
For the crispiest latkes, remove as much of the liquid as possible from the grated potato mixture and fry in hot, but not smoking, oil. To keep them warm while making the rest of the meal, hold finished latkes on a foil-lined sheet tray in a 350-degree oven.
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Slow-Cooker Coffee-Braised Brisket With Potatoes and Carrots
Brisket does best when it’s cooked low and slow. In this recipe, the meat simmers all day in a combination of tomato paste, coffee, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar. It’s also cooked alongside onion, potatoes, and carrots, yielding a full meal that requires some time, but little effort to make.
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Gochujang Braised Brisket
Here, gochujang—a spicy and slightly sweet Korean chili paste—kicks the flavor profile of a traditional brisket up to an entirely new level. And no, it won't overpower the dish. Not to mention the fact that the mouthwatering aroma that will permeate your house for the whole day leading up to your Hanukkah dinner can't be beat.
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Sufganiyot (Fried Hanukkah Doughnuts)
These no-rise doughnuts are a perfectly indulgent treat for your holiday dinner. For best results, make the dough up to two hours ahead, but wait to fry until the last minute so they'll be piping hot. Serve with a sweet raspberry jam, caramel sauce, or hot fudge.
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10 Delicious Mini Desserts That Don't Require Any Baking
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Honey Cake
Leave yourself time to focus on dinner and socialize with guests by prepping dessert ahead of time. This delicious and moist honey cake can be made up to two days in advance. To keep the cake fresh, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature until ready to serve.
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Macaroon Thumbprints With a Surprise Nutella Center
Finely chopped hazelnuts and coconut flakes make up the foundation of this festive thumbprint cookie. Swap out the coconut flakes on top for blue and white sprinkles to add a little extra Hanukkah cheer.
Deep- or shallow-fried dishes like sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and potato latkes abound, serving as a delicious reminder of the miracle of the oil at the heart of the Hanukkah story.
Deep- or shallow-fried dishes like sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and potato latkes abound, serving as a delicious reminder of the miracle of the oil at the heart of the Hanukkah story.
"Among other rules, eating certain animals, primarily pigs and shellfish, is forbidden; meat must be ritually and humanely slaughtered; and dairy and meat aren't to be eaten at the same meal." Fish and plant foods are "neutral" (parve) and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.
From latkes to sufganiyot, we eat fried food on Hanukkah to remember the ancient oil miracle. Throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, Jewish families like mine celebrate by eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts).
The eight days of Hanukkah are observed with the lighting of a menorah after sundown and meals featuring foods challah bread, kugel, potato latkes, jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot, and festive drinks. Fried foods recall the miracle at the Temple of Jerusalem, when a day's worth of oil lasted eight nights.
It is customary for women not to work for at least the first half-hour of the candles' burning, and some have the custom not to work for the entire time of burning. It is also forbidden to fast or to eulogize during Hanukkah.
Latkes, one of the best known of all Hanukkah foods, can be made in many different ways. The basic recipe for this delicious side dish includes just grated potatoes, eggs, and salt. The ingredients are mixed together, formed into circular patties, and fried in oil.
From crispy latkes to tangy brisket to jammy sufganiyot. From shallow-fried potato latkes to deep-fried jelly doughnuts, traditional Hanukkah foods hinge on oil. Typically falling in December, the Jewish holiday, also called the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.
A perfect Hanukkah meal might start with matzoh ball soup, have a traditional brisket at the center and a stack of potato latkes on the side. If brisket is not your thing, a simple roasted chicken would serve very nicely, too.
Eating fried foods at Hanukkah also symbolizes the miracle of the oil. In the United States, Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe have popularized the frying of potato pancakes better known by their Yiddish name, latkes.
Also known as the Hanukkah lamp, the menorah recalls the Temple lampstand and is a simple or elaborate candelabra with eight branches plus a holder for the shammash (“servant”) candle that is used to light the other eight candles.
Most of these traditional foods are fried in oil, symbolic of the oil that lasted eight days. Others contain cheese to celebrate Judith's victory. Three popular foods eaten on the Jewish holidays include loukoumades, pancakes, and latkes.
"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.
Unlike Christmas presents, Chanukah gifts, traditionally, are really just for children. 'Gelt'—shiny silver or gold-covered chocolate coins are traditional, as is 'gelt'—that is, money—in multiples of eighteen ('chai' means 'life' in Hebrew; the numerical value of 'chai' is 18).
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