Ham or Lamb: What’s cooking for Easter dinner?
All the details you need to choose your best feast.
Credit:
Reviewed / Tim Renzi
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It’s easy to grab all the yummy Easter chocolates and fill the colorful Easter baskets with little gifts for everyone. But finding inspired Easter dinner ideas that match the budding feeling of the season may seem daunting.
Will Easter ham take center stage, or will it be lamb for your paschal feast? And what are the best sides to serve? We tried out a few Easter dinner ideas to find delicious inspiration for the season.
Ham or lamb?
Ham or lamb—which will take center stage at your feast? With our recommendations, you can't go wrong either way.
It sounds like a simple question, and many people automatically favor one over the other, but there are many choices within each category so it’s not as simple as it sounds. We explored the field of options to help you select the best Easter dinner showstopper this year.
Is ham your plan?
The whole bone-in Kurobuta ham from Snake River Farms is a luxury addition to any celebration. Our testers fell in love!
The most common form of ham in grocery store coolers is the spiral ham, like this half spiral cut ham from Porter Road, which generally refers to the way a bone-in ham is pre-cut for easy serving.
Bone-in ham tends to be more flavorful and moist, while boneless ham presents less of a carving challenge. Either way, we recommend choosing a ham that is wet-brined and smoked for maximum flavor, like the Kurobuta Ham from Snake River Farm.
When we tried the Whole Bone-in Kurobuta Ham, we were seriously impressed by every aspect of it—the smoky, savory flavor; tender meat; and crisp exterior texture. This ham even converted a few previously self-proclaimed ham haters, so if there’s one option that could bring ultimate peace the Easter dinner debate, this might be it.
Shop Kurobuta Ham at Snake River Farms
We also recommend the Smoked Bone-In Heritage Ham from Crowd Cow as a spiral-sliced alternative.
If you’re a fan of ham with a sweet-savory flavor profile, you can apply a glaze recipe to your selected ham. The important thing is to start with a quality product.
What’s the best way to cook ham?
Many hams, especially those from meat delivery services, arrive frozen. So remember: The same way you must thaw your Thanksgiving turkey ahead of time, you need to do the same with the Easter ham.
If you’re cooking a large ham, you’ll want a roasting pan with a v-rack to ensure heat circulates fully around the ham. You’ll get the best exterior texture this way.
Since ham, by nature, is already fully cooked, you’re essentially reheating it before it lands on the dinner table. However, that doesn’t mean you can set it and forget, or you’ll end up with tough, dry ham.
The internal temperature should reach about 140°F, and ideally no more, which means you can take it out of the oven at about 135°F and let carryover cooking do the rest. Get yourself a good meat thermometer to ensure you hit the right temperature and prevent the ham from drying out.
Leaning toward lamb?
Rack of lamb is surprisingly easy to make, and meltingly delicious, especially if you take a low and slow cooking approach—and it's still done in little more than an hour.
There are a lot of options when it comes to selecting which type of lamb to cook—the most popular being roasts and rack of lamb, which you can cut into chops.
Roasts offer the ability to butterfly, stuff, and add lots of flavor to them, while rack of lamb is supremely easy to season, cook, and serve for a unique presentation that always feels special.
While you should always be able to find lamb at a butcher shop, this time of year you can also find it at most grocery stores. If you’d rather shop from home, some of our favorite meat delivery services off a variety of cuts.
You can find boneless leg of lamb at Crowd Cow, along with a selection of Easter sides and desserts for one-stop shopping.
Grass Roots Farmers Co-op offers everything from bone-in roasts to rack of lamb, chops, and shanks, and ButcherBox regularly offers lamb options, along with recipes like citrusy herbed lamb with lemony potatoes—perfect for the season.
Shop lamb at Grass Roots Farmers Co-op
How to cook lamb
The most critical component in how to cook lamb is to go low and slow. The gaminess or “funk” that many people associate with lamb is concentrated in the fat. If you render away the majority of the fat, you’re left with flavorful meat without the funk.
Low heat is the key. Serious Eats offers a simple, elegant (and relatively foolproof) way to roast Easter lamb for a most delicious result.
A rack of lamb (we used two 2-pound racks) can be simply rubbed with a complementary mixture of spices such as rosemary and garlic, coffee and ancho chili powder, or a Moroccan spice blend (don’t forget the salt and pepper). Then, roast it on an oven-safe rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in a 250°F oven for about an hour or hour-and-a-half, until the meat registers 125°F on an instant-read thermometer for medium-rare—and adjust the timing for your desired doneness.
A sauce made of fresh herbs, especially mint, mixed with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice, adds a perfect complementary flavor to lamb. $27 at Amazon
What sides shine brightest?
Green beans nearly sparkle as the most popular Easter side dish we encountered.
In our research, one recipe rose to the top as the most popular Easter side dish—green beans almondine. They not only add a beautiful pop of green to the table but a fresh element with some crunch. A simple topping of browned butter and almonds make every helping of this side dish shine.
Carrots aren't just for bunnies. They're a quintessential Easter side dish that's incredibly easy to make.
Like bunnies, carrots just seem to go with Easter. Their natural sweetness means it doesn’t take much to dress them up for dinner. We like to buy carrots with the tops still attached and retain a touch of that green during cooking.
A simple sprinkling of seasonings and a light coating of olive oil are enough to augment their natural flavor—we used garlic, salt, pepper, and a dash of cinnamon to complement the carrots’ sweetness. About 15 minutes in a 425°F oven is all it takes to transform these little beauties from raw to outrageous.
Typically a vestige of Good Friday, hot cross buns are a sweet symbol of the season.
If you’ve got the urge to serve something sweet on your Easter table, hot cross buns and traditional Easter bread are glorious options.
They work whether you’re serving dinner or Easter brunch, and they keep well for breakfast the next morning.
Easter dinner inspiration from the Reviewed staff
The Reviewed staff may have a lot of different ideas about what makes the best Easter dinner, but most of us agree—there must be Peeps!
In addition to our own tastings and research, we asked the rest of the Reviewed staff what tops their Easter dinner menu. Green beans showed up more than once, and the list featured more dessert than anything else. But the constant theme was this: The best Easter dinner ideas are born of tradition. And also, peeps!
Data Entry Manager Andrew Winson looks to local culture when it comes to Easter dessert. "I live in a place with a pretty substantial Polish diaspora population, so I have developed a taste for many of the Polish desserts available this time of year," says Winson. "Stuff like makowiec, chruściki, and kolaczki."
Similarly, Senior Staff Writer Jaime Carrillo goes for traditional Italian Easter desserts: "Panettone for sure," he says. "That or Colomba, but that one is harder to find."
If you don't feel like embarking on a cultural baking adventure, check out Russ & Daughters on Goldbelly, which can deliver authentic Eastern European treats like rugelach and babka right to your door.
Look to cultural traditions when deciding on Easter dessert ideas.
You can find Colombas (Italian doughy cakes topped with sugar and filled with candied fruit) at Goldbelly, too, from classic brand Ferrera or high-quality, artisan Olivieri 1882.
Other staffers—like Gift Guide Editor Jeaneen Russell—follow the popular Easter brunch trend when entertaining. "My tradition is to host an Easter brunch then eat the leftovers for dinner!" Russell says. "I like serving ham, quiche, potatoes, roasted carrots, a charcuterie board, fruit and veggie platter, Easter-themed desserts and treats—and of course—plenty of MIMOSAS!"
An easy shortcut to indulging in quiche and champagne? Order the Deluxe Ham Brunch Banquet from Harry & David, which includes everything you need to be the ultimate host at Easter brunch (yes, including the booze).
Iconic Easter candy will always have a place at the table.
And then, of course, there's the candy—which finds its way to the table one way or another.
"My mom makes soft chocolate chip cookies from scratch, but instead of chocolate chips, she uses crushed Cadbury mini eggs," says Managing Editor of Home Leigh Harrington.
Senior Manager of Lab Operations Jon Chan says his family sometimes makes sweet potato casserole topped with melted Peeps instead of marshmallows.
Senior Staff Writer of Partner Content Madison Durham even introduced us to Peep wars, where two Peeps are sent to the microwave with toothpicks, where they go head-to-head to see which will pop first.
Or you can keep things simple, indulging in the sugary sweets of the season as they were meant to be enjoyed. "The Cadbury Creme Egg is the finest Easter candy ever devised," Chief Scientist Dave Ellerby claims proudly. "And if we're not acknowledging that in our content, I will be very disappointed indeed." Some of us may vehemently disagree, but there’s always something at the table for everyone.
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