Cooking Christmas dinner for the first time for 15

Don't stress, warm the plates, accept help. Have stuff for people to nibble on if your timings go wrong.

Agree with pp timetable backwards

tell us what you’re wanting to cook and we can help you with the timetable

just think of it as a fancy roast dinner. I have my timings and what to do on a list and tick off as I go

I’d cook the pork today, chicken is much nicer fresh and the pork can be sliced and reheated with gravy.

The chicken can be roasted and then taken out to rest. If you cover it in double foil and throw a tea towel on top it’ll hold its heat while the roast potatoes crisp up - or you could do the potatoes in the air fryer. A roast dinner is one of the easiest for a big group because it’s quite forgiving - it’s just getting things in and out of the oven in time.

Yes to prepping veggies, if you’re doing carrots and parsnips par boil them and then put in a ziplock bag with honey in the fridge, you just need to tip them into a roasting dish for the oven.

Good luck, pour yourself a glass of something nice while cooking, and relax. Everyone will be fed regardless of what else happens.

If you can fit the pork and chicken in the oven at the same time, do those, then leave them to rest for about an hour and a half while you do the veg and potatoes. If you hvae a slow cooker you can have that going with the red cabbage warming through freeing up some pan space, are you steaming your green veg? You might need two steamers. While you have the potatoes and veg roasting you can put any stuffing in there as well as cauliflower cheese, then yorkshires right at the end. Dont forget the pigs in blankets!

You need to timetimeable backwards