6 Christmas Dinner Casseroles to Serve as the Main Dish

Christmas dinner can start with a casserole: sausage ziti under browned cheese, chicken tucked between lasagna sheets, or beef beneath mashed potatoes. These six recipes each give you a substantial main dish.

Start with what you’d like on the plate: pasta, potatoes, rice, eggplant, or corn tortillas. The choices below explain the filling and how each dish serves, with a direct link to its creator’s complete recipe.

John Kanell uses ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan through the bake.

I’d choose the ziti for scoopable pasta at Christmas dinner. The white chicken lasagna below suits a preference for pale sauce and layered servings.

John Kanell’s recipe combines a spinach-and-ricotta filling with a cream sauce made from broth and milk.

The cooked chicken is shredded into the lasagna. For a whole breast on the plate, consider the rice bake below.

John Kanell uses russet potatoes for the mash, with carrots, peas, and corn in the filling.

The recipe is titled “Shepherd’s Pie” on Preppy Kitchen. It uses ground beef, which is the version featured here.

Cream-of-chicken and cream-of-mushroom soups are mixed into the rice. Onion soup mix seasons the top.

Heather Seeley specifies Minute Rice and bakes the dish covered. Keep that rice requirement in view when deciding whether this recipe fits your shopping list.

Cinnamon and oregano season the tomato-meat filling, while Parmesan and egg enrich the béchamel.

Follow the lamb option in John Kanell’s recipe to make this version.

Holly Erickson uses Pepper Jack and cheddar, with peppers and green chiles in the filling.

The recipe includes the enchilada sauce method, so you won’t need a separate sauce recipe.