How to cook a roast dinner

Golden Yorkshires, crispy-skinned chicken, lashings of gravy: Sunday roast is one of life’s great pleasures. From timing tips to shortcut ingredients – plus ideas for what to do if you don’t fancy cooking – learn how to cook roast dinner like a pro with our easy guide. Plus, discover our pick of the best Sunday dinner recipes.

Senior Food Editor at M&S Food

Heather Taylor

How to cook a roast

Plan your menu

Are you going for classic roast chicken, beef, or pork? Or maybe you fancy fish or veggie? Plan your centrepiece first then work out some seasonal sides to go alongside.

Decide how many people are coming

Make a list of your guests and any dietary requirements and use this to decide the size of your roasting joint.

Plan out the timings

Work backwards from the main element, as this will take the longest to cook. Meat will benefit from resting while you cook things like vegetables, which take less time. Serve your gravy piping hot to warm everything else up.

Sunday roast recipe ideas

Roast dinner foods: what to eat for Sunday roast

Get planning your dream roast dinner menu, invite your nearest and dearest and dig in.

The main

You can’t go wrong with roast chicken, which will give you leftovers for soup or risotto the next day. Go classic with tender beef, succulent lamb, pork with crispy crackling, or honey-glazed ham. For veggies and vegans, go for a comforting pie or nut roast, or make the veg the star by roasting a whole cauliflower or hassleback butternut squash with punchy spices. Our Slow Cooked range, which features expertly seasoned meat, slow cooked for hours so you don't have to, is the ultimate shortcut to superior succulence in way less time.

How to roast a chicken

The sides

Roast potatoes are a non-negotiable. Use the season to dictate your other sides, from glazed root vegetables to vibrant greens. Don’t feel you need to do loads – fewer sides done well is better (and less stressful). Try a big tray of roasted seasonal veg, with some halved garlic bulbs and herbs. Look out for our pre-prepped frozen vegetables to cut down on chopping – some come with added flavour, like our maple butter Chantenay carrots and seasoned petit pois and leeks.

How to make the best roast potatoes

The gravy and trimmings

Yorkshire puddings and stuffing will take your roast from good to great – opt for expertly prepared shortcut versions, like our golden made-in-Yorkshire puddings or outdoor-bred sage, pork and onion stuffing, to save time.

When it comes to the gravy, you can never have too much. Make it with the juices from the roasting tray, adding our red wine flavour pot and a spoonful of redcurrant jelly for extra richness and acidity. Or buy your gravy ready-made to guarantee it’s silky smooth and perfectly seasoned, without the stress.

How to make gravy