Holiday Recipes That Take Your Gluten-Free Cooking Further

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By Molly Winsten, MS, RD
Gluten-Free Specialist
Instagram @onmollysplate

Well, 2025 is coming to a close! With December fast approaching, we know food is a BIG topic! Whether it’s hosting a holiday get-together or just needing enough food to feed your family that lingers at the house, it can be overwhelming for anyone! Add in gluten-free needs, and the whole month of December can feel downright daunting. Plus, you may think that recreating your favorite holiday foods is too difficult to do gluten-free. However, we are here to help! This article will detail tried-and-true techniques that will help you tackle more advanced gluten-free recipes, so good that they will impress even the most critical of guests! From stunning main courses and ethnic dishes to beautiful appetizers and bountiful desserts, we will make sure you have the most spectacular gluten-free December! 

Warm Up with a Flavorful Mexican Classic

First up, let’s talk about a Mexican dish that is a true crowd pleaser, birria!  Cooking dishes you enjoy eating but are unfamiliar with cooking can be daunting. But with a bit of research and time, they can be impressive and amazing, not to mention cooking something new can really break up the monotony of day-to-day meals.

Preparation:
When it comes to December meals, cozy vibes are all the rage, as well as ideas that can feed many people with one big dish! Stewed meats are ideal for this, and a really popular one is birria. Birria is a Mexican stew that is highly flavorful yet only mildly spicy. It originated using goat, but it’s popular to use beef or even chicken! The flavor comes from lots of aromatics, chilis, and one of the pinnacles of super flavorful cooking – time. Another amazing feature of this recipe is it uses a less expensive cut of beef that becomes tender from the long cook time, so it feels special and indulgent without breaking anyone’s budget! To start, you make a broth to cook your meat of choice (our recipe here uses beef). Dried chilis are often rehydrated, but you can use whatever spicy peppers you are able to find! The cooking liquid is a combination of the chilis, onions, garlic, and an array of spices. For the beef, you first want to sear on all sides. This adds great texture to the meat, as well as deepening the flavor of both the meat and the sauce it cooks in. This is due to a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction, which is the non-enzymatic browning of food. Amino acids and sugars interact at high heat, which leads to a larger variety of flavor compounds, and in turn, a much more flavorful dish! This is different than enzymatic browning, which occurs when food is exposed to air, such as the browning that occurs when an apple is sliced, or an avocado is cut in half, exposing the flesh to the air. 

After searing the meat, it gets covered in the flavorful braising liquid, and it cooks low and slow for hours. This can be done on the stove, in the oven, or even in a crockpot! By the end, the meat is fall-apart tender, and the sauce, or consommé as it’s better known, has a great balance of different tastes and flavors. You can serve birria multiple ways, in the form of a stew, in tacos, or even in quesadillas! Use gluten-free tortillas dipped in the consommé and then pan-fried for the ultimate eating experience. Classic garnishes include cilantro, limes, and chopped onion! 

Crispy Chicken Skin: A Simple Upgrade

Next up, we are going to talk about techniques that can help you up your kitchen skills and can work in multiple different meals. An amazing cooking technique sure to impress just about anyone is rendering chicken thighs, or any piece of chicken with the skin still on. Rendering refers to taking any solid animal fat and putting it over low heat until the fat melts, or “renders”. To do this, start with skin-on chicken thighs or breasts. You can do this with or without the bone, totally your preference! Place the meat skin side down in a cold pan and turn the heat on medium-low. You do not need any oil or seasoning at this time. This will take several minutes, but it’s so worth it! When the skin is golden brown, flip the chicken over and add your seasonings of choice. You can finish cooking it to an internal temp of 165° either in the pan or by putting it in the oven. This technique leads to a beautifully crispy skin while keeping the rest of the chicken moist and juicy. You can serve this over pasta, with cooked veggies, or over rice; the possibilities are endless!  

Dress It Up: Easy Homemade Vinaigrettes

Another technique that seems challenging but is worth learning is homemade salad dressings, which uses the art of emulsification. Vinaigrettes are made, combining oil, vinegar, and seasonings. Slowly whisking the oil into the vinegar, along with an emulsifier such as mustard, mayonnaise, or egg yolk, allows for the components to emulsify, creating a smooth and creamy texture. It can be fun to experiment with various oils, acids, and flavorings, as well as other additions that can alter the flavor profile and complexity of the final outcome.

Products:
Some ingredients, such as mustard and garlic, are natural emulsifiers and can help the dressing stay together. You can also use dairy such as sour cream or Greek yogurt for a salad dressing base, or even other fats such as mayonnaise, avocado, or blended nuts. We are sharing a few of our favorite recipes here, but once you start playing around with flavors, you’ll find yourself wanting to always make your own dressing! 

Sweet Success: Chocolate Ganache Made Simple

Our final technique/ focal point of this article has to do with desserts. Baking can be daunting on its own but add in a need to be gluten-free, and it can feel undoable. Something interesting about gluten-free baking, though, is that several pastry techniques are naturally gluten-free! For example, you may have tried ganache at a fancy bakery or cake shop. While it sounds difficult in nature, ganache can actually be made at home, and the ingredients are naturally gluten-free! Ganache is technically two ingredients – chocolate and cream. You simply heat 1 part cream (to about 150 degrees or until it is steaming but not bubbling) and pour it over 1 part of chocolate. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then whisk until smooth. You can add more cream for a thinner ganache and less for a thicker one. The finished ganache can be poured over cakes, allowed to set in the fridge, then whipped to become an airy frosting, or even refrigerated, scooped into balls, and rolled in cocoa powder to become elegant chocolate truffles! You can do ganache with any chocolate and add a variety of flavors. The possibilities are endless!! 

We hope this article opened up a world of more advanced techniques to help intensify your kitchen skills. Learning a few more difficult techniques can make a huge difference in your cooking, and of course, we love everything being gluten-free! Enjoy! 

 

Recipes

Beef Birria

  • 2 pounds beef chuck roast
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 4-5 cloves peeled garlic
  • 4-5 spicy peppers of choice, roughly chopped and seeded or use dried peppers
    • (6-7 dried peppers. A mix of peppers can be used!)
  • 1/3 cup tomato paste  
  • 2 teaspoons of each of the following: salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 4-5 cups beef broth

 

Slow-cook the beef in the braising liquid until it’s fall-apart tender—typically 4 to 6 hours on low heat. If you’re short on time, a pressure cooker can reduce this to about 1 hour. Start by searing the chuck roast in olive oil until browned on all sides, then remove it from the pan. In the same pan, add your choice of chopped fresh peppers or dried chiles, along with onion and garlic. Sauté briefly, then stir in tomato paste, spices, and vinegar. Pour in 4–5 cups of beef broth and bring to a boil until the vegetables are tender. Puree the mixture (and strain if desired), return the meat to the pot, and continue cooking until perfectly tender.

Remove the meat and shred, then serve how you’d like! Use the broth for dipping or as a soup. Other ways to serve include gluten-free Ramen-style noodles, tacos, or quesadillas! Popular toppings include cilantro, chopped onion, radishes, avocado, Crema, and cheese!

Boneless Skin-on Chicken

  • 2 pieces boneless skin-on chicken, such as breast or thigh
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Place chicken skin-side down in a cold pan. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook until the skin is golden, usually 10-12 minutes. Flip chicken and sprinkle on salt and pepper, turn the heat down to medium and cook until chicken is cooked through, or 165 degrees internal temperature. Serve with your favorite vegetables and starch!

Maple Dijon Vinaigrette

  • 1/2 cup gluten-free Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon each salt, pepper, garlic powder, cinnamon, and paprika
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients other than olive oil until well combined. While whisking, slowly stream in olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Whisk until it’s smooth and thickened. Give it a taste and adjust the seasoning however you like. This dressing will thicken slightly in the fridge, so allow it to come back to room temperature before tossing with your favorite salad or roasted vegetables!

Dairy-Free Herb Ranch

  • 1 cup gluten-free mayonnaise
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup each minced parsley, dill, chives, and scallions

Mix all ingredients until smooth. If a thinner texture is desired, add water 1 teaspoon at a time until the desired texture is reached. Taste for seasoning, and chill until ready to use

Classic Chocolate Ganache

  • 8oz heavy cream (can substitute with non-dairy cream or coconut cream if desired)
  • 8oz gluten-free chocolate of choice

Heat heavy cream until just steaming, around 150 degrees. Pour over the chocolate in a heat-safe bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Popular add-ins include a pinch of salt, a splash of vanilla extract, and spices. You can use the ganache right away to frost cakes or baked goods. You can chill it and whip it into a rich frosting or chill it and roll it into truffles coated in cocoa powder. The possibilities are endless! This recipe can also be adapted to be thicker or thinner, depending on what you are making. Enjoy!