Meal Prep · A holiday collection
A Hanukkah table
Latkes fried in oil, applesauce made from scratch, a brisket braised the day before, kugel, challah and jelly doughnuts: foods many Jewish families enjoy during the eight nights of Hanukkah. Some recipes are new; others live elsewhere in Meal Prep and are gathered here. Pick your menu, get one shopping list, and let the countdown plan the evening so the latkes come out of the pan hot.
⚖️ How much to make
Rough amounts for 10 guests, for a spread with several dishes. Appetites vary, so treat these as a starting point; the shopping list above already scales each recipe you check.
| Food | Per guest | For your group | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latkes (3-inch) | 4 latkes | — | 3 lb of potatoes makes about 24. |
| Brisket, raw weight | 0.5 lb | — | It shrinks by about a third to a half as it braises. |
| Applesauce | 0.25 cups | — | 3 lb of apples makes about 4 cups. |
| Sufganiyot | 1.5 doughnuts | — | One batch makes about 16. |
| Kugel or other sides, together | 1 cup | — | Two or three sides. |
⏰ Countdown: what to do when
Enter when dinner is. The plan works backward for the dishes on your menu: the brisket the day before, the kugel in the oven, and the latkes fried last.
- Loading the plan…
Times are planning guides; check doneness with a food thermometer. Perishable food shouldn’t sit out more than 2 hours, or 1 hour when it’s above 90°F (USDA), so the plan reminds you when to put food away or bring out fresh platters.
🕎 About Hanukkah and its foods
Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival, also called the Festival of Lights. The name comes from a Hebrew word for dedication. It remembers the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC, after the Maccabees, a small Jewish force, won back the city from the Seleucid king Antiochus IV, who had banned Jewish practice and set up a pagan altar in the Temple.
The Talmud, compiled centuries later, tells that the Maccabees found only one small jar of pure oil for the Temple’s lamp, enough for a single day, and that it burned for eight days. Families light candles on a nine-branched menorah, one more each night, and set it where it can be seen from outside.
Why fried foods? Foods cooked in oil recall the oil in that story. In many Ashkenazi homes (families with roots in Central and Eastern Europe) that means latkes, potato pancakes, with applesauce or sour cream. Potatoes came to Europe from the Americas in the 1500s, so earlier latkes were made from cheese or other ingredients. In Israel the favorite is sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts, and Sephardic and Middle Eastern families have their own fried treats, such as bimuelos and sfenj. Some families also eat cheese and dairy foods during the holiday, a custom tied to the story of Judith.
Customs differ from family to family and community to community. This page gathers foods many families enjoy; it isn’t a guide to religious practice.
| Begins at sundown | Ends at nightfall |
|---|---|
| Friday, December 4, 2026 | Saturday, December 12, 2026 |
| Friday, December 24, 2027 | Saturday, January 1, 2028 |
| Tuesday, December 12, 2028 | Wednesday, December 20, 2028 |
| Saturday, December 1, 2029 | Sunday, December 9, 2029 |
| Friday, December 20, 2030 | Saturday, December 28, 2030 |
Dates from Hebcal. Hanukkah begins on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev; the Hebrew calendar follows the moon, so the date moves around on the everyday calendar, from late November to late December.
Frying safely
- Stay with the pan the whole time. If you have to leave the kitchen, turn the burner off.
- Squeeze grated potatoes dry and pat doughnuts free of loose flour; water and crumbs make oil spatter and smoke.
- Keep the oil below smoking, about 350 to 375°F. If it smokes, turn off the heat.
- Keep a lid or sheet pan beside the stove. If oil catches fire, turn off the burner and slide the lid over the pan. Never pour water on a grease fire.
- Turn handles toward the back and keep children back from the stove. Let used oil cool completely before throwing it away in a sealed container.
Latkes, four ways
Potato latkes fried in oil are the classic; sweet potato and zucchini latkes add color, and the sheet-pan version saves standing at the stove. Applesauce from scratch takes about 30 minutes.
Brisket and other mains
Brisket is the centerpiece in many American Jewish homes, and it is best made a day ahead. A roast chicken or a pot of chicken soup are other family favorites.
Kugel, vegetables and challah
Potato kugel for a meat meal and sweet noodle kugel for a dairy one, a sweet tzimmes, something green, and a braided challah.
A dairy meal
Many families also eat cheese and other dairy foods during Hanukkah, a custom tied to the story of Judith. Blintzes, cheese pancakes and noodle kugel make a dairy supper with latkes and sour cream.
Doughnuts and fried sweets
Sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts, are the Hanukkah treat in Israel; bimuelos, honey-soaked fritters, come from Sephardic kitchens.
🧑🍳 Make it from scratch
Want to make the parts most people buy? These from-scratch pages scale to what your menu needs.
📋 Eight nights, a little at a time
Make ahead
- Weeks ahead: fry a big batch of latkes, cool them on racks and freeze them flat. They recrisp in a 400°F oven in about 12 minutes.
- 2 to 3 days ahead: make the applesauce (it keeps a week), bake the tzimmes, and roll the blintzes.
- The day before: braise the brisket, chill it, then lift off the fat and slice it cold. Bake the challah. Make the doughnut dough and let it rise slowly in the refrigerator.
- On the night: reheat the brisket to 165°F, bake the kugel, and fry the latkes last so they’re hot and crisp.
Leftovers
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours in shallow containers, and eat them within 3 to 4 days, or freeze them (USDA).
- Reheat brisket, kugel and other cooked dishes to 165°F.
- Recrisp latkes on a rack in a hot oven; the microwave makes them soggy.
- Next-day favorite: brisket sandwiches on challah.