Chilean Christmas menu: what to cook for Christmas Eve
A complete Chilean Christmas menu, from cola de mono to pan de pascua: drinks and starters, the turkey and main dishes, salads and sides, and a sweet finish. With the work plan to have almost everything ready before the 24th — each recipe says what can be made ahead.
What Chileans eat at Christmas, in short: Christmas Eve dinner is served late on the 24th, in high summer. It opens with cola de mono and something to nibble, continues with roast turkey or arrollado huaso with cold salads, and closes with pan de pascua, leche asada or arroz con leche. Almost everything is made ahead: this guide's work plan starts five days early, and the desserts, appetizers and New Year's Eve guides complete the week.
Toasts and starters: how Christmas Eve begins
Christmas Eve dinner starts with a toast. Cola de mono is made days ahead and only needs to come out of the fridge; the pisco sour is kept in a jug and shaken at serving time, and a few fried cheese empanadas keep everyone busy while the turkey finishes resting.
Chilean cola de mono
The creamy Christmas drink: milk, coffee, aguardiente, cinnamon and clove. Made 3 to 5 days ahead and served very cold; there is an alcohol-free version.
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Chilean pisco sour
Three parts pisco, one of pica lime and one of syrup. The mix waits in a jug and is shaken with ice at the moment of serving.
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Fried cheese empanadas
Thin dough, stretchy cheese and a tight fold. Assembled the day before and fried to order, while the turkey rests.
View recipeThe main dish of the dinner
With a large oven, the turkey is the star of the table: juicy if salted the day before and taken out by thermometer. Anyone who prefers something more Chilean has the arrollado huaso, cooked ahead and served cold, or the pastel de choclo, which is at its best in midsummer.
Juicy roast turkey
Dry brine, herb butter under the skin and a thermometer: 74 °C in the thigh. Serves 10 and thaws two and a half days ahead.
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Arrollado huaso
Marinated pork wrapped in its rind and brushed with ají de color. Cooked ahead and served cold or barely warm: it keeps the oven free on the 24th.
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Pastel de choclo
Beef filling, chicken and a golden corn crust baked in the oven. The main dish of the Chilean summer, when corn is at its best.
View recipeSalads and sides
Against a turkey and a rolled pork, the table needs freshness and acidity. The Christmas salad brings beetroot, apple and orange; Chilean salad and papas mayo are the classics of the Chilean summer, and creamed chard softens the whole spread.
Christmas salad
Green apple, beetroot, orange and walnuts, dressed at the table. The fresh, sharp note that balances the turkey and the rolled pork.
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Chilean salad
Peeled tomato and softened onion in thin strips: the most requested side of the summer. One large tomato per person.
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Papas mayo
Potatoes boiled in their skins with homemade lemon mayonnaise. The potatoes are cooked the day before and mixed on the day.
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Creamed chard
Blanched chard in a creamy sauce with onion and garlic, ready in 35 minutes: a gentle side for the turkey.
View recipeThe sweet finish of Christmas Eve
After dinner comes the pan de pascua with a glass of very cold cola de mono. For a lighter dessert, the leche asada and the rice pudding are made the day before, and mote con huesillo refreshes in midsummer.
Chilean pan de pascua
A dense loaf with candied fruit, raisins, walnuts and honey, spiced with ginger and cinnamon. It improves after 1 or 2 days wrapped.
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Leche asada
Milk and egg custard over caramel, baked in a water bath. Best made the day before: it needs hours of chilling.
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Rice pudding
Short-grain rice cooked in whole milk with cinnamon and lemon peel, ready in 50 minutes. Served warm or cold, with cinnamon on top.
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Mote con huesillo
Dried peaches in their spiced syrup over fresh husked wheat. The Chilean summer cooler, served very cold with its juice.
View recipeThe work plan: reaching Christmas Eve without rushing
The Christmas dinner is won in the days before. This split leaves the 24th with the turkey in the oven and almost nothing else to do:
- 3 to 5 days before: make the cola de mono and keep it bottled in the fridge, and bake the pan de pascua: both improve with rest.
- The morning of the 21st: move the turkey from the freezer to the fridge; a 5 kg bird needs 50 to 60 hours to thaw.
- Two days before: cook the arrollado huaso (served cold) and bake the leche asada or the rice pudding.
- The eve, the 23rd: dry-brine the turkey and refrigerate it uncovered; cook the potatoes for the papas mayo and the beetroots for the salad, and assemble the empanadas without frying.
- On the 24th, in the afternoon: roast the turkey (3 hours plus 40 minutes of rest): for dinner at 9 pm it goes in the oven at 5 pm. While it rests, fry the empanadas, mix the potatoes and assemble the salad.
- At the table: dress the salad, shake the pisco sour with ice and bring out the cola de mono very cold for after dinner.
A different turkey size or serving time? The turkey calculator adjusts the size, the thawing, the roasting and the time of each step.
Christmas menu FAQ
How much food per person for Christmas Eve?
For a full Christmas dinner: 500-600 g of raw, bone-in turkey, 150 g of salad, 150-200 g of papas mayo, 1 slice of pan de pascua (80-100 g) and 2 small glasses of cola de mono (about 300 ml) per adult. If there is also arrollado huaso, allow 100 g per person and drop the turkey to 400 g.
What can I prepare ahead of the 24th?
Almost everything. 3 to 5 days before, the cola de mono and the pan de pascua; two days before, the arrollado huaso and the milk desserts; the day before, the turkey's dry brine, the potatoes and the cooked beetroots. On the 24th only the turkey's oven time, the gravy, the fried empanadas and dressing the salads remain.
What if I do not want to make turkey?
The menu works just as well with the arrollado huaso as the main, cold and ready since the day before, or with a hot pastel de choclo: in midsummer corn is at its best. With any of the three, the Christmas salad and the papas mayo remain the side dishes.
What cannot be missing from a Chilean Christmas Eve?
If you must pick three things: a centrepiece (turkey or arrollado), a fresh salad (the Chilean one or the Christmas one) and pan de pascua with cola de mono for after dinner. They cover main, side and sweet; everything else is a bonus.
How do I adapt the menu for children?
Make the cola de mono without alcohol in a separate, labelled bottle, swap the pisco sour for mote con huesillo and leave the Christmas salad without goat cheese and walnuts if there are allergies. The turkey and the papas mayo suit almost every child.
Want the technique behind each dish?
Each recipe explains its timings and doneness cues: the turkey comes out by temperature, not by the clock, and the cola de mono is made days ahead. For more ideas, the guide to traditional Chilean recipes gathers the classics of the Chilean table, and all our recipes has the whole catalogue.