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31 Easy Holiday Recipes for Two

Wondering what you should make for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner for two? Here are 31 easy holiday recipes for two including main dishes, sides, and desserts. These also work great for your New Year's Eve dinner for two.

If it's just you and your significant other, roommate, or bestie this year, you can still have all the foods and flavors of a traditional Thanksgiving feast.

These scaled-down small-batch recipes allow you to serve up all your favorite holiday dishes, without having to cook for an army or have tons of leftovers.

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Christmas Dinner Recipes for Two

Have you seen my Cookbook?

Easy Home Cooking For Two - by Zona Cooks features 60 main dish recipes giving you two months' worth of simple homemade food that will impress any night of the week. NEW LOWER PRICE Check Cookbook Price

Holiday Main Dishes for Two

1
Turkey Breast on a plate with Gravy pouring onto it.
Easy Slow Cooker Turkey Breast and Gravy
This Easy Slow Cooker Turkey Breast and Gravy is juicy, tender and delicious. A boneless turkey breast is slow cooked to perfection and topped with smooth onion gravy.
Check out this recipe
2
Juicy Roast Chicken in a cast iron skillet.
Easy Juicy Roast Chicken
This easy juicy Roast Chicken recipe is simple to prepare and full of flavor. It is a whole oven roasted chicken that is tender and juicy with a delicious crispy browned skin and only requires a few simple ingredients.
Check out this recipe
3
Baked Chicken Thighs with Potatoes and Carrots in a 9x13 baking dish.
One Pan Roasted Chicken and Veggies
One Pan Roasted Chicken and Veggies is super easy and delicious as well. The chicken is seasoned perfectly and comes out juicy with a tasty crispy skin. Roasting vegetables in the oven brings out their sweetness and natural flavors.
Check out this recipe
4
Fried Chicken on parchment paper.
Crispy Fried Chicken
This super tender, juicy, and Crispy Fried Chicken for Two is sure to be a re-peat dinner in your house. The secrets to this chicken are soaking it in buttermilk for two hours and adding bacon grease to the frying oil.
Check out this recipe
5
two Grilled Beer Can Cornish Hens cooking on a grill.
Grilled Beer Can Cornish Hens
These Grilled Beer Can Cornish Hens are so flavorful and juicy! They smell and taste incredible. Just apply a sweet and savory dry rub all over the hens, prop them up on open cans of beer, and let them grill. The hens can also be roasted in the oven.
Check out this recipe
6
Crockpot Cornish Hens and Veggies on a serving platter
Slow Cooker Cornish Game Hens and Veggies
Slow Cooker Cornish Game Hens and Veggies come out tender and savory and the meat falls off the bone. The herbs and spices provide a delicious flavor combination.
Check out this recipe
7
a cast iron skillet filled with Oven Roasted Cornish Hens and Veggies
Roasted Cornish Hen with Vegetables Recipe
This Roasted Cornish Hen with Vegetables dish is super easy and delicious. It’s an entire meal cooked in just one cast iron skillet.
Check out this recipe
8
Pot Roast Dinner Recipe and Gravy
Easy Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast Dinner
This Easy Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast dinner has incredible flavor and includes rich creamy gravy! Tender potatoes, carrots, and onions are slow cooked with juicy fall-apart roast beef and smothered in delicious brown gravy.
Check out this recipe

Holiday Side Dishes for Two

9
Green Bean Casserole in a cast iron skillet.
Homemade Creamy Green Bean Casserole
This homemade version of the classic green bean casserole, with fresh green beans, a rich creamy mushroom sauce from scratch, and crispy French’s Fried Onion topping is delicious, easy, and quick and cooks in just one pan.
Check out this recipe
10
American Stuffing from scratch in a dish.
Homemade Stuffing
This homemade stuffing is very easy and is a basic bread stuffing which uses a generous amount of chopped celery, onion and seasonings and can be baked alone or inside of a small turkey.
Check out this recipe
11
three dinner rolls stacked on a plate and one dinner roll cut open is spread with butter
Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls
Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls smell and taste amazing! This small batch of buttery rolls bakes up soft and tender.
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12
thick moist cornbread topped with butter and honey.
Cornbread
This Small Batch Cornbread is a crumbly, slightly sweet cornbread that is delicious served with a bowl of chili or topped with butter, honey or jam. This recipe makes 4 pieces of thick cornbread or about 6 muffins and is ready in just 25 minutes.
Check out this recipe
13
Mini Sweet Potato Casserole in a baking dish.
Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans and Marshmallows
This classic sweet potato casserole with pecans and marshmallows is light, fluffy, and has just the right amount of sweetness.
Check out this recipe
14
two marshmallow stuffed sweet potatoes with pecan streusel on a platter.
Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Pecan Streusel
These Stuffed Sweet Potatoes are filled with a delicious marshmallow, brown sugar, butter and pecan streusel topping.
Check out this recipe
15
a close up of small hashbrown casserole for two
Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole
This easy Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole has thawed hash brown potatoes combined with tender crisp onions, butter, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese all topped with buttery crunchy potato chips or French’s Fried Onions.
Check out this recipe
16
Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes in two casserole dishes.
Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes
These Au Gratin Potatoes are deliciously creamy and cheesy with the added flavor of onion baked inside. This recipe serves two people cooked in individual dishes for a romantic dinner, but could also be cooked in one dish if preferred. Plan ahead as it takes 1 ½ hours to bake, but is so worth it!
Check out this recipe

Holiday Desserts for Two

17
a small Pumpkin Pie in a small pie pan.
Pumpkin Pie and Homemade Crust
This Pumpkin Pie recipe is the perfect small batch size for two people. The crust is buttery and flaky, but still crisp and the filling tastes flavorful, light and creamy with the addition of cream cheese. Add some whipped cream on top for a perfect fall or intimate Thanksgiving dessert.
Check out this recipe
18
two individual pecan pies on a baking sheet
Best Pecan Pie
This classic Southern Pecan Pie is an incredibly delicious pie made with pecans that are baked in a syrupy filling and a flaky buttery crust.
Check out this recipe
19
black forest pie on a tarnished tray with two forks
Best Black Forest Pie
Black Forest Pie is the perfect combination of rich fudgy chocolate and cherry filling, topped with a layer of cherries, and a layer of whipped cream speckled with shaved baker’s chocolate all nestled in a flaky pie crust.
Check out this recipe
20
a small pie pan filled with chocolate crust, creamy filling, caramel sauce drizzle, chocolate ganache drizzle, and peanuts and two forks.
Mini Snickers Cheesecake
Mini Snickers Cheesecake is super decadent and rich with a vanilla no-bake cheesecake center topped with drizzled chocolate, salted caramel sauce, and peanuts all nestled in a baked chocolate cocoa crust.
Check out this recipe
21
a slice of Apple Pie with a fork.
Best Homemade Apple Pie Recipe
Best Homemade Apple Pie, with an easy, no-fail, buttery, flaky homemade pie crust and filled with two types of apples and the perfect mix of spices. This recipe serves 2 and makes one 6 inch apple pie.
Check out this recipe
22
decorated cut-out sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles on a tray.
Small Batch Sugar Cookies
These Small Batch Sugar Cookies are soft with thick centers and a hint of almond flavoring. Top them with this easy homemade icing and sprinkles of choice.
Check out this recipe
23
two Peach Cobblers in ramekins.
Easy Individual Peach Cobbler
This easy individual Peach Cobbler is delicious and is ready in just one hour with just a few minutes of prep.
Check out this recipe
24
4 chewy fudge brownies stacked in a pile
Extra Fudgy Brownies
These Fudgy Brownies are easy gooey chocolate brownies with cocoa powder that are extra fudgy and best served with a cold glass of milk and a scoop of vanilla ice cream! This small batch recipe makes 4–6 brownies.
Check out this recipe
25
Individual Pineapple Upside-down Cakes on plates.
Individual Pineapple Upside-down Cakes
These Individual Pineapple Upside-down Cakes are awesome!!! Moist fluffy yellow cakes are topped with pineapple rings, maraschino cherries, and the gooey sweet brown sugar and butter topping creates a crispy satisfying flavor and texture sensation.
Check out this recipe
26
two slices of pumpkin roll cake sprinkled with powdered sugar on a plate.
Pumpkin Roll Cake
This delicious Pumpkin Roll Cake combines a soft pumpkin spice cake roll with sweet fluffy cream cheese filling topped with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
Check out this recipe
27
easy Salted Caramel Apple Crisp in a baking dish with a spoon
Salted Caramel Apple Crisp
This Salted Caramel Apple Crisp has tart baking apples coated in sugar, spices, and salted caramel then topped with a crumbly crispy oatmeal topping baked in individual oven safe dishes.
Check out this recipe
28
6 Best Soft Batch Cookies for Two Small Batch Recipe on a cutting board
Best Soft Batch Cookies - Small Batch
These are the best Soft Batch Cookies. This recipe makes a small batch of 6 soft and chewy cookies.
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29
Mint Chocolate No-bake Cookies on parchment paper.
Mint Chocolate No-bake Cookies
Mint Chocolate No-bake cookies have dark chocolate and sweetened coconut no-bake cookies topped with creamy green mint frosting, smooth chocolate ganache, and garnished with sweetened coconut flakes.
Check out this recipe
30
10 soft oatmeal raisin cookies on a wire rack
Soft Batch Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
These Soft Batch Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are super soft, thick, chewy, and loaded with oats, plump raisins, and cinnamon. These cookies are easy to make, so delicious, and ready in just 45 minutes! This is a small batch cookie recipe and makes about 8 cookies. They are perfect as an after dinner dessert or while snuggled up with your honey in front of a movie.
Check out this recipe
31
Soft Gingerbread Molasses Cookies on a plate.
Soft Gingerbread Molasses Cookies
These Soft Gingerbread Cookies combine ginger, molasses, cinnamon and sugar to form the perfect soft batch cookie. They are ready in just 20 minutes.
Check out this recipe

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Hi and welcome. I’m Zona and I have a passion for recipes. I share recipes, tips, tricks, and resources to help you cook for two. Eat, drink, and enjoy!

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Thanksgiving Recipes for Two

Charlene

Monday 4th of October 2021

I just love this site. I have a request please! I need to know how to make "crunchy" chocolate chip cookies. I have tried but I just can't do it. Thank you, Charlene

Zona

Monday 4th of October 2021

Hi Charlene, I'm glad you are enjoying my recipes. I don't have a crunchy cookie developed at this time but I found this one that has great reviews. If you want to cut the ingredients in half it looks like you could easily do that. To cut an egg in half, just use the egg white and leave the yolk out. The yolk leads to a more chewy cookie instead of crunchy. Copy and paste this link into your browser and let me know how it goes for you :) https://happyhappynester.com/the-best-crunchy-crispy-chocolate-chip-cookie/