Food World Cuisines European Cuisines French Cuisine 20 French Main Courses for Dinners Simple or Fancy By Food & Wine Editors Food & Wine Editors This is collaborative content from Food & Wine's team of experts, including staff, recipe developers, chefs, and contributors. Many of our galleries curate recipes or guides from a variety of sources which we credit throughout the content and at each link. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on February 12, 2023 Trending Videos Close this video player Photo: © Frances Janisch Classic French cuisine is foundational, a lesson in employing good technique to coax maximum flavor from seasonal, best-quality ingredients. Less is often more; there are no bells and whistles to hide behind as a dish's beauty lies within its simplicity. These are the French main courses that speak to the cuisine's tradition of sophistication: duck à l'orange, cassoulet, bouillabaisse, coq au vin, and more from iconic chefs like Jacques Pépin, Julia Child, Daniel Boulud, and Eric Ripert. Choose your favorite recipe, source the finest ingredients you can find, and enjoy the lesson. 01 of 20 Ratatouille Photo by Kelsey Hansen / Food Styling by Greg Luna / Prop Styling by Stephanie Hunter This vegetable stew from the South of France is a celebration of summer vegetables at the height of their ripe seasonality, traditionally made with tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, onions, and eggplant. Enjoy it as-is or with any protein; serve it warm or at room temperature over pasta or polenta, spooned over bread, or however else you see fit. Get the Recipe 02 of 20 Steak au Poivre with Red Wine Pan Sauce Cara Cormack Red wine pan sauce is an amalgamation of fond (those browned bits left in the pan after searing meat), shallots, broth, good-quality red wine, and a few pats of butter to bind it all together and thicken it to a syrupy consistency. A perfect interplay of acid from the wine and sumptuous fat, the sauce is an ideal accompaniment to a peppercorn-crusted rib eye steak. Get the Recipe 03 of 20 Marseille-Style Shrimp Stew Johnny Valiant Large shrimp make this a knife-and-fork stew. Cookbook author Melissa Clark spreads a garlicky French rouille on toasted baguette slices for dipping. Get the Recipe 04 of 20 Duck à l'Orange © CON POULOS Because a single duck rarely has enough meat to feed more than two or three people, legendary chef Jacques Pépin prepares two ducks side by side when serving this classic dish to guests. And because he's roasting whole ducks, he cooks them until they're well done, which results in the crispiest skin and best flavor. Get the Recipe 05 of 20 Julia Child's Favorite Roast Chicken Con Poulos Julia Child seasoned this roast chicken inside and out by packing sautéed vegetables, lemon slices, and fresh herbs into the cavity, then rubbing the skin with butter. In typical French fashion, she trussed the bird to promote even cooking. Get the Recipe 06 of 20 Lyon-Style Chicken with Vinegar Sauce © Con Poulos When chef April Bloomfield tried a classic version of vinegar chicken in Lyon, she wished it were tangier. So, back home, she adds a hefty amount of Banyuls wine vinegar to the sauce. "I love the way the vinegar froths up when you add it to the pan," says Bloomfield, who finishes the chicken in the sauce to infuse it with extra flavor. Get the Recipe 07 of 20 Crispy Monkfish with Capers © Frances Janisch This is chef Daniel Boulud's take on wiener schnitzel, a breaded and fried veal cutlet. He lightens the dish by making it with thinly pounded monkfish fillets, breaded on only one side, and serves it with a mix of asparagus, zucchini, and butternut squash. Get the Recipe 08 of 20 Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce Courtesy of Tom Hopkins and The Family of Jacques Pépin This is the quintessential recipe for boeuf bourguignon — beef cooked in Burgundy red wine. Chef Jacques Pépin's mother served it at her restaurant, Le Pélican, where she made it with tougher cuts of meat. Jacques likes the flatiron — a long, narrow cut that's extremely lean but becomes tender and stays moist. Get the Recipe 09 of 20 Chicken Legs Coq au Vin © Con Poulos Coq au vin is typically made with a cut-up chicken; this version from chef Eric Ripert uses only drumsticks, so the meat cooks uniformly in the rich red wine sauce. Get the Recipe 10 of 20 Stuffed Pork Tenderloins with Bacon and Apple-Riesling Sauce Kirsten Strecker Chef Debra Whiting loves the fresh goat cheese from New York's Lively Run Dairy so much that she always works it into her dinner menu. Here, she mixes the cheese with apple, sausage, and greens, then stuffs it inside a bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. To balance the richness of the cheese, look for a wine with good acidity, like a dry or semi-dry Riesling. Get the Recipe 11 of 20 Red Snapper with Citrus and Fennel Salad © Frances Janisch Daniel Boulud broils his snapper right on dinner plates, topping the fish with citrus, diced jalapeño, and bell peppers. A simple radish-fennel salad goes alongside. An easier way is to broil the snapper on a baking sheet, then serve it with a salad that combines all the bright, crisp flavors of the original dish: fennel, radishes, bell pepper, citrus, and jalapeño. Get the Recipe 12 of 20 Lobster Thermidor Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell This classic lobster thermidor stuffs gently cooked lobster meat back in its shell with a wine-based sauce and a touch of cheese before it goes under the broiler. The natural sweetness of lobster still shines through the rich, but not heavy, cremini mushroom and dry sherry-laced cream sauce. A touch of cayenne adds warmth, not spice, that brightens the whole dish, while Parmesan cheese gets bubbly and brown under the broiler to finish each impressive stuffed lobster tail. Get the Recipe 13 of 20 Strip Steak Frites with Béarnaise Butter © Con Poulos This brilliant take on steak frites is a specialty of 2000 F&W Best New Chef Andrew Carmellini. He tops seared strip steaks with a butter infused with tarragon, shallots, and vinegar — key ingredients in béarnaise sauce — and serves them with tangy French fries made from vinegar-brined potatoes. Get the Recipe 14 of 20 Classic Duck Confit Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Dickey / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless Cooking duck confit may sound like something best left to restaurant chefs, but the process is simple, resulting in tender, delicious meat that melts in your mouth with each bite. It's simple — just season the duck legs, then cook them slowly over several hours and you'll have a meal ready to serve with a salad, pasta, or roast potatoes. Get the Recipe 15 of 20 Bouillabaisse Chloe Crespi Photography Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s bouillabaisse starts with a quick-cooking and deeply flavored seafood broth. Layering a base of aromatics with fresh snapper, scallops, shrimp, and a mix of Pernod and dry white wine creates a long-simmered flavor in under an hour. Get the Recipe 16 of 20 Toulouse-Style Cassoulet Tina Rupp Although there are innumerable versions of cassoulet, most are based on a stew of white beans and various forms of pork. The dish gets its name from the pot it's traditionally baked in, the cassole, which is often shaped like a wide inverted cone to ensure the greatest amount of luscious crust. This version includes duck confit and the French garlic sausages that are a specialty of Toulouse. Get the Recipe 17 of 20 Chicken and Mushroom Fricassee © Sneh Roy This lightened-up classic is fast to pull together — especially if you buy pre-sliced mushrooms. It has a rich, slow-cooked flavor. A splash of cream makes it extra decadent but still light. Get the Recipe 18 of 20 Lamb Stew with Root Vegetables © Ellie Miller Winemaker Jim Clendenen's version of this classic French stew, called navarin d'agneau, was inspired by vegetables from an extraordinary organic produce purveyor, The Chef's Garden, in his home state of Ohio. Get the Recipe 19 of 20 Ham Steaks in Madeira Sauce Greg DuPree Julia Child was a longtime Food & Wine contributor — and a champion of ham. For this recipe, she was inspired by jambon à la morvandelle, the signature dish of famous French chef Alexandre Dumaine. "Although supermarket ham will do, real country ham will give you a dish more like Dumaine's fabled creation," wrote Child. Get the Recipe 20 of 20 Chicken Dijon © Johnny Valiant Cookbook author Melissa Clark's favorite part of the chicken is the drumstick, because it's juicy and easy to brown. She likes using only drumsticks in this mustardy stew — thickened with tangy crème fraîche — so that all the meat cooks at the same rate. Get the Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit