The best Hanukkah recipes are decadent. It’s a holiday all about celebrating the miracle of oil, after all.
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Hanukkah is all about surviving against the odds, and what better way to celebrate that than to feast on latkes with sour cream and applesauce, rich chopped liver, your grandmother’s famous brisket, and fluffy, sweet, jelly-filled donuts?
What is Hanukkah all about anyway?
Hanukkah is also called The festival of Lights. It’s when Jews celebrate the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees triumphed over a tyrant king who forced them to worship Greek gods.
The Maccabees, a small but mighty rebel army, came along to defeat the king and regain religious freedom for the Jews.
When the Jews returned to the temple to rebuild it, there was only enough lamp oil to burn for one day. But by a miracle, that oil burned for 8 days, until they could replenish their oil supply.
That’s why we celebrate Hanukkah by lighting candles for 8 nights. Because the oil was the star of the miracle, we also celebrate it by eating foods fried in oil.
What are traditional Hanukkah foods?
Remember, we’re celebrating the heck out of that oil, so a Hanukkah meal doesn’t shy away from including all the fried foods.
The most common Hanukkah recipes are latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (Israeli jelly donuts).
But you can’t make a meal of just potato pancakes and donuts (okay, well, of course you CAN, but should you?). So most Hanukkah menus also include things like brisket, salad, challah, roasted vegetables, and other not-fried foods.
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More Jewish holiday recipes you’ll love
Honey Cake
Honey Cookies
Lemon Coconut Macaroons
Jewish Beef Brisket
Meat-Filled Borekas or Pastelicos
Passover Orange Sponge Cake
Passover Potato, Tomato, and Olive Stew
Hamentashen
Kreplach with Beef Filling
Sufganiyot or Jelly Donuts for Hanukkah
Potato Latkes for Hanukkah
Classic Chopped Liver
Vegetarian Chopped Liver
Check out all of my Jewish Recipes!
Potato Latkes
Robin Donovan
These classic latkes are easy to make for a crowd. You can jazz up the recipe by adding thinly sliced scallions or substituting sweet potatoes, parsnips, or apples for some (or all) of the potatoes. This recipe serves about 4 people and is easily doubled or tripled.
2poundslarge thin-skinned potatoeslike Yukon gold or peeled russet potatoes
1onion
4large eggs
1tablespoonflour
1teaspoonbaking powder
1 ½teaspoonskosher salt
1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
vegetable oilfor frying
Applesauce or sour creamfor serving
Instructions
Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan and just cover with cold water. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Once the water boils, cook for 6 to 7 minutes (less if the potatoes are small) until the potatoes are just barely tender but not soft.
Drain the potatoes, cover with cold water. Drain again, cover with cold water again and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain the potatoes and let them sit in a colander until ready to proceed with the recipe (the longer the better).
Using the large holes on a box grater, grate the potatoes (you can leave the skins on, discarding any pieces that come off in large sheets). Grate the onion on the same holes.
In a large bowl, combine the grated potatoes and onion with the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper.
Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Form the potato mixture into patties about ¾ inch thick and 3 inches across and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet (use additional baking sheets if necessary). Chill the patties for at least 30 minutes, or until ready to cook, as long as 24 hours. If chilling for more than 30 minutes, cover with plastic wrap.
Heat about 2 inches of oil in a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. When the oil is very hot, add several of the patties, being careful not to crowd the pan. Cook until browned on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes, flip and then cook until browned on the second side, 2 to 3 minutes more.
Transfer the cooked patties to a paper towel-lined platter and serve immediately. If you’re cooking a large amount, place the cooked patties on a baking sheet and keep them warm in a 250ºF oven.
Notes
You can make a gluten-free version by substituting potato starch or gluten-free brown rice flour for the flour.
Fried foods, like potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts, are prepared and eaten throughout the holiday to celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah: oil that kept the menorah (an ancient lamp) lit for 8 days instead of the 1 day it was supposed to last.
From crispy latkes to tangy brisket to jammy sufganiyot. From shallow-fried potato latkes to deep-fried jelly doughnuts, traditional Hanukkah foods hinge on oil. Typically falling in December, the Jewish holiday, also called the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.
To celebrate this miracle, Jewish people eat a number of foods fried in oil, the most well-known of which are potato latkes and jelly donuts called sufganiyot.
In America, Hanukkah food typically refers to two things: latkes, Eastern European fried potato pancakes, and sufganiyot, jelly-filled doughnuts that are favored in Israel and increasingly popular here.
It is customary for women not to work for at least the first half-hour of the candles' burning, and some have the custom not to work for the entire time of burning. It is also forbidden to fast or to eulogize during Hanukkah.
"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.
"Among other rules, eating certain animals, primarily pigs and shellfish, is forbidden; meat must be ritually and humanely slaughtered; and dairy and meat aren't to be eaten at the same meal." Fish and plant foods are "neutral" (parve) and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.
Red wines help bring out the rich juices in the meat and cut through some of the fat. Wine is also a very popular drink used by the Jewish people to commemorate occasions. Jason explains, “We celebrate Hannukah and other holidays with alcohol, particularly wine, because it is a symbol of joy and happiness.
In most of the world, dreidels have four Hebrew letters — nun, gimmel, hay, and shin — that stand for the phrase: Nes gadol haya sham (“a great miracle happened there”). That refers, of course, to the miracle of the holiday.
Well, as with many cultures and religions, traditions keep stories alive and bring families together. Eating fried food like latkes and sufganiyot is a tradition that reminds us of the miracle of the oil, but to me, the best part about this tradition is that it brings my family together year after year.
The most traditional gift for Hanukkah is gelt, which is Yiddish for “money” — given either in the form of real money or wrapped chocolate coins. These can be used to play the popular Hanukkah game, dreidel.
They found a jug of oil that only contained enough fuel to keep the Temple's lamps lit for one day. However, the oil lasted for eight whole days! This miracle is the reason we eat foods fried in oil to celebrate Hanukkah and remember the Maccabees.
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