10 Best Julia Child Recipes (2024)

With these Julia Child recipes, you’ll almost feel like you’ve been to culinary school!

I’ve recognized Julia Child as a household name ever since I was young, but it wasn’t until I saw the film, Julie and Julia, that I truly gained an appreciation for just how much of an icon she was.

10 Best Julia Child Recipes (1)

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If you aren’t familiar with her story, Julia Child was an American woman who developed a passion for food and wound up graduating from the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris.

She then studied with master chefs, and through her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she brought the techniques of French cooking into the kitchens of millions of Americans.

She also went on to star in a cooking show, The French Chef, in which she connected with many American housewives for being real and authentic.

Julia’s tried-and-true recipes have been celebrated for decades, and they’re still being made in plenty of homes today.

I’ve rounded up some of my all-time favorite Julia Child recipes, so get ready to venture into the world of French cooking with the master herself!

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1. Julia Child’s French Onion Soup

This is perhaps one of Julia’s most highly sought-after recipes.

The hearty beef and onion broth is topped with toasted bread and melted cheese for a soup that’s so delicious, it’ll almost make you weep.

Serve this one with extra French bread on the side for dipping so you can soak up all the onion goodness.

2. Quiche Lorraine

I’m sure you’ve heard of quiche Lorraine before, right? That’s all thanks to Julia Child, as her recipe is the one that made it so popular.

Made with bacon, onion, eggs, cream, three types of cheese, and spices, this classic is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or even dinner.

To save yourself a bit of time, use a store-bought pie crust. The filling is so decadent, nobody will notice if you don’t make it from scratch.

3. Beef Bourguignon

It really doesn’t get much more decadent than beef bourguignon. It’s basically beef that’s slow-simmered in a rich, red wine gravy, and it’s to die for.

While you can cut corners and make this in a slower cooker or Instant Pot, if you want to do it the Julia Child way, it’s a long, slow process on the stovetop that will take you all day.

However, the effort is more than worth it for how amazing the resulting stew is. Prepare to be incredibly impressed with yourself after making this recipe.

4. French Crepes

Treat yourself this weekend and turn your kitchen into a Parisian cafe with this recipe for French crepes.

Learning to perfect crepes can take a bit of patience, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll whip these up all the time.

You can fill them with whatever you like, whether it be chocolate, fruit, or different kinds of cheese.

Crepes are so versatile, plus, they’re light and wonderful.

5. Julia Child’s Coq au Vin

This recipe may look intimidating, but it’s actually one of Julia’s easier ones!

Coq au vin is basically just what it sounds like — chicken and wine. Well, it’s slow-cooked chicken and vegetables in a wine sauce, that is.

Using the slow cooker for this dish won’t take away from the experience, so I highly suggest it. Plus, your house will smell amazing as it cooks all day.

6. Potato Leek Soup

This rich, velvety soup is a great vegetarian option, though it does call for chicken stock and a touch of cream.

If you want to make it vegan, use vegetable stock instead and omit the cream or use a plant-based cream product.

If you want to get the best texture for this soup, you’ll need a food mill, as it results in a better consistency than a blender or food processor.

7. Julia Child’s Roast Chicken

This is the recipe to bring out when you’re having guests and truly want to impress them.

Roast chicken may be a simple dish, but it’s a classic that no one can resist.

It really isn’t all that difficult, though you’ll want to follow Julia’s recipe exactly, including basting the bird and rotating it so that the skin turns out nice and golden.

Served with a baguette, roasted vegetables, and a side salad, this is a winning meal that you can’t go wrong with.

8. Dauphinoise Potatoes

Stop reading this post right now and bookmark the recipe for these potatoes. They’re seriously the side dish of all side dishes.

They’re similar to scalloped potatoes but so much creamier.

They have layers of thinly-sliced potatoes, cream, butter, cheese, and then there’s thyme for seasoning. I swear, each bite of these babies is better than the last.

When these come out of the oven bubbling, you’ll barely get them to the table before people are asking for seconds.

9. Julia Child’s Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Oh my goodness. I served this to some friends recently when they came over for dinner, and everyone at the table was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over how incredible this dish is!

The mushrooms, chicken, and cream come together and create the most irresistible sauce.

I picked up a crusty French bread to go along with this meal, and we were all sopping up the sauce to clean our plates when dinner was over.

And not surprisingly, everyone at the party asked me for the recipe, and they were over-the-top delighted to hear it was from Julia Child!

10. Julia Child’s Madeleines

No Julia Child meal is complete without her French Madeleines.

These light cookies are flavored with lemon zest and vanilla extract, so they’re a delicious ending to whatever you’re serving.

Biting into one of these cookies is reminiscent of being in a French bakery, especially with their cute shell shape.

You’ll want to buy molds for these if you want them to come out truly authentic, but it’s worth the small expense. These silicone Madeleine molds are just $8.99 on Amazon.

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10 Best Julia Child Recipe Collection

With these Julia Child recipes, you’ll almost feel like you’ve been to culinary school! From French onion soup to coq au vin, master the art of French cooking with the legend herself.

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10 Best Julia Child Recipes (2024)

FAQs

10 Best Julia Child Recipes? ›

Julia Child's Favorite Roast Chicken

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.

What was Julia Child's favorite food? ›

Julia Child's Favorite Roast Chicken

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.

What is Julia Child's most famous? ›

Boeuf Bourguignon

This hearty beef stew from the pages of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is, hands down, Child's most infamous dish.

What was the meal that changed Julia Child's life? ›

For their first meal in France, Paul ordered oysters, sole meunière and a green salad. Child devoured the meal, calling it “perfection.” Alex Prud'homme, Child's grandnephew and cowriter of her memoir, “My Life in France,” opened the book with this now famous scene.

What is Julia Child's most famous dish? ›

Child's Boeuf Bourguignon recipe was featured in one of the earliest episodes of The French Chef and has become a classic among the many Child enthusiasts at GBH. In fact, GBH News host Henry Santoro concludes there's no better recipe for the dish.

What was Julia Child's favorite soup? ›

Soup was one of Julia Child's favorite things to eat, and reportedly, her absolute favorite was vichyssoise. Leek and potato soup, known as potage parmentier in French, is a classic base soup recipe. What sets vichyssoise apart is the addition of cream—and the fact that it is traditionally served chilled.

What restaurants did Julia Child own? ›

Julia Child was part of the group that created COPIA, which had a restaurant named Julia's Kitchen. So although she didn't have her own restaurant in the traditional sense, she had that.

What is Julia Child's accent? ›

According to Distractify, while Child was raised for the most part in California, her voice may have been inspired by Mid-Atlantic accents while attending Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

How rich was Julia Child? ›

What was Julia Child's net worth before her death in 2004? Child was worth $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

What was Julia Child's first meal? ›

She was in her late 30s and didn't know how to cook — at least not yet. Child and her husband, Paul, stopped for lunch at Restaurant La Couronne (“The Crown”) in Rouen, the capital of the northern region of Normandy. For their first meal in France, Paul ordered oysters, sole meunière and a green salad.

What is Julia Child's famous cake? ›

The Queen of Sheba Chocolate Cake (” Reine de Saba” in French) has been made famous in North America by cooking instructor Julia Child. It is said to have been the first French cake she ate when she arrived in France.

Did Julia Child use a lot of butter? ›

3. She used an exorbitant amount of butter — even later in life. According to PBS, Child used a whopping 753 pounds of butter during the time she filmed "Baking with Julia." That program aired for just four seasons, from 1996 through 1999, so that's a pretty impressive amount of dairy.

What was Julia Child's last meal before she died? ›

Child's last meal before she passed away was homemade French onion soup. Just two days before her 92nd birthday in 2004, Julia Child died of kidney failure at her assisted-living home in Montecito, California.

Did Julia Child have a stroke? ›

Ten years later, in 2004, Julia Child died two days short of her 92nd birthday. In the last year of her life she suffered knee surgeries, kidney failure, and a stroke.

Was Julia Child a cook or a chef? ›

Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality.

What did Julia Child do before she cooked? ›

Julia Child is probably best known for bringing French cuisine into America's mainstream. But, few know that she had a dynamic career as an intelligence officer before she became a cooking icon.

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