Who cares if it’s a lackluster matchup this year? The Super Bowl exists to provide a 30-minute pop concert and plenty of hours in which to snack on cheesy, salty, saucy, crispy bites—and The Takeout happens to have an abundance of recipes that can be thrown together in advance of kickoff. Read on for a list of our best Super Bowl snacks.
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Broccoli and cheese go together like Super Bowl Sunday and multimillion-dollar advertising. And the cheddar in these tacos isn’t sprinkled on top of the fillings; instead, the entire shell is formed from crispy cheese. Play around with the spices, serve with salsa and pickled red onions, and just know that these don’t have to be mini tacos at all—go ahead and make them whatever size suits your game day lineup. Get the recipe for Broccoli Cheddar Mini Tacos here.
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Deep-frying anything in your own kitchen can be a royal pain. If you’re looking to cook wings at home, there’s a way to do it that will get you awfully close to the crispy, restaurant-quality experience, and that’s brining and baking on high heat. Brining chicken is like giving the meat an internal basting that there’s really no substitute for, resulting in a damn good wing whose flavor you can taste under the skin. No flying hot oil required. Get the recipe for Homemade Baked Buffalo Wings here.
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This Super Bowl finger food starts with a foolproof homemade focaccia, which is then air-fried slice by slice to create delectable, dippable spears. What comes out of the air fryer is crispy on the outside and just the right amount of soft on the inside to give you the full garlic bread experience. (If you’d like, you can double this recipe so you can use one focaccia to make fries and the other to make sandwiches.) Get the recipe for Garlic Bread Fries here.
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The trend of making vegetables taste like Buffalo chicken wings is one we wholeheartedly support. Who wouldn’t be intrigued? It’s hardly alchemy—it’s hot sauce and butter. Tossed with salt for 15 minutes, placed in a colander and drained, the cucumbers emerge crisp and perfectly salted. Drizzled with hot sauce and butter, sprinkled with blue cheese, you may demolish an entire plate of these cucumbers before you realize you no longer are craving chicken wings. Get the recipe for Cucumbers a la Buffalo Wings here.
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These wings are always gone in a flash. What’s the secret? It’s not 11 herbs and spices. In fact, the recipe calls for just six ingredients, chicken included. The only one some people wouldn’t have on hand is dry mustard, and you can use a squirt of regular mustard in a pinch. The appeal of these wings is the sauce: a sweet-tangy mix that’s garlicky, soy sauce rich, and brown sugar sweet. It checks all the salty-sweet-savory boxes, and because the wings are not spicy, you can eat as many of them as you please without fear of sweating. Get the recipe for Linda’s Hell Yeah Chicken Wings here.
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While there are a billion recipes for this Super Bowl staple online, we urge you to keep things simple; if you’re trying too hard to make buffalo chicken dip, you’re doing it wrong. Our recipe ditches the canned chicken and swaps in rotisserie chicken, which you can buy fully cooked at the grocery store, already perfectly juicy and seasoned. Shred it into your game day dip for a flavorful, indulgent upgrade on a classic. Get the recipe for Rotisserie Buffalo Chicken Dip here.
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There’s a whole lot we can say about this three-layer dip, but all you need to know for Super Bowl Sunday is just how easy it is to make: in a baking dish, spread one brick of cream cheese into an even layer, pour in a can of turkey chili, and sprinkle a bag of shredded cheddar on top. Microwave until the cheddar is melted. That’s it. Seriously. If it sounds basic, rest assured that this stuff is more than the sum of its parts. There’s a good chance you already have the ingredients you need, so why not give it a try this weekend? Get the recipe for 3-Ingredient Chili Cheese Dip here.
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Also known as Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings, this recipe comes to us from Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes, and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand. These wings are crispy, chewy umami bombs—lacquered in fried, caramelized garlic and nam prik pao, the spicy roasted chili paste—and they’ve been a sensation in Portland, Oregon for years. They’re sticky and ultra-crisp, thanks to a light dredge of rice and tempura flours and shellacked in what’s basically a fish sauce caramel. If you’re comfortable frying in your kitchen, this is the most worthy use of that frying oil. Get the recipe for Pok Pok Wings here.
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You and your fellow Super Bowl viewers will scarf up these three-ingredient snacks quicker than you can come up with a better name for them. The recipe is just peanut butter, melted butterscotch chips, and crushed Raisin Bran, mixed thoroughly and chilled in a baking dish to create a 9x13 slab of deliciousness that you then hack into rough squares for the entire household to enjoy. Fair warning: they’re not a pretty, picturesque dessert. But that’s okay, because they’ll be gone before anyone remembers to take a photo. Get the recipe for Peanut Butter Bran Thingies here.
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If you’re waffling on which sweets to add to your sweet-and-savory Super Bowl spread, why not add them all in one go? This recipe combines some of the best game day flavors to create one mega-dessert of untold power, a grown-up candy bar somewhere between a Twix and a Take 5 bar. If you’re not entertaining the typical crowd this year, you can freeze your leftovers as individual pieces to thaw and enjoy later. And if you keep them well-hidden in your freezer, you won’t even have to share. Get the recipe for Beer & Pretzel Caramel Cookie Bars here.
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Are you looking to add fancy flair to your Super Bowl offerings? Look no further than a classic Midwestern cheese ball, which only requires a handful of readily available ingredients yet somehow manages to exude sophistication nonetheless. Three kinds of cheese, a few spices, and nuts—that’s all there is to it, and those are probably the elements you had planned on including in your Sunday spread anyway. Bring them all together for the most dynamic snack on the table. Get the recipe for a Classic Cheese Ball here.
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Chili and the Super Bowl are a match made in whatever the NFL equivalent of Heaven is. (New England?) It’s a perfectly inviting wintry dish that can lure guests to your Super Bowl party or soothe the sting of your team’s crushing defeat. This chili recipe takes things in a new and exciting direction: ground venison replaces ground beef, cold brew coffee brings a rich, chocolatey mole note to the pot, and homemade from-scratch chili paste guarantees a one-of-a-kind flavor profile. Get the recipe for Venison Mole Coffee Chili here.
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