Recipes You Need For Super Bowl 2023

The Super Bowl, as the Department of Agriculture informs us, is our nation's No. 2 food holiday, second only to Thanksgiving as an occasion for mass consumption. Unlike Turkey Day, however, there's no set menu, but there are certain general expectations and parameters. In our opinion, the perfect Super Bowl food spread includes a variety of foods ranging from the cheesy to the greasy to the crunchy, with perhaps a few sweet treats in the mix to break things up a bit.

With most of these recipes, we're also taking into account one very important factor: convenience. We don't want anything too fussy, since who likes being stuck in the kitchen making last-minute tweaks while there's a party going on? We also feel pretty strongly that Super Bowl parties are no place for trendy charcuterie boards (unless they come in the form of Super Bowl snack stadiums), and if anyone insists on seeds and nuts and similar healthy fare, let them bring their own. Apart from a few celery sticks to accompany the chicken wings (these are non-negotiable), surely we can all agree to forget the vegetables and stick to the fun stuff for just one day.

Let's kick off with something that's sure to be a fan favorite: nachos! This recipe is crunchy, cheesy, and beefy, even a little bit spicy – or a lot, if you add more jalapenos and/or hot sauce to boost the heat level. The best thing about it, though, is that it comes together pretty quickly, particularly if you use pre-chopped vegetables. Game day tip: assemble several pans of nachos ahead of time, then simply rotate them in and out of the oven as the party progresses.

Recipe: Sheet Pan Nachos

This quick-melt queso is made with unsliced American cheese, which is a thing we didn't even know existed. If you can't find it where you shop, though, Velveeta is pretty much the same thing. And with all of the green chilis, jalapenos, garlic, and other southwestern flavors, who's going to notice a minor ingredient swap? You could also go in a different direction by using a non-processed cheese such as cheddar. Sure, in this case, your queso will be a lot lumpier, but it will still make for a delicious chip dip, and that's all we're really going for, here. Game day is one time when food definitely needs to be tasty, but no one really cares if it's pretty.

Recipe: Easy Homemade Queso

What better sandwich could there be for a Super Bowl spread than one made on a football-shaped roll? Such is the case with these Mexican-style tortas as long as you build them on bolillo rolls. While tortas come in many types, the primary fillings in this sandwich recipe consist of breaded, fried steaks and canned refried beans. Add some sliced avocados, tomatoes, lettuce, a sprinkling of chopped cilantro, and a generous splash of hot sauce, and you'll have a sandwich that can fill you up when the action is too intense to look away from the TV screen.

Recipe: Tortas

If there's one state that's really wild about football, it would have to be Wisconsin. Here the NFL team isn't even located in a major metropolitan area, but instead has people making a long trek up to the frozen north to sit outdoors in sub-Arctic temperatures while wearing styrofoam cheese wedges on their heads. Why do they do it, is it all for the love of the Packers? Well, we feel that a love of tailgating may also play into things, particularly when you consider that the highlight of any such party is always brats steamed in beer. With this recipe, you can skip the hypothermia and unfortunate headgear and instead enjoy the best part of a Badger State tailgate right in your living room. It's good stuff, you betcha.

Recipe: Wisconsin-Style Bratwurst

You cannot have a Super Bowl party without chicken wings. There's probably a law on the books somewhere, and even vegans need to file as conscientious objectors in order to get out of drummette duty. Why not just skip the red tape and whip up some spicy red sauce, instead? Made with such ingredients as Tabasco sauce, apple cider vinegar, and Frank's Redhot sauce (as well as brown sugar and spices), it's simple but effective. Pour it over these crispy baked wings, serve it up with a side of celery and blue cheese, and you've fulfilled your obligation as a Super Bowl party host by making your guests very happy. Until you run out, that is, so you should probably make up a few batches if you don't want everyone to fly the coop for the nearest sports bar by halftime.

Recipe: Simple Buffalo Wings

As we look over this list, it seems we've covered the all-important wing group, along with the nacho, chip dip, sandwich, and meat group. Is there anything we're still missing on the great football food pyramid? Why yes, the popper group! Consider the situation remedied with this classic recipe for cream cheese-and-bacon-stuffed breaded jalapeños. In keeping with our preference for easier, less-messy recipes, these poppers are baked instead of deep-fried. This way, you can stuff and bread a few batches ahead of time and heat them up as needed.

Recipe: Jalapeño Poppers

What ingredients go into a great game day dip? Cheese, meat, and a little bit of heat. This recipe combines them all in a version of Ro-Tel dip that keeps the canned tomatoes and Velveeta but swaps out the ground beef for Mexican-style chorizo. While the dip isn't super-spicy as given, you can crank up the Scoville units if you choose the extra-hot kind of Ro-Tel or add some chopped fresh jalapeños to the chorizo as it cooks.

Recipe: Meaty Rotel Queso Dip

My, how time flies. Has it really been LVII years since the first Super Bowl, and what even is that in normal numbers, anyway? To save you the trouble of racking your brains (or looking it up, which is what we did), it's 57, so yeah, the Big Game's been going on a long, long time. In honor of its longevity, we present a typical midcentury recipe: cocktail sausages cooked in barbecue sauce. While many retro recipes call for nothing more than bite-sized sausages, a bottle of sauce, and a jar of grape jelly, we're skipping the jelly and adding ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and spices instead. The best thing about these sausages is that you can keep them warm in a crock pot. As long as you have the space to plug in the pot in the living room, people can serve themselves without having to take their eyes off the game for more than a few seconds.

Recipe: Easy Slow Cooked Little Smokies

Assuming you do have a table and an outlet set up that will allow for a slow cooker in the living room, den, rec room, or wherever you hang your big-screen TV, chili is another great game day choice. This recipe is a particularly quick and easy one because, apart from browning some ground meat and sauteing an onion, all you'll need to do is open a few cans of beans and tomatoes. Stir these ingredients together, sprinkle in some chili powder, and let everything simmer. While you might need to start your chili off on the stove to cook the meat and onions, you can always transfer it to a slow cooker after this point. Feel free to make this chili in the morning, too, since the longer it sits and stews, the better it will taste.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Chili

While burgers might seem like a great choice for football food, in actual fact, they're no such thing unless it's a pre-game tailgate and you're cooking up a batch on your portable parking lot grill or else paying $15+ for an overpriced burger inside the stadium. There is a way to make burgers for a crowd and still have time to watch the game, though, and that's by using this sheet-pan slider recipe. Once the pan comes out of the oven, the mini-burgers will be good to go, complete with baked-on condiments and buns.

Recipe: Oven Baked Hamburger Sliders

Okay, we admit, we said that wings are de rigueur for Super Bowl celebrations, but there's a serious downside in that this once-underrated chicken part now seems to be priced like it's the galline equivalent of wagyu beef. Okay, maybe not that high, but wings are still pretty spendy. If you're trying to feed a crowd and save a few bucks, we grant permission to opt for this easy Buffalo chicken dip, instead. Here cooked chicken from any part of the bird (hello, cheap leg quarters!) is stretched out with cream cheese and mayonnaise. The resulting dip can be used to dunk crackers, chips, or even celery sticks for the all-around Buffalo wing experience.

Recipe: Easy Buffalo Chicken Dip

For the most part, we've avoided including any drink recipes on this list for the simple reason that the only acceptable Super Bowl beverages are (a) any soft drinks produced by major advertisers or halftime sponsors or (b) beer. The michelada, however, isn't really a cocktail per se, but more of a dressed-up beer, so it makes the cut. Start with one brew of your choice – it doesn't have to be Mexican, but it should be light in color and not too fancy, so no IPAs, farmhouse ales, saisons, or what have you. In fact, a typical American macrobrew will do quite nicely. Add some tomato juice, hot sauce, and a few more seasonings, give it a good squirt of lime, and raise a glass to whatever epic play you just missed while you were futzing with your drink. (On second thought, maybe just stick to plain old beer for game-watching, but do try these tasty micheladas for your before-or-after-party.)

Recipe: Best Michelada

While beer can quench your thirst, it can also be put to use in the kitchen as an important ingredient in recipes such as this one for beer cheese sauce. As the name indicates, this is a sauce made out of beer and cheese, along with milk, flour, butter, and various seasonings. It may be sauce, but it's thick enough to serve as a dip, as well. For game day, we're thinking it could work well with soft pretzels and sausage chunks on toothpicks as a kind of football fondue.

Recipe: Easy Beer Cheese Sauce

If you really want to get in touch with your inner Martha Stewart, you could even go all-out and make your own soft pretzels for the Super Bowl rather than using the store-bought kind. Yes, it's a pretty time-consuming process, but the game doesn't start until nighttime. You can make these in the morning – or even the day before, really – and they'll still be plenty fresh by game time, especially if you're planning to pair them with a dip such as the beer cheese sauce above.

Recipe: Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites

Dill pickles are made out of cucumbers, and cucumbers are a vegetable (more or less). They are also green. Therefore, dill pickles are green vegetables, which makes them healthy even when they are deep-fried. Okay, so maybe a nutritionist would not agree, and on National Everybody Eat Healthy Day, we'll let them have their way and we'll eat our pickles raw. Super Bowl Sunday is pretty much the opposite of that day, though, so for this occasion, we'll not only fry them but dip them in something creamy and delicious, as well.

Recipe: Deep Fried Dill Pickles

For some wing fans, the hotter, the better. If you or any of your game day guests are among this number, we present for your delectation these chicken wings brined in Tabasco, dipped in cayenne-spiked batter, deep-fried, and seasoned with more Tabasco and cayenne. Yes, these wings are pretty darn spicy, but they're also quite tasty. Yes, the recipe is a bit labor-intensive what with all the battering and frying, but it's perfectly permissible to fry the wings in advance and then warm them up in the oven for a few minutes before you serve them.

Recipe: Hot Wings

Will the Eagles be in the Super Bowl this year? At the time this goes to press (or pixel, as the case may be), we haven't a clue since the playoffs are just beginning. Whether or not they go all the way, though, it's worth honoring their hometown's most famous food just because it's delicious. Cheesesteak has both cheese and steak, so what's not to love? While this recipe calls for sliced provolone, you could also do the sandwiches "wit Wiz" in true Philly style.

Recipe: Easy Philly Cheesesteak

Oh, 7-layer dip, what mysteries lurk under your lettuce-laden exterior? While the ingredients vary from recipe to recipe, here the layers, from bottom to top, consist of refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheese, lettuce, and olives. Not an olive fan? Swap these out for sliced, pickled jalapeños instead. While ordinarily dips are accompanied by a bowl (or bag) of chips for direct dipping, in this case, we'd suggest serving this heavy dip with a spoon, instead. That way people can transfer smaller scoops directly to their plates and then dip their chips without blocking anyone else's access to the pan.

Recipe: 7-Layer Dip

If you're hosting a rather large watch party for the big game, your best bet is probably going to be family-sized bags of chips and lots of them. Should you be observing the occasion with just one or two friends, though, then you might want to show off your culinary chops by making your own tortilla chips. It's not difficult at all unless you insist on making your own tortillas, in which case you're on your own there. Our recipe starts with a bag of the store-bought kind, then cuts them in wedges, coats them in oil and salt, and bakes them until they're crispy. Unlike many brands of pre-made chips, the homemade kind is nice and sturdy so they should be able to hold up to even the heartiest of dips.

Recipe: Homemade Tortilla Chips

What could be a better dessert for a Super Bowl spread than chocolate cupcakes topped with bacon? That's two of your basic food groups right there. You also won't need to spend all day in the kitchen making them, as the cake mix comes from a box and the frosting from a can. There's no need to fry the bacon, either, as here it's baked in the oven with a brown sugar topping. We do have one tip to offer, though: You might want to cook some extra bacon just to make sure you've got enough left for the cupcakes.

Recipe: Easy Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

Once upon a time, in a church basement far, far away (but most likely in the Midwest), someone got the idea to pour barbecue sauce into a crockpot and add some meatballs. That same super-easy dish has been appearing at ecclesiastical potlucks ever since, but it also translates to secular occasions such as football watching, as well. The best thing about this slow-simmered dish is that you can start it early in the afternoon, then just keep it warm all through the game (or until the meatballs run out). Oh, and if you don't want to go through the bother of making meatballs from scratch, you can simply skip that step and use the frozen kind, instead.

Recipe: Crockpot BBQ Meatballs

Mini pretzel dogs might seem like something you'd snack on as you stroll through the mall (since what's the point in even going to one if you're not going to stop at Auntie Anne's?), but these bite-sized bits make for perfect football food, as well. After all, they combine soft pretzels and hot dogs, both of which are sports stadium staples. As this recipe is made with from-scratch pretzel dough, it takes a fair amount of time, but you can always go through all but the last step early in the day and save the actual baking for when your guests arrive.

Recipe: Mini Pretzel Dogs

You can't have a Super Bowl party without a few pans of nachos, but it's perfectly permissible to vary the ingredients just a bit. We've already had a recipe for nachos with the standard ground beef topping, but here we're using chicken, instead, plus some black beans for extra protein. Of course there's plenty of shredded cheddar, as well, lending its melted cheesy goodness. You can also opt for any or all of the typical toppings, these being sour cream, jalapeños, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro. Did we forget anything? No matter; you can dress your chicken nachos any way you like.

Recipe: Sheet Pan Chicken Nachos Recipe

Chili is a perfect football food no matter how you make it, but here's a way to improve upon perfection: Swap out the ground beef for a package of ground bison, instead! This dish will be especially appropriate if the Buffalo Bills are playing since bison is another name for the American buffalo. Even if the Bills don't survive the playoffs, though, the game meat that shares their name makes for an extra-tasty chili. This recipe is only very mildly spicy, with what little heat it has coming from canned green chiles, but that's actually just what you want here so you can better appreciate the flavor of the bison.

Recipe: Crock Pot Bison Chili

If there's one restaurant that probably does the bulk of its business on Super Bowl Sunday, it would have to be B-Dubs. After all, wings are pretty much synonymous with this day in the same way that ham is with Easter and candy canes with Christmas. If you're craving BWW's best but don't want to pay their high prices, our copycat recipe makes for something pretty darn close.

As these wings are fried, not baked, you'll need to cook them well in advance of kickoff, but even if you'd ordered takeout wings, they'd probably have cooled off a bit by the time you set them out on a platter. Luckily Buffalo wings taste great no matter the temperature. Plus you can always heat them up in the oven for a few minutes if you have your heart set on warm ones.

Recipe: Copycat Buffalo Wild Wings

The French dip is a sandwich that generally does not work well as a TV snack. The "dip" part, after all, refers to meat juices that can make even the freshest of bread rolls soggy in no time flat. In this case, though, we'd suggest leaving the meat and the juices in the slow cooker and having the rolls on the side. That way, your guests can serve themselves, and it's on them if they don't finish the sandwich before the bread gets mushy. That probably won't be a problem, though, since this tasty sandwich is likely to be gobbled down pretty quickly.

Recipe: Slow Cooker French Dip

The original sliders may have been greasy burgers known for "sliding" right down your throat, but today the term is applied to just about any sandwich on a miniature-sized bun. Here we're going with a classic ham and cheese combo, plus mustard and chopped dill pickles. While the cheese used in this recipe is Swiss, cheddar would work just as well, or you could make a few batches of each kind. The sandwiches are something you can easily assemble ahead of time, then heat up on an as-needed basis.

Recipe: Ham And Cheese Sliders

Buffalo wings may be the official Super Bowl food, but if you've invited your hipster foodie friends over to watch the Super Bowl, they may not be impressed by anything so mainstream. In that case, you can break out the big guns by frying up a batch of Korean-style chicken wings, instead. This recipe doesn't call for anything too difficult to come by as the sauce is made with All-American kitchen staples like ketchup, brown sugar, and soy sauce. The only specifically Korean ingredient is gochujang, but this seasoning is becoming so common these days that there's a good chance you'll find it at your local supermarket.

Recipe: Easy Korean Fried Chicken

As you're feasting on game day standards like chicken wings, nachos, and chili, it's nice to take a little break every now and then and have something from yet another important food group. No, we're not talking about kale and quinoa, we mean dessert! A big fat soft sugar cookie always goes down well, especially the kind with a thick layer of frosting. What's more, the frosting can even be dyed to match the colors of whatever team you're rooting for. If those team colors don't work well in pastel versions (black and red come to mind), you can opt for sprinkles or colored sugar, instead.

Recipe: Easy Frosted Sugar Cookies

The problem with Super Bowl Sunday as a holiday is that officially it has no such recognition. For most of us, what this means is, it's back to work or school the next day, and many will have church in the morning as well. This doesn't leave all day for experimenting with elaborate recipes, so anything that has the magic words "3-ingredient" in the name is already on the right track. If the rest of the name consists of the even more magical phrase "jalapeño poppers," then you have a definite win on your hands. The three ingredients in this particular recipe are jalapeños, sausages, and cream cheese, so there's no need to mess with breading, either. Assemble these poppers in advance, then bake or air-fry them whenever they're needed.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Jalapeño Poppers

While beer goes well with chili, it's even better in the chili – plus, as much of the alcohol cooks out, it's something you can serve to designated drivers and other non-drinkers. This chili is made with ground beef and sausage meat as well as beans, tomatoes, and seasonings. One interesting thing about this recipe is, while the chili isn't Cincinnati-style per se, the spices do include cinnamon. As for the beer, you can use whatever you've got on hand, unless it's something very bitter like an IPA or sour like a gose as these might overwhelm the other flavors in the chili.

Recipe: Best Beer Chili

If you're going to have Buffalo wings, you can't forget the blue cheese dip! Unlike ranch dressing, blue cheese has a pungent piquancy that nicely offsets the spice and vinegar in the Buffalo sauce. This thick dip is made from blue cheese crumbles, sour cream, and mayonnaise and has the perfect consistency for wing-dunking, although it also goes well with celery sticks and the thicker, sturdier kind of potato chips (preferably ones with ridges).

Recipe: Homemade Blue Cheese Dip

If you do find yourself at a loose end before your Super Bowl party begins, you may want to try a sure-to-impress project like making your own potato chips. The great thing about potato chips is, they're meant to be eaten cold, so you can bake these chips long before you need them. The downside, though, is that even though homemade potato chips are quite easy to make, it would require quite a bit of effort to get a sufficient amount to feed a crowd. These chips, therefore, are recommended for small, select Super Bowl gatherings only, or else you can make up a few batches as a special treat to be served with a special dip (perhaps the homemade blue cheese one above) and then replaced with the standard bagged kind as soon as they run out.

Recipe: Homemade Potato Chips

While many cooks insist on using only bone-in short ribs, these may not be the best option for serving at a party where everyone's attention is going to be on the TV instead of their plates. You're going to wind up with a bunch of leftover bones, not all of which are guaranteed to find their way to the trash can. With a crockpot full of boneless ribs braised in beer, though, guests can serve themselves and clean their plates, too, although it'll help if you put out some bread or rolls to soak up the sauce. We do have one caveat for any carnivores out there: This recipe does call for quite a few vegetables, making it more of a hearty stew than an all-meat dish, but the ribs are still the star of the show.

Recipe: Beer-Braised Boneless Short Ribs

Here's an idea for a Super Bowl spread: How about setting out an entire wing buffet, ranging from mild to extra-incendiary? These honey garlic wings would do nicely for the tamer end of the spectrum. The flavor is vaguely Asian-inspired, as the sauce includes both soy sauce and sesame oil, but the primary notes are sweet and garlicky. The best part of these wings as a party food is that they are baked instead of fried. This means you can let the oven do its thing and get back to the game until the timer goes "ding" or "buzz" or "honk" or whatever appliances are saying these days.

Recipe: Honey Garlic Chicken Wings

Chili dogs are another food that goes great with sporting events, but they're not something you want to assemble in advance since chili + buns = soggy mess if left to sit for any length of time. What you can do, however, is to set out a platter of cooked hot dogs, buns, shredded cheese, chopped onions, and maybe some sliced, pickled jalapenos along with a crockpot of this beanless chili. That way, your guests can put together their own custom-tailored chili dogs whenever they wish.

Recipe: Quick & Easy Hot Dog Chili

Sandwiches are one of the less messy types of hand-held food, which stands to reason if there's any truth to the whole origin story about the Earl of Sandwich wanting something to snack on while playing cards. We're not quite sure what type of sandwich the eponymous Earl was alleged to have noshed, but it may well have been roast beef. Here we're pairing this classic sandwich filling with provolone and then heating it until the cheese is melty but not messy. There shouldn't be any problem if you want to put together these sandwiches in advance, then hold off on baking them until your guests arrive.

Recipe: Easy Hot Roast Beef Sandwich Recipe

For something a little bit different from standard game day fare, but still falling well within the guidelines of acceptably tasty savory appetizers, how about pot stickers? Just about everyone loves Asian-style dumplings, after all. These pot stickers do require a little bit of last-minute cooking consisting of a quick pan-fry followed by a few minutes of steaming, but this could easily be done shortly before the Super Bowl starts or even during the halftime show, as long as you've assembled them in advance.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Pot Stickers

The New Orleans Saints are not in the Super Bowl this year as they didn't even make the playoffs, nor is the big game being held in the Big Easy. Still, it is taking place during Carnival season, plus when it comes to muffuletta sandwiches, we're always ready to laissez les bons temps rouler (let the good times roll). The convenient thing about these sandwiches, which are basically Italian subs topped with an olive dressing, is that they're assembled one loaf at a time so each sandwich makes multiple servings. They're also eaten cold, so you can make them whenever it's convenient and just leave off the olive topping until the last minute or let people add it themselves (or not, since not everyone likes olives).

Recipe: Easy Muffuletta Sandwiches

If there's one problem with chicken wings as a game-day food, it's that you can finish each one off in about two bites. This means that in order to feed a hungry crowd, you'll likely have to make a bunch of them, plus you'll have tiny little bones all over the place if your guests tend to be messy. With turkey wings, however, you'll have something much bigger and heartier and there will be fewer (if bigger) bones, to boot. As these wings are fried rather than baked (the name of the recipe is kind of a tip-off), we'd recommend cooking them well in advance. You can then zap them in the microwave or heat them in the oven for a few minutes if you feel they really must be served hot, but as you may recall from last Thanksgiving, turkey is tasty when it's cold, too.

Recipe: Cajun Fried Turkey Wings

Seeing as how we're on a roll (or "rouler") with the Cajun-slash-Creole foods here, we thought we'd toss in a classic New Orleans-style dessert, as well. As beignets are not only made from yeast dough but also fried, they are best made a few hours in advance of any other party preparations but skip the step where you sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Warm them in the oven or air fryer for a few minutes right before serving, then add the sugar as a finishing touch.

Recipe: Beignets

Most types of seafood don't really work too well as watch party fare – fish and chips tend to get soggy, while oysters on the half shell require ice (and shucking). Crab claws are a bit too messy, while lobster tails are way out of budget unless you happen to own one of the teams playing in the Super Bowl, in which case you have staff to do the catering in your luxury box. You know what's not too expensive for us 99%ers, though, nor too tricky to pull off? Good old shrimp cocktail. As these shrimp are meant to be served chilled, you can cook them well in advance of game time, then refrigerate them until kickoff. The cocktail sauce, too, is something that will keep until needed.

Recipe: Homemade Shrimp Cocktail

These Asian-inspired wings are really quite mild, so they make a great alternative for any of your Super Bowl guests who might not be fond of the Buffalo kind. In addition to five spice powders, the wings are marinated in a mixture of honey, soy sauce, and sesame oil. While they'll need some time to soak, they're oven-baked as opposed to fried so much of the cooking is pretty hands-off. Not to mention, as with most types of wings, they'll still be delicious even after they've cooled down.

Recipe: Easy Chinese Five Spice Chicken Wings Recipe

If there's anything that can take a cheese-stuffed jalapeño up to another level of greatness, it would have to be wrapping it in bacon. In this recipe, the jalapeños are packed with cream cheese and cheddar and then rolled in raw bacon and cooked on a grill. Don't feel like cooking outdoors in February? A heavy pan on the stovetop would work just as well. If you like your poppers on the sweet side, you can also glaze them with a mixture of grape jelly and bottled barbecue sauce and serve this sauce on the side, as well.

Recipe: Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers

This recipe for pigs in a blanket is one of the easiest things you could make for your Super Bowl party since it has just two ingredients. The "pigs" are hot dogs (and if you buy the cheap ones, they very likely will contain pork), while the "blanket" is made from canned crescent rolls. Wrap your pigs when convenient, then bake them about 20 minutes before you're likely to need them. Be sure to serve them with a bowl of mustard for dipping, though, since pigs on their own can be a bit too plain.

Recipe: Pigs In A Blanket

Crab rangoon is one of those appetizers that may seem tricky to pull off, but it's really quite easy. Just mix up some "krab" with cream cheese, then fold the filling into store-bought wonton wrappers. As this recipe calls for deep frying rather than baking, we'd advise assembling the crab rangoon pieces ahead of time, then frying them at the last minute. As an alternative, you can fry them when it's convenient, then reheat them in the oven or air fryer right before game time.

Recipe: Crab Rangoon

Who doesn't love cheese fries? Despite the fact that only parmesan gets a mention in the name, this recipe is actually made with mozzarella, as well. Sure, you can start by slicing, soaking, draining, and drying your own potatoes, but these fries could be just as good (tbh, possibly better) if you simply go with frozen fries instead. The fries themselves are cooked in the air fryer and this recipe also uses that appliance to melt the cheese. If you're looking for something a bit more hands-off, though, you can skip messing around with a basket and use a baking sheet in the oven for one or both steps. Should you happen to have a convection oven, the fries will basically be air-fried, anyway.

Recipe: Air Fryer Garlic Parmesan Fries

If you like the idea of a crockpot full of meatballs but you're not a fan of super-sweet bottled barbecue sauce, you may prefer this Tex-Mex version. Make your meatballs – the ones in this recipe include cheese, chili powder, and chipotle adobo sauce – then simmer them in a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles topped off with a layer of shredded cheese. If you were going to serve this dish for dinner, you could plop the meatballs onto a bowl of rice, but for a football-watching party, we'd suggest a side of tortilla chips, instead.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Meatballs

We'd hazard a guess that one of the more popular flavors of not-too-spicy wings is lemon pepper since nearly every wing chain seems to have it on the permanent menu. While lemon pepper wings are often made with a dry rub alone, here we're taking a different tack. The baked wings are tossed in a sauce made of honey, butter, and lemon juice, then sprinkled with, you guessed it, lemon pepper. While the recipe includes directions for making your own seasoning from lemon zest and pepper, you can always use the store-bought kind to save yourself a bit of bother.

Recipe: Lemon-Pepper Chicken Wings

One man whose name is synonymous with NFL football, particularly of the video game variety, is John Madden, but his secondary claim to fame may be popularizing the turducken. While this turkey-duck-chicken hybrid is far too fussy for football food, the dessert version, piecaken, is doable as long as you stick with our super-easy cupcake version. Basically, all you're doing here is thawing out a frozen pie, then sinking chunks of it into cupcake batter made from a boxed mix. Bake these two- or three-bite desserts, then top them off with frosting from a tub and maybe decorate them with some plastic football picks if you want to get cute. Stick the mini piecakens in the refrigerator until halftime, then bring out this show-stopping (if nearly effortless) dessert.

Recipe: Easy Piecaken Cupcakes