Super Bowl 2020 Appetizers and Snacks: Six Big Game Recipes

Whether you're hosting a viewing party or bringing a dish to one, snacks are a key part of any Super Bowl Sunday. But how to avoid showing up with the third bowl of guacamole?

Here are six easy recipes for appetizers and snacks for the big game, which take inspiration from Super Bowl history or put unique spins on classics to ensure that your snack table is more than meatballs, salsa, chips and carrot sticks.

Tailgate Like It's 1967

You don't have to dig out the Jell-O molds to snack like Super Bowl watchers did when Super Bowl I was played on January 15, 1967. While the "World Championship Game" didn't sell out the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (tickets were $12, after all), it was a major television event, sparking a ratings war when it was broadcast simultaneously on two networks. Off-the-shelves snacks like Goldfish, Pop-Tarts and SpaghettiOs were new, as were Doritos, even if the nacho cheese version wouldn't show up on shelves until the '70s.

The easiest way to snack like a bygone fan is probably Lipton's French onion dip, which replaced the complicated original recipe for California Dip (Roquefort cheese, Sauternes wine and mayonnaise) with simple instructions: Mix one envelope of Lipton Onion Soup Mix and with 16 ounces of sour cream. Introduced in 1954, the recipe was an instant hit. But there was an even trendier dish available to the Super Bowl I watcher: 1966's second-place Pillsbury Bake-Off competition winner, the Tunnel of Fudge Cake.

When cooked properly, the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, invented by Ella Helfrich of Houston, is a round cake with a fudgy center. According to American Table, Pillsbury was flooded with more than 200,000 requests for the recipe, sending Bundt pan sales soaring. Pillsbury has a slightly modernized version of the recipe (with less walnuts and more sugar), while The New York Times has another version. But here's Ella's original:

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups butter
• 6 eggs
• 1½ cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• Dutch fudge buttercream frosting mix
• 3 cups chopped walnuts
• frosting of choice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend butter at high speed, then add eggs, beating well.
3. Add sugar slowly; mix at high speed until fluffy.
4. Stir in flour by hand, then frosting mix and walnuts until blended.
5. Fill greased 10-inch Bundt pan with batter and bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 64 minutes.
6. Let cool for two hours, then remove cake from pan to cool before frosting and/or serving.

Something Deep-Fried Different: Deviled Eggs

Buffalo wings are deep-fried and coated in a combination of butter and hot sauce, with innumerable variants that use vinegar, garlic powder, honey, Worcestershire sauce and more. Chances are, you already have an opinion about this football snacking perennial. But we're here for the deep-fried part. If you're already planning buffalo wings, why not try a deep-fried take on a different Super Bowl appetizer classic—deep-fried deviled eggs?

This particular variant on the deep-fried deviled eggs is based on recipes featured on Tasty and Delish. But the addition of deep frying adds a whole new dimension to the already innumerable variations on the deviled egg.

The ingredients listed for this recipe are meant for preparation of two dozen deviled eggs.

Ingredients:

• 12 peeled hard-boiled eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups panko breadcrumbs
• peanut, canola or coconut oil for frying
• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons pickle relish
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon paprika (more for seasoning)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. The recipe begins with hard-boiled eggs. We recommend the method used at the since-closed Saltie sandwich shop in Brooklyn, New York. First punch a hole in the base of each egg with a thumb tack, then drop in boiling water for 10 minutes and transfer into an ice bath for peeling.
2. Fill a medium pot with 2 to 3 inches of cooking oil and heat to between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half with a cold knife and move the yolks to a bowl, then mash them together a little.
4. Mix the three uncooked eggs in a bowl and prepare separate bowls for the flour and panko. Mix a teaspoon of paprika into the panko.
5. Coat each of the egg white halves in flour, dip in the egg, roll in the panko breadcrumbs, and drop gently, or use a slotted spoon, to place the eggs in the hot oil.
6. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes and flip each egg white half once.
7. Let deep-fried eggs cool on paper towels while blending the hot sauce, mayo, relish, mustard, salt and pepper with the separated hard-boiled yolks.
8. Use a small spoon or piping bag (or cut the corner of a freezer bag) to squirt the yolk mixture back into the cooled deep-fried egg halves and keep in the refrigerator until serving.

Deep-frying can work with most deviled egg variants, like the 50 different ingredient combinations assembled by the Food Network. There are also different takes on the frying component, like this recipe for fried deviled eggs that pan-fries cheese to the top.

Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers Team Colors

Showing team colors doesn't have to mean food dyes or cake shop helmets, especially when you can buy M&Ms in single color selections of your choice, including red and gold. Since both the Chiefs and the 49ers use red and gold variants, adding some color to Chex Mix is a great way to customize this classic Super Bowl snack beyond bagel chips, pretzels, Cheez-Its, candy or caramel corn. (Personally: peanuts, pretzel sticks, Cheerios.) The following recipe begins like the official Chex Mix recipe, with three cups of each Chex.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Corn Chex
• 3 cups Rice Chex
• 3 cups Wheat Chex
• 1 cup peanuts
• 2 cups pretzel sticks
• 1½ sticks or ¾ cup salted butter
• ⅓ cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1½ tablespoons seasoned salt
• ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 1 cup M&Ms, team colors

The key to making Chex Mix is patience, stirring and letting it get just burned enough for those little crispy bits.

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix the Chex, peanuts and pretzel sticks in a large bowl.
3. Melt butter and mix in Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, garlic powder and onion powder.
4. Pour butter and seasoning mix over solid ingredients and toss until evenly coated.
5. Bake for at least one hour, stirring every 15 minutes, then spread on paper towels or a clean surface to cool before storing in airtight containers.

If you want to get really ambitious, try out this puppy chow variant, which uses colored candy melts for the teams.

Mushroom and Muenster Sliders

Easy to cook and easy to eat, sliders are a Super Bowl classic and usually feature meatballs, ham, pulled pork or hamburger. Good Housekeeping's test kitchen came up with a great vegetarian version, which uses shiitake mushrooms and Muenster cheese.

Ingredients:

• 12 slider buns
• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup panko
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 12 medium shiitake mushroom caps
• 3 ounces of grated Muenster cheese
• Cornichon pickles
• Smoked paprika
• salt and pepper
• hot sauce
• Lettuce, sliced onion, other burger toppings

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with nonstick foil.
2. Mix panko, Parmesan and a tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl, whisking the eggs in a separate bowl with salt and pepper.
3. Dip each mushroom cap in egg, then coat in panko and place on the baking sheet, with the coated top down.
4. Spread Muenster on top of the mushrooms and sprinkle remaining panko mixture on top of the cheese.
5. Roast mushrooms in oven about six minutes, or until tender.
6. To create sauce, combine mayo, paprika, hot sauce and thinly sliced cornichons, then spread on each bun and top with onions, lettuce, etc. before serving.

Sidestep the Dip With Baked Feta

Sour cream dip, guacamole, X-layer dip, cheese boat, Ro-Tel queso—any Super Bowl party is sure to have its own combination of familiar dips, from the host or guests as well. Roasted feta is a little different (and not quite as wine night as baked brie). Somewhere between a dip and a more solid cracker topping, this baked feta recipe from Food 52 is a great way to offer a cheese snack other than nachos. It's also really, really easy.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces slab Greek feta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• black pepper
• thyme leaf garnish

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Blot feta dry.
2. Place cheese in a foil-lined, oven-ready ceramic dish and cover with olive oil.
3. Bake until soft, or about eight to 10 minutes.
4. Remove cheese from oven, lift out with foil and drain excess liquid.
5. Preheat broiler and heat honey in microwave, 10 seconds at a time, until runny. Recipe works well with flavored honey, such as thyme honey.
6. Brush surface of feta with honey, then transfer to broiler for about two minutes.
7. Broil until cheese top bubbles, then serve immediately after seasoning, with black pepper and garnished with minced thyme.

Serve with bagel chips, focaccia strips, crostini, sturdy chips, crackers or bread slices, along with pickled vegetables or nuts.

Bring in Some Meat With Pig Candy

This lineup of Super Bowl snacks and appetizers has been light on the meat up to this point, but there's no better way to gratify the meat eaters at your big game party than with pig candy, which skips all the bacon wrapping and bacon sprinkling to highlight the bacon itself. There are a lot of variations on pig candy, but the Black Peppercorn's basic pig candy is the easiest way to start. (We've doubled the ingredients for something closer to a Super Bowl–sized crowd.)

Since pig candy is all about the bacon, quality counts for a lot here, so seek out thick-cut bacon sourced locally wherever possible.

Ingredients:

• 12 strips bacon
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with foil (shiny side down).
2. Shake together brown sugar and cayenne in a Ziploc bag.
3. Toss each piece of bacon in a sugar/pepper blend and then drape on a baking rack that's been placed atop the baking sheet.
4. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until desired crispness.
5. Remove wire rack and cool on rack.

Pig candy can be served upright, in a mug or broken into pieces like peanut brittle. For variety, you can also try brown sugar blends featuring ancho chile powder or spicy mustard powder, or brushing with maple syrup, halfway through baking.

For more recipes, check out Newsweek's 2019 Super Bowl snacks and appetizers guide, which includes recipes for cheeseburger onion rings, buffalo chicken dip, mini-corn dogs, oven fried pickles, honey lime sriracha chicken poppers and fried ravioli.