Big Wins All Around: 10 Over-the Top Game-Day Snacks for When You're Feeling Smug About a Victory

Shrimp cocktail, bacon-wrapped figs, and more fancy-pants snacks for when you're certain you'll be celebrating your team's success.

By Liz Cook
Published November 08, 2024
Illustration of celebratory snacks

Serious Eats / Inma Hortas

I’ve lived in Kansas City for a decade, which means I have spent the last few years becoming increasingly smug about the Chiefs. I know on an instinctive level that this is just setting me up for greater humiliation. But victory is fleeting: you’ve gotta celebrate when you can. 

When your team’s on top, you want a game-day spread for high times and high rollers. You want a menu that says: You are invincible. You are Ozymandias, King of Kings, and you don’t know a thing about any lone and level sands. People say “Pride goeth before the fall,” but they’ve never seen you goeth. 

These are the dishes to reach for when there’s zero chance you’ll be photographed morosely spooning caviar onto a paper plate while your “untouchable” quarterback is sacked for the fifth time this game. And worst case scenario, are you really going to regret eating the caviar?

  • Plump and Tender Shrimp Cocktail

    Shrimp cocktail on a ceramic plate with cocktail sauce and sliced lemons, on a stone background with a yellow dish towel.

    Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

    Is there anything more luxurious, more louche, than a shrimp cocktail ring you didn’t pluck from a grocery-store freezer? These shrimp get a flavor boost from a white-wine-and-ginger poaching liquid and a cocktail sauce with a secret ingredient (the secret ingredient is coriander).

  • Hoisin-Glazed Meatballs

    Hoisin-glazed cocktail meatballs on a white porcelain plate. There is a glass bowl of dipping sauce with a metal spoon on the plate.
    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

    Sweet, tangy, and impossibly tender, these cocktail meatballs are the cosmopolitan answer to a crockpot of li’l smokies.

  • Oysters Rockefeller

    20181115-oysters-rockefeller-vicky-wasik-26
    Vicky Wasik

    Named after John D. Rockefeller’s little-known heir, Oysters Rockefeller, this broiled appetizer is a swanky showpiece. The oysters here are lighter and brighter than some retro versions thanks to layered alliums and anise-y notes from absinthe and fennel.

  • Easy, Ultimate Clams Casino

    20150910-clams-casino-vicky-wasik-21.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    Few flavor combinations feel more indulgent than clams, bacon, and butter. Still, this dish ups the ante by tossing coarse panko bread crumbs in bacon fat for the savory, crispy topping.

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  • Blini and Caviar

    20181204-blini-vicky-wasik-68
    Vicky Wasik

    Russia’s traditional yeasted pancakes offer a feather-light base for a dollop of crème fraiche and a festive swoop of caviar. If you can’t milk your own sturgeon, store-bought is fine.

  • Bacon-Wrapped Figs With Blue Cheese and Bourbon

    20180307-bacon-wrapped-stuffed-bourbon-figs-overhead-morgan-eisenberg
    Morgan Eisenberg

    When do “appetizers” earn the pomp of “hors d'oeuvres”? When they’re broiled figs stuffed with creamy blue cheese, swaddled in bacon, and crisped in a bourbon-caramel glaze.

  • The Best Carne Asada

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    A celebratory spread doesn’t have to mean champagne and caviar. It can also mean tender marinated skirt steak blistered on the grill and dribbled with a bright ancho, guajillo, and chipotle salsa.

  • Whipped Feta Dip

    20190614-whipped-feta-vicky-wasik-9

    When queso feels insufficiently festive, break out this silky whipped feta and Greek yogurt dip. It may not scratch the same itch, but it will taste great on a pita chip.

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  • Baked Brie en Croute With Thyme and Fig Jam

    20170124-Baked-Brie-en-croute-fig-jam-matt-emily-clifton.jpg
    Photograph: Emily and Matt Clifton. Video: Serious Eats Video

    You don’t have to brag about your team being up. You’re plopping a baked brie en croute on the coffee table at halftime. You’ve said enough. 

  • Pistachio Baklava

    Stack of baklava

    Serious Eats / Mai Kakish

    There are only two things sweeter than victory: pistachio-studded, syrup-soaked phyllo pastry and the relief of clicking this link and learning you don’t have to make your own phyllo pastry.

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