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Game Day Recipes

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What makes the perfect game day recipe?

The perfect game day recipe should be easy to make, tasty, and crowd-pleasing. A great way to achieve this is to choose a dish that can be cooked in a big batch, such as chili or nachos. This makes it easier to have enough for everyone, no matter how big their appetites are.

Additionally, the addition of fun toppings like jalapenos, shredded cheese, olives, or sour cream can really take the dish to the next level. Everyone at your party can customize the dish to their tastes, which helps with crowd-pleasing.

Finding a balance between flavors can be key to making sure everyone enjoys your game-day creation. Sweet and savory elements can complement each other in an unexpected way that will delight your guests!

And finally, guests love finger foods. That’s why meatballs, chicken tenders, and sliders are popular game day recipes. They’re casual and easy to eat, without the formality of flatware. As a bonus, you’ll have fewer dishes to clean after the party’s over, too.

Popular game day recipes

When it comes to game day recipes, there are a few that consistently top the list:

  • Anything with chicken and buffalo sauce — buffalo chicken dip or buffalo chicken bites, for example.
  • Crockpot meatballs.
  • Sliders — beef sliders, chicken sliders, pulled pork sliders.
  • Grilled chicken wings.
  • Nachos.
  • Chili.
  • Queso dip, or any cheesy, creamy, warm dip.
  • Chips and salsa.
  • Street tacos.
  • Garlic bread.
  • Brownies and cookie bars.

What about healthy recipes for game day?

Traditionally, game day recipes aren’t healthy. They’re more like comfort foods — rich, warm, and cheesy.

But here’s some good news. You can easily add some healthy choices to your menu. A simple choice is to provide raw veggies like carrots, celery, and bell pepper alongside your salsas and dips. You could also opt for lower fat cheeses in your dips. Also try grilled chicken sliders, cilantro lime chicken thighs, or boneless chicken wings instead of the traditional boned options. For dessert, serve some fresh fruit alongside your cookies and brownies.

About prepping and serving game-day food

Game day food should be easy to eat and serve. Start by preparing dishes in advance, so you don’t have to worry about cooking on game day. Sliders, wraps, and nachos are great options that can be prepared ahead of time and popped in the oven or microwave as needed. You can also make a large batch of wings or other finger foods and keep them warm in a slow cooker.

You can serve those finger foods with a variety of dips such as guacamole, salsa, or ranch dressing. For an extra special touch, set up a build-your-own taco bar or burrito station — your friends will love it.

Drinks to serve on game day

The most popular drink choices on game days are beer, soda, lemonade, or iced tea. If you want to provide cocktails, go with easy options like margaritas, vodka soda, or gin and tonic. You could make a batch of margaritas or even Long Island iced tea ahead of time and serve it to guests in a pitcher.

Another easy strategy is to ask guests to bring a bottle of their favorite drink of choice.

Blog Chef favorite game day recipes

Chicken caesar sandwiches recipe

    Chicken Caesar Sandwiches
    These chicken Caesar sandwiches are perfect if you are in need of a quick and easy meal. This recipe consists of shredded chicken tossed with Caesar salad dressing, romaine lettuce, and sandwich buns. There are only a few ingredients to this easy recipe and you can use your favorite brand of Caesar salad dressing or even make your own. The chicken is cooked with chicken broth in the slow cooker, shredded and then tossed with Caesar dressing, parmesan cheese, and fresh parsley. I feel that the toasting of the buns is an important part of this recipe—it really adds a nice additional flavor to the sandwich. I like to serve these sandwiches with soup or French fries. Enjoy.
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    Pot roast grilled cheese recipe

      Pot Roast Grilled Cheese
      Pot roast grilled cheese is a great option if you are looking to use up leftoever meat from a pot roast. I must confess that I actually prepared a pot roast just for this grilled cheese sandwich! The juice from the dutch oven or slow cooker can be used as an au jus for dipping the grilled cheese sandwich in, it is truly amazing. This grilled cheese is topped with leftover pot roast meat, white cheddar cheese, and sautéed onion. I like to prepare my grilled cheese on a griddle because I can easily cook several of them at once. For the bread, I used French bread but a good whole grain bread would be an excellent choice as well. I like to serve this grilled cheese with French fries. Enjoy.
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      Honey-chipotle chicken crispers recipe

        honey-chipotle chicken crispers
        This a copycat recipe for the honey-chipotle chicken crispers at Chili’s restaurant. Chicken crispers are basically chicken strips that are tossed with a sweet and spicy sauce. The sauce uses ingredients such as ketchup and honey and chipotle powder to give these chicken strips amazing flavor. The chicken is first dipped in a batter and then rolled in a flour mixture and deep-fried until crispy. There are a lot of ingredients that go into this recipe but chances are you have many of them on hand. You can easily double these ingredients if you want to serve more people. This is a great appetizer to serve for football season or even for dinner. Enjoy.
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        Bratwurst grilled cheese recipe

          bratwurst grilled cheese
          If you want a truly tasty sandwich recipe for game day give this bratwurst grilled cheese a try. This grilled cheese is a simple combination of a grilled bratwurst, Muenster cheese, honey-mustard and French bread. You can cook the bratwurst on an outdoor grill, an indoor grill pan or even in a frying pan. You can also experiment with different types of cheese in this recipe. A good option instead of the Muenster might be to use shredded Gouda. I like to serve this grilled cheese with either French fries or pretzels.
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          Tgi fridays grill glaze recipe

            TGI Fridays Grill Glaze
            This is a copycat recipe for the Jack Daniel’s grill glaze at T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant. It is not too late to fire up the grill for this amazing recipe. This grill glaze can be used on several different types of meat including steak, chicken and pork. You will want to brush this sauce onto whatever type of meat you prefer while it is on the grill. There is only 1 tablespoon of Jack Daniels in this recipe but it gets other amazing flavors from roasted garlic, pineapple and teriyaki sauce. To prepare this glaze, a bulb of garlic is roasted in the oven and then the pulp is mixed with various ingredients and simmered in the pan until the liquid has become thick. This is similar to a BBQ sauce, only much better! Enjoy.
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            Chicken strip grilled cheese recipe

              Chicken Strip Grilled Cheese
              I came up with the idea for this chicken strip grilled cheese recipe from the menu at Perkins restaurant. I have not actually tried this grilled cheese at Perkins but the idea sounded delicious. This sandwich is loaded with two crispy chicken strips, bacon, pepper jack cheese, ranch dressing and sour dough bread. The grilled cheese gets a nice kick from the pepper jack and the flavors of chicken, bacon and ranch go perfectly together. The type of bread that is used in this recipe is sourdough but you can experiment with other types of bread if you choose. For the chicken strips you can either use store bought or you can make your own. Using frozen chicken strips from the store will save a lot of time and they can either be deep fried or baked—it’s your choice. Serve with French fries. Enjoy.
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              Spicy chicken strips recipe

                Spicy Chicken Strips
                These spicy chicken strips are a perfect appetizer to serve on game day. For this recipe, we are using the breading from the Spicy Chicken Sandwich recipe and turning it into chicken strips. Most of the heat in these chicken strips come from hot pepper sauce and cayenne pepper. If you want more spice, you can up the amount of cayenne pepper in the flour mixture. This recipe is fairly easy to make—the most work that is required is in breading the chicken pieces. I like to serve these chicken strips with ranch dressing for dipping. Enjoy.
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                Jack Daniel’s grilled pork chops recipe

                  Jack Daniel's Grilled Pork Chops
                  It’s time to fire up the grill again for these Jack Daniel’s grilled pork chops. The pork chops are marinated in a Jack Daniel’s sauce and then grilled to perfection. This recipe is perfect for summer cookouts. The marinade consists of ingredients such as Jack Daniel’s whiskey, molasses, chili pepper paste and soy sauce. If you have a problem finding the chili pepper paste, a well-known brand is Gourmet Gardens and it can be commonly found in the refrigerators in the product section of Wal-Mart. For this recipe you can either use bone-in pork chops or boneless pork chops, either will work fine. If you use boneless pork chops you will only need about 2lbs. I like to reserve a little bit of the marinade before adding the pork chops to use for basting while they are on the grill. These go great served with onion rings or a cold salad. Enjoy.
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                  BBQ crunch dogs recipe

                    bbq crunch dogs
                    These BBQ crunch dogs are basted with homemade BBQ sauce, and loaded with romaine lettuce and crushed chips. This is a great recipe for summer grilling. The best part of these hot dogs is the homemade BBQ sauce which is a simple combination of just a few ingredients that you probably already have on hand. The sauce gets a lot of its flavor from ketchup and honey. The sauce can also be prepared in advance, cooled and refrigerated until needed. For the chips, you can use whatever type of chips you would prefer, I used kettle cooked BBQ chips. The romaine lettuce can be replaced with cabbage if you choose. Enjoy.
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                    BBQ chicken french bread pizza recipe

                      bbq chicken french bread pizza
                      This BBQ chicken French bread pizza is perfect if you are looking to prepare a quick and delicious dinner. This pizza uses a loaf of French bread for the crust and is topped with bbq sauce, mozzarella cheese, red onion, chicken and cilantro. You can use whatever type of BBQ sauce you prefer for this recipe and the pizza will have a different flavor depending on which type you select. If you want to make this recipe even easier— you can use the meat from a cooked rotisserie chicken and mix it with the BBQ sauce. You can also grill the chicken instead of baking it if you would prefer. You can also experiment with different types of cheeses—cheddar or smoked Gouda may be good options. Enjoy.
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                      Pulled pork grilled cheese recipe

                        pulled pork grilled cheese
                        The addition of pulled pork and macaroni and cheese to a grilled cheese might just create one of the best sandwiches ever. Pulled pork on a grilled cheese is great by itself but adding homemade macaroni and cheese onto the sandwich makes it incredible. The flavor of this grilled cheese is going to depend a lot on what type of BBQ sauce you use. You can either use your own homemade recipe, my recipe, or your favorite store brand. The pulled pork is prepared in the slow cooker and the macaroni and cheese is prepared on the stovetop. This recipe does require a little bit of work preparing the ingredients but the end result is delicious. Unless you are making a lot of sandwiches, chances are you will probably have a bit of leftover pulled pork and macaroni and cheese. You might want to save it for another use or serve them on the side. If you are looking for a different type of grilled cheese sandwich, be sure to give this one a try. Enjoy.
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                        Baked french fries recipe

                          baked French fries
                          It is not an issue if you do not have a deep-fryer because French fries can be easily prepared and baked in the oven. The process to making oven French fries is simple—the potatoes are sliced into strips and then tossed with various seasonings and olive oil and then baked in the oven. If you would prefer to peel the potatoes first that would be fine or you can leave the skin on. These fries get a lot of their flavor from garlic powder, paprika, pepper and parmesan cheese. Preparing French fries in the oven is also a healthier alternative to deep-frying. These fries to get served with sandwiches or hamburgers. Enjoy.
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                          Poutine recipe

                            Poutine
                            Poutine is a dish that originated in Quebec, Canada. This dish consist of French fries that are topped with gravy and cheese curds. Although it is mostly popular in Canada it can also be found in certain parts of the United States as well. This Poutine recipe consists of homemade gravy and homemade fries. It does take a little time to prepare but it is definitely worth it! The gravy gets a lot of its flavor from ingredients such as beef broth, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. The fries themselves are made from russet potatoes and are deep fried twice. Cooking times for the fries may vary if you are cutting bigger pieces. Poutine makes a great side-dish or snack. If you can, it would be a good idea to try and time the cooking of the fries with the gravy—that way the gravy will not have to sit for that long before serving. Enjoy.
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                            Fried chicken sandwich recipe

                              fried chicken sandwich
                              Why go to a fast-food restaurant when you can make a fried chicken sandwich at home? This fried chicken sandwich tastes much fresher and has greater flavor than any fast-food restaurant could produce. The best part about this sandwich is the dill pickle sauce. The dill pickle sauce consists of just four ingredients that blend perfectly to create an amazing flavor. The chicken patties are extra crispy due to a method of mixing the flour with a little bit of water. The chicken patties also have a great deal of flavor from seasonings such as cayenne pepper, sage, and thyme. Sage and thyme can be strong flavors and if you choose, you can leave them out of the seasoning mixture. These sandwiches go great served with French fries. Enjoy.
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                              Crab and artichoke dip recipe

                                crab_and_artichoke_dip_1
                                This crab and artichoke dip is a delicious appetizer to prepare to any part or event. If you are looking for a good dip recipe to serve for your upcoming Super Bowl party, you will want to give this one a try. This dip gets a lot of its flavor from the crab meat and the Asiago cheese. If you do not want to use Asiago cheese, Monterey jack or mozzarella will work as well. The process to making this dip recipe is very simple—all of the ingredients for the dip are mixed in a bowl and then spooned into a baking dish, the dip is then placed into the oven and baked to perfection. This dip is then topped with a fresh pico de gallo for even more great flavor! I really enjoyed the extra flavor provided by the pic de gallo but you could leave it out if you would prefer—this dip would still taste great. Enjoy.
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