- 14 minutes ago
Bon Appétit’s Chris Morocco, Hana Asbrink, Shilpa Uskokovic, Jesse Szewczyk, and Rebecca Firkser share five easy party appetizers in the test kitchen. From spicy buffalo crab dip and Chicago-style pigs in a blanket to hot honey meatballs, crispy phyllo-baked brie, and seared dates with feta, discover crowd-pleasing recipes perfect for your next gathering.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Today in the Test Kitchen,
00:01we have the best way to start a party.
00:03We have appetizers.
00:04They're fun, they're flavorful,
00:05they're make-ahead-friendly.
00:07Creamy, salty.
00:08A little crunchy.
00:09Has an irresistible quality.
00:11And totally delicious.
00:14Mm.
00:17This is Buffalo Crab Dip
00:20with a crispy Ritz Cracker topping.
00:22I'm looking for this dip to be creamy,
00:26spicy, textural, and totally delicious.
00:29For me, a hot dip is one of those things
00:32that might seem a little bit retro,
00:34but everybody friggin' loves.
00:37So first things first,
00:38I wanna throw a little bit of cream cheese into a bowl.
00:41Let it start to temper, soften.
00:44Little bit of hot sauce.
00:46Lemon zest.
00:48Calabrian chili.
00:50I wanna embrace the earthy, intense,
00:53spicy nature of Calabrian chili.
00:55It's, like, so intense, it's kind of wild.
00:59I love it.
01:01I'm gonna do a little bit of lemon
01:03for a little bit of overt acidity.
01:06This is coming together really nicely.
01:09We'll definitely need some salt here,
01:11but heat's there.
01:13Like, that Calabrian chili's not messing around.
01:15So you've got a lot of different types
01:17of crab meat out there.
01:18The vast majority you're gonna find is pasteurized,
01:22but it's still a refrigerated product.
01:25Point being, like, it may not be blue crab
01:28or peaky toe crab,
01:29or it could just be a blend of different types of crab.
01:32It's all good.
01:33Just look at the expiration date.
01:34One thing we're gonna do,
01:36go through it really carefully,
01:39and just feel and look for any shell.
01:41This is, like, what restaurants do,
01:44just to have a fast double check.
01:46It's honestly, this is, like, incredibly clean crab.
01:48I think we'll be good to just add that into our mixture.
01:53And as buttery and magical as these crackers are,
01:58I want even more butter and even more magic on them.
02:02So I'm gonna crush them up.
02:04This is gonna become part of our topper.
02:06I've got, some of the butter is gonna go
02:08in our crushed crackers here.
02:11You don't want it to be totally soaked,
02:14but I do want everything to have enough fat on it,
02:16so it's gonna toast evenly.
02:19A little pinch of salt,
02:20a little dash, hot sauce, just a little seasoning.
02:23And then I want a little bit of butter in the dip itself.
02:27It's a pretty tight mixture and I think it'll benefit
02:29from being thinned out just ever so slightly.
02:32So I'm gonna bake it in this cute little skillet.
02:34It could be a little ceramic dish,
02:36whatever you got that's oven safe.
02:39There's something about hot dip.
02:41It's never gonna be better
02:42than when you just pulled it out of the oven
02:44and it's bubbling.
02:45See how everything's just kind of just slightly liquefied.
02:48You're getting that bubbling around the edges.
02:50Crackers are crisp, golden.
02:53Let's have some thinly sliced chives, a little contrast.
02:57So we've got some little toasted crostini here.
03:00Oh my gosh.
03:03It has this like slow driving pulse of heat.
03:07It's just unbelievable.
03:08There's a depth of flavor there that we really owe a lot to.
03:12The Calabrian chili and the hot sauce kind of coming together,
03:14but the butteriness, the richness, and the crab.
03:17We're able to pack a lot of flavor and such an easy thing
03:20to make for your next party.
03:21Hot dip is where it's at.
03:23Make it.
03:26Pigs in a blanket are the goat of party appetizers.
03:31And today's version is Chicago style pigs in a blanket.
03:34Savory, has an irresistible quality,
03:37and has you going back for another bite.
03:39You really need to start with the canned crescent roll dough.
03:44If you have like guests who are a little bit early
03:46and they want to help you, okay, you heard the pop.
03:50Or if you have kids and they want to help, put them to work.
03:53And whatever you think the yield is, double it.
03:58Because you cannot have too many pigs in a blanket from my experience.
04:03There are usually eight triangles.
04:06And each triangle will yield three blankets, if you will.
04:11Don't be alarmed if some of them tear.
04:14You can just patch them together.
04:16So each big triangle, you're just dividing them into thirds.
04:20So you have three long isosceles triangles.
04:23I was just talking to Mal about isosceles triangles.
04:27And the last time you heard about them.
04:28It's triggering.
04:29Is it triggering?
04:31Yeah.
04:31I love geometry.
04:32They look very skinny and small.
04:36And you'll wonder if you did the math wrong.
04:39They're supposed to be small.
04:40They're just little bites.
04:41My favorite Chicago dogs always have yellow mustard.
04:45But more importantly, the mustard acts as the glue.
04:49Celery salt is a key component of a Chicago-style dog.
04:53It is very salty though.
04:54Just sprinkling a little bit drives home that Chicago-style dog flavor.
04:58All right, here are little Smokies.
05:01The slightly artificial smoky flavor is critical to this appetizer.
05:06Cornichon.
05:06This is stepping in as the pickle element.
05:09And they offer that nice, pickly, fresh punch.
05:13As you roll, you're pulling the little triangle towards you as well.
05:18We've rolled all of our little piggies up.
05:21They're so cute.
05:22Don't worry if the mustard is peeking out because we're going to egg wash them.
05:27And you just want to brush the tops a little bit, both to give them a sheen and to act
05:32as the glue for the poppy seeds to come.
05:35So the poppy seed bun is an integral part of the Chicago-style dog, but also they add a nice
05:41crunch.
05:42And then before you bake them off, just a little bit more of the celery salt to really drive home
05:47that flavor.
05:48They're going to go in a 375 oven for about 15 to 18 minutes.
05:53So the piggies are out of the oven.
05:56One canister yields 24.
05:59They're so cute, deeply golden.
06:01Watch them disappear in a flash.
06:03I'm telling you, whatever amount you think is good, just double it because they will all be gone in a
06:09matter of minutes.
06:11Oh, Jessie!
06:13Jessie is our resident Midwesterner.
06:16He's our sensitivity check.
06:19Sensitivity editor to see this.
06:20You're on track already.
06:22Yes. Oh, great.
06:22Okay, good.
06:23The neon green relish.
06:24It's just a quirk of Chicago.
06:26It's sweet.
06:30Tastes like Chicago.
06:31You've passed the sensitivity edit.
06:33Thank you so much.
06:34These must be eaten in one bite.
06:36Don't try to do two because something will fall out.
06:38No, I like the one bite, yeah.
06:40The one bite.
06:41The cornichon is doing so much that like cold, pickly counterpart to the smoky, salty wiener.
06:49Make these Chicago-style pigs in a blanket.
06:52These will fly off of your table.
06:57I've declared 2026 my year of hot honey.
07:00This is the flavor that I've pitched for every single recipe.
07:04The one that I'm most excited about, it's a party meatball.
07:06It has a lot of flavor because of the hot honey glaze.
07:09It's this blast of flavor that just wakes everyone up and says, hey, you're at a party.
07:14I'm going to start the meatballs by making my panade, which is essentially a mixture of breadcrumbs,
07:20eggs, and some sort of liquid.
07:22I'm going to use water in mine.
07:24Adding a panade breaks up all of the meat protein and provides moisture.
07:29And after it bakes, the meatball still stays very juicy and tender.
07:32I think adding a little bit of lemon zest relieves the fatty nature of the meat.
07:38People always say that I have a weird way of microplaning.
07:41It almost looks like I'm doing my nails, I guess.
07:45I love doing it this way because then you get a very nice, evenly microplanned lemon.
07:50I could do garlic powder and I have done that sometimes, but I like fresh garlic in this one.
07:55Freshly chopped parsley.
07:57I think it's lovely and refreshing.
07:59And I'm going to mix the breadcrumbs in here.
08:02Mixing this before you add the meat sort of helps everything distribute much more evenly
08:08than if I were to just dump the meat in here.
08:10I'm going to add my ground beef mixture in.
08:13And this is the part that I think surprises a lot of people because I'm going to mix this really
08:18vigorously and still make extremely tender and juicy meatballs because of the panade and the
08:24amount of water.
08:25When you put enough water, the proteins have something to sort of cling onto and form a really
08:31good network, which makes a very springy meatball.
08:34So this is how I want my final meatball mixture to look.
08:37You see that it's mostly clean the sides of the bowl.
08:39And when I plop it down, it stays together without falling apart.
08:44I am trying to visually divide this into 24 portions.
08:49So I'm going to divide it into four portions and then try to divide each into six portions.
08:55And once that's done, I'm going to pop them in the oven at 425 where I can get them baking.
09:00And once that's done, we're getting ready to glaze the meatballs.
09:04While my meatballs are in the oven, I'm going to make my signature hot honey glaze.
09:11It starts with vinegar.
09:13It needs this little bit of acid to sort of cut through everything.
09:16Then I'm going to use a hot sauce.
09:19I like sriracha.
09:20It's like a classic at this point, you know.
09:22And then I'm going to do equal parts honey to vinegar.
09:26The honey makes everything shiny and sticky and it glazes the meatball really, really well.
09:32I like to add a little bit of soy sauce.
09:34It has like this depth of flavor, which is hard to recreate with just plain salt.
09:40I'm going to add a few crushed garlic cloves.
09:44As the mixture heats up, it releases some of that flavor and just perfumes it just the littlest bit.
09:49I'm going to bring this over to the stove and start cooking.
09:53It's time to pull my meatballs out because they are ready.
09:57What I am looking for is like a nice bit of color.
10:00The color is a good indicator that it's also a tiny bit crispy and we want that little contrasting texture.
10:06And add the meatballs in now so they can also absorb the sauce into their very core.
10:12You kind of have to be careful at this stage because as it reduces and the honey mixture becomes thicker,
10:18it is more likely to burn and scorch.
10:21The bigger and slower the bubbles, the closer it's to being ready,
10:24because that means more of the moisture is being driven off and the bubbles tend to be much more lazy.
10:30This looks great.
10:31There's still a little bit of sauce, like there's a pool of glaze at the bottom,
10:35which to me is perfect because that's going to be enough to drizzle all over the meatballs once they're on
10:40the platter.
10:42If I was a guest at a party and somebody gave me this platter of meatballs, bruh, I would never
10:49leave.
10:50I would be like, you need to host every single time.
10:53Does this look suitably deranged?
10:56That's the vibe I'm going for though.
11:00Oh my God.
11:02The glaze does so much for these meatballs.
11:04It just wakes everything up.
11:07Party meatballs aren't anything new, but I think it's hot honey flavor profile.
11:10Just tips it into that little bit of excitement, which everybody will be so happy to eat.
11:17So today I'm making phyllo baked brie.
11:20So instead of puff pastry, you know how you see that often,
11:22you are swapping that out for these thin golden crackly sheets of phyllo that are like kind of a bit
11:26wild.
11:27It's cheesy.
11:28It's gooey.
11:29It's just a lot of fun.
11:30So what we're going to need shocker brie, it's pretty.
11:34So you'll leave the rind on.
11:36And then for the phyllo, this comes frozen.
11:39So thaw this overnight.
11:41Olive oil is kind of the name of the game.
11:43Go crazy.
11:44You want a lot so they like tan into a beautiful golden color.
11:48I like to take maybe two sheets and tuck this in tightly.
11:52This is a barrier that really just keeps all the cheese in there once it gets oozy.
11:57So you want to get a vessel that is kind of roughly the size of your brie, a few inches
12:03larger.
12:03And then from there, I create all these various ruffles and just keep dousing as you go.
12:10You want to create these like peaks and valleys, kind of like little bed sheets.
12:14This is like silly and it's architectural.
12:17And that's that.
12:19We're going to pop this into a 350 oven for probably about an hour.
12:23It looks beautiful.
12:25It's nice and golden.
12:26If you have some blonde spots, don't worry, because we're going to gussie it up with some stuff.
12:30So you won't see that.
12:31So I'm going to top this with honey and add nice sweetness.
12:35It's kind of shellac it a bit.
12:36And then the za'atar is just delicious.
12:39It's going to add texture and herbal super savoriness.
12:43So this looks beautiful.
12:44At this point, you just have to destroy it.
12:48See how the cheese is like perfectly molten in the middle.
12:51We're doing the impossible.
12:53We're creating a cheese pull with brie.
12:55I like to eat it just like this because I feel like it's almost like a little chip and cheese
12:59all in one.
13:02It's delicious.
13:03The honey is so nice with the salty cheese.
13:05And because it's in cast iron, it's going to stay hot for quite some time.
13:08So when you strike into this, it's very dramatic sound.
13:12So I feel like we should get the ASMR for this one.
13:14Let's get the mic in.
13:17I think this is so fun.
13:19It's crazy easy.
13:20It makes people destroy something, which I love doing.
13:26So this is seared dates with feta and nuts.
13:29Warm dates are one of life's greatest pleasures.
13:32It's fancy.
13:34It's luxe.
13:34But honestly, this could not be more easy.
13:37These are medjool dates.
13:39They're tender.
13:41They're so sweet.
13:42This is one of my favorite products.
13:44It is a shelled, toasted, and salted pistachio.
13:48Just give the nuts a rough crush.
13:51Hold for grabbing the feta out in an elegant way.
13:54I like to cut it at an angle.
13:56Have a little fun with it.
13:57Because then we're going to tear it into different sized pieces.
14:01I really love feta for this.
14:03It's like really salty and creamy, but it's not overly rich.
14:07I'm like trying to save room for dinner usually.
14:09So I like something a little bit brighter and more tangy like a feta.
14:14I could stand here for like 45 minutes arranging the cheese, but like let's move on.
14:19So I like to saute dates in olive oil, about a quarter of a cup.
14:23And I don't know how many of you are sauteing dates at home.
14:26It was not something I grew up doing.
14:28I learned about it from the chef Renee Erickson.
14:31They're wonderful on ice cream.
14:32They're wonderful on yogurt for breakfast.
14:35We are looking for them to just basically get a nice like caramelization.
14:40Because the more caramelization they get, the more sweetness you're going to bring out of them.
14:44I know it like maybe looks burnt, but this is all like deep rich caramelized sugar.
14:49Okay, this is looking great.
14:51The best part about this is that when the hot dates hit the cheese, they kind of melt the cheese
14:56a little bit.
14:58Pistachios.
15:00Lemon zest.
15:01This adds just like a little pop of freshness.
15:04And if you have like a super fancy, expensive extra virgin olive oil that you like to finish things with,
15:11you could use that here as well.
15:13But I just kind of like spooning the warm oil over everything.
15:17Melts the cheese a little bit.
15:19Had to grab a little wedge of lemon here because I really think we need just a little more floral
15:23acidity.
15:25And a little black pepper on top.
15:30This is so yummy.
15:32Honestly, it's like sweet, savory, a little bit crunchy.
15:36Looks so chic, but you saw how easy it was.
15:38We were there for like five minutes.
15:44Come and have one.
15:45Oh my god!
15:47Give me a happy birthday, Nina!
15:50Oh, it's your party meatball.
15:55Happy party meatballs, eh, Nina?
15:58Oh, Nina.