20 Thanksgiving Appetizers and Snacks That Will Keep Everyone Satisfied Before the Big Feast

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving was always a marathon day of food. Sure, dinner was an elaborate affair, but we actually started eating hours before sitting down at the table, and the appetizers were as important as the turkey and mashed potatoes. We blamed the snacking on the fact that dinner always took longer than expected, but we probably could have finished cooking earlier if we weren’t so busy stuffing ourselves with deviled eggs, cheese, dips, and more.

I wouldn’t have had it any other way, though—those extended Thanksgivings were some of the best days of my childhood. If you’re on board with spending all of Turkey Day eating, read on for 20 Thanksgiving appetizers and snacks, like chicken liver pâté, black olive tapenade, and cheesy butternut squash dip. And check out our Thanksgiving Recipes page for even more ideas, how-tos, and quick tips to make this Thanksgiving the best ever.

Vegan and Vegetarian Appetizers for Thanksgiving

Roasted-Tomato and Caper Spread

For this savory spread, fleshy plum tomatoes are slowly roasted with aromatic garlic and thyme until they grow jammy and sweet with concentrated flavor. The oven-dried tomatoes get pulsed with briny capers, then combined with a generous dose of the best-quality extra-virgin olive oil, for a simple spread that’s packed with sweet and salty flavors.

Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Spinach-artichoke dip—creamy, salty, and a little tart—has become a classic appetizer for a reason. This vegan version harnesses the richness of cauliflower and cashews to create the base, while nutritional yeast and mustard provide balance with tangy, savory flavors.

Silky-Smooth Vegetarian Pâté With Roasted Cauliflower and Pecans

This recipe uses deeply roasted cauliflower and buttery pecans to make a meat-free take on pâté that feels as luxurious and satisfying as the original. If you want to keep the dish vegan, you can swap out the butter for oil and omit the cream, but the result won’t be quite as rich.

Warm Butternut Squash and Cheddar Dip

Squash isn’t the most common ingredient in dips, but maybe it should be. This festive appetizer pairs butternut squash with melty cheddar and rich cream cheese, plus onion, garlic, and plenty of sage. We also add sour cream, which cuts through the sweetness of the roasted squash and caramelized onions.

Whipped Feta Dip

This incredibly easy, crowd-pleasing dip uses a base of creamy Greek yogurt, which offers a tartness that complements the cheese. Simply combine the yogurt, feta, olive oil, and a garlic clove using a blender, food processor, or immersion blender for a delicious pre-dinner accompaniment to crudités, baguette toasts, and more.

Blue Cheese and Toasted-Pecan Dip

In this recipe—almost as easy as the feta dip above—we thin out buttery, tangy blue cheese with a mixture of mayonnaise, lemon juice, and sour cream, then add a handful of toasted pecans for crunchy texture. It’s great with almost anything you can think of dipping in it—try crackers, sliced fruit, pepper strips, or pretzels.

Updated Cheese Ball Trio

Forget about the waxy, pre-shredded cheddar—this recipe treats cheese balls right. Each one starts with cream cheese, then pairs it with another cheese, mix-ins, and a crust. My favorite of the three is also the simplest: It’s made with just goat cheese, lemon zest, black pepper, and fresh herbs.

Cranberry-Jalapeño Baked Brie Dip

How do you improve on a wheel of pleasantly soft room-temperature Brie? By baking it until it’s warmed through and gooey. There are plenty of ways to gussy up your baked Brie, but this version, topped with a tart/spicy/sweet mix of cranberries, jalapeño, and brown sugar, looks particularly festive for the holiday season.

Baked Brie en Croûte With Apple and Pear Compote

Adding a puff pastry crust to your baked Brie is sure to win you cool points among your Thanksgiving guests, and it’s not as complicated as it might sound. Baked Brie en croûte was a staple of my childhood Thanksgivings, though ours came straight from the freezer section. For a more homemade version, wrap a wheel of Brie up in store-bought puff pastry along with a warmly spiced apple-pear compote, then bake until the crust is crisp. A triple-cream Brie will melt the best.

Nonvegetarian Thanksgiving Appetizers

Chicken Liver Pâté With Bourbon and Cranberry Gelée

If you’re looking to pull out all the stops on Thanksgiving, you can’t do much better than this creamy chicken liver pâté. To make the appetizer especially seasonal, we add bourbon and apple cider to the pâté and top it with a tart cranberry gelée. Though the dish looks and sounds fancy, there isn’t much more to it than a sauté pan, a food processor, and a mesh strainer.

Easy Pork Rillettes (Slow-Cooked Pork Spread)

Pork rillettes feel festive in a similar way to pâté, but they’re easier to make, especially in bulk—all you have to do is slow-roast pork shoulder until it starts to fall apart, then whip it up in a stand mixer. For something even more elegant, try making our salmon rillettes instead.

Black Olive Tapenade With Garlic, Capers, and Anchovies

While I prefer an old-school tapenade made with equal parts olives, capers, and fish, when most people think of tapenade, their mind goes straight to olives. Our recipe for a modern tapenade uses mostly black olives, with just enough capers and anchovies to give the dip a briny bite.

Clams Casino Dip

If you’re a big fan of the classic Italian-American appetizer clams casino—clams on the half shell, topped with bacon and bread crumbs—but prefer a less fussy presentation, why not pack all the same flavors into a big bowl o’ dip? We start with a base of sour cream and cream cheese, then add crumbled bacon, chopped canned clams, and bread crumbs toasted golden in bacon grease, for an irresistible party-sized appetizer that doesn’t require painstakingly building individual portions.

Hoisin-Glazed Cocktail Meatballs

Our take on this retro party snack uses a mixture of beef and pork, bound with panko and egg and glazed with a sauce made of hoisin, ketchup, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The meatballs can be made with dark-meat turkey instead of beef and pork, if you want something extra Thanksgiving-appropriate.

Bacon-Wrapped Figs With Blue Cheese and Bourbon

No Thanksgiving is complete without cheese wrapped in bacon, right? These bacon-wrapped broiled figs are stuffed with funky blue cheese and coated in a caramel glaze spiked with bourbon, leaving them salty, sweet, smoky, and rich. We pre-cook the bacon strips before assembling the figs, ensuring that the bacon has enough time to crisp and brown nicely in the oven and the figs and cheese don’t overcook.

Stuffing-Flavored Potato Chips

Another one for stuffing lovers, this recipe flavors homemade potato chips with celery leaves, sage, rosemary, and marjoram. To give the chips a meaty flavor that brings them firmly into stuffing territory, we use powdered chicken bouillon and MSG for a boost of savoriness.

French Onion Soup Tarte Tatin

You may be used to thinking of tarte Tatin as a dessert topped with glossy apples (and sometimes pears!), but it turns out that an old-fashioned buttery pie crust is just as good a vehicle for savory ingredients as sweet. Here, we combine the classic French tart with another bistro favorite—French onion soup—by loading the crust with deeply caramelized wedges of yellow onion and melty Gruyère. Harried-cook tip: You can use store-bought puff pastry instead of homemade pie dough to streamline the process a bit, and the results will still be excellent.

Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Baby Potatoes

If you love potato skins the way we do, these little bites deserve a place on your Thanksgiving menu. Canned chipotle chilies and smoked paprika in the marinade for the potatoes underscore the bacon’s smoky flavor. In contrast with the bacon-wrapped-figs recipe, the bacon will cook at the same rate as the potatoes, so there’s no need to par-cook it.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Jeon

Featuring sweet potato and spicy Italian sausage, these Korean-style pancakes were developed to evoke traditional Thanksgiving flavors. Shallow fried and served with a spicy, savory yangnyeom sauce, they’re a golden, crispy nod to classic turkey stuffing. Serve them as a snack before the big meal, or as a component of our banchan-style Thanksgiving menu.

Better Potato Skins

We coat these potato skins a potato starch slurry before deep frying them, for shatteringly crisp cups that are custom made for filling with an array of dips, spreads, and more. Need inspiration? Try them packed with pulled pork and cheddar cheese, as pictured above; overflowing with crème fraîche and smoked salmon; or stuffed with melted raclette cheese and thinly sliced cornichons.

October 2018