Appetizers

This is every appetizer recipe on the site, in one place. Nine of them so far, all free, all written out properly. Some are the ones everyone already knows, done the way they should be done. A few you probably have not run into.

Here's the thing about an appetizer, and it's the opposite of what dinner is for. Dinner fills you up. An appetizer is supposed to do the reverse, to sharpen the appetite rather than blunt it. The way it does that is contrast in a small package: one hot-against-cold, sharp-against-rich, or crunch-against-soft moment that wakes the palate up and hands it back to you hungrier than before. Every recipe here is built around one contrast and one technique, and once you can see the contrast you can see why the dish works.

The second thing worth knowing before you start: most of these are cheap and most can be built ahead. A dozen eggs, a bag of shrimp, a melon, the chicken skin you were about to throw out, a box of phyllo. The one that costs real money is the gougeres, and only because good Gruyere does.

Start anywhere. If you're new to this, deviled eggs and the kombu-cured cantaloupe are the two I'd begin with, one a classic and one not, because neither has a step that can really go wrong.

Cold and Made Ahead

Everything here is served cold or at room temperature, and everything can be finished hours before the first guest arrives. That is the whole point of this group: it buys you the evening back.

Hot and Passed Around

These come out of the oven or the pan and go straight onto the tray. They do not wait well, so they are the last thing you make and the first thing that gets eaten.

The Part Nobody Tells You About Serving Temperature

This applies to almost every appetizer on this page, so it lives here rather than being repeated nine times over.

Stagger, do not parallelize. The most common way to ruin a spread is to plate nine things at once, so the hot ones go lukewarm and the cold ones go warm before anyone eats. Pick an order. Cold things first, then the oven things, then the fried or broiled things last.

Hold hot appetizers in a low oven, not on the counter. A sheet tray at 200 degrees Fahrenheit holds gougeres, spanakopita, and chicken skin crisp for twenty minutes without cooking them further. The counter does not, and a stack of warm phyllo goes soft in ten.

Pull cold appetizers from the fridge only when the first guest has a drink in hand. Panna cotta, shrimp cocktail, and deviled eggs are best just below room temperature, cold but not fridge-cold, which takes about fifteen minutes out.

The broiled and fried ones are on a clock. Bacon-wrapped dates and chicken skin are at their best in the first ten minutes. Make them last, in one batch, and do not try to hold them.

Where These Sit in a Meal

An appetizer is the opening move, and a few of the things underneath these recipes are covered in more depth elsewhere on the site.

More Recipe Guides

This is one of seven recipe categories on the site. The full recipe index lists everything in one place.

Who Is Writing This

I'm Chef Alan. I have spent 35 years in professional kitchens, I have formal culinary education in New Hampshire, and I have been honored as a 6-Time 4-Diamond Chef. More about me here.

If a recipe is missing something you needed, or a step didn't make sense, tell me. Get in touch and I'll fix it.

Cook Bolder, Serve Wiser, Eat Better.

Tools for the Job

Appetizers ask more of you than a main does, because you're making four or five small things instead of one big one. A sharp knife and a couple of sheet pans carry most of it, and a thermometer settles the shrimp and the panna cotta.