5 Quick Snacks To Make For Your Next Party | From The Test Kitchen | Bon Appétit

I'm obsessed with you. These are my friends. You are hosting people for dinner. They are coming over soon and you realize the roast chicken that you planned, that long braise, the lasagna in the oven, it's not going to be ready for like two, two and a half more hours. What are they going to eat before then? I have the solution for you. It is a quick snack. And all of these snacks, not all together, but one by one, can be done in about 15 minutes or less. So this is our Old Bay potato chips with lemonade only. Basically, if what you have is a bag of potato chips, you can amp it up into a snack that is worthy of company, worthy of a party. We're going to use Old Bay, which is a tried and true classic. And we're going to amp up those flavors and give you a little dipper on the side. And it's going to be great. First thing is we are going to dump our chips onto a sheet pan because the best way to imbue your potato chips with flavor is to heat them up. If you toast them in the oven a little bit, you not only get slightly more crispy and darker in color, but they also are like primed to take on more flavor. Just a little bit of Old Bay to start, just a teaspoon. And you don't have to be too special about it. So we're going to put it on both before and after. A little bit before just helps lay the base level of flavor. If you just do it at the end, if you just do it before, it's like not as sort of like full or punchy as if you do it in stages. So we're going to toss this in the oven for just about four minutes. So while that's happening, we're going to make our seasoning mix for when they come out of the oven. And that is going to be a mix of Old Bay and twist powdered sugar. It just like sort of elevates the flavor of the Old Bay and makes it be less like just pungent, just like the spice flavor. It feels really balanced. And then what we're also going to do is make a little dipper on the side. I love mayo as a dipper for French fries. I think it's like a perfect side because it's creamy and rich and it goes really nicely with a salty, crunchy snack. So we're going to grate in garlic and add a little bit of lemon juice. OK, time to get the chips. All right, this is perfect. So you can see we're ever so slightly darkened in color. So now that they're nice and hot, we're going to sprinkle on our mixture. I'm going to just gently toss. And you'll see, like, it's not like I have a bunch of the seasoning sitting, like falling off. It's sticking to the chips, which the heat is what helps make that happen. And then we're going to put these into your serving dish. So now that we're all piled up, we'll zest our lemon. And this just provides a little bit of brightness, a little bit of freshness. Now we can squeeze some lemon juice into our aioli. Just a little bit of lemon juice in there. We'll stir that up. And then we're just going to chop a little bit of parsley as our finishing touch on our chips. A little bit more added freshness. It's chips, but it's chips done up. It's so much fancier than just dumping out the bag. The longest portion of this was four minutes that it spent in the oven. Old Bay chips with lemonade only. A little bit of lemon zest on there. A little bit of parsley. So fancy. So fun. We can't snack on it yet because we're going to have all the food together. I'm so excited. Okay, here we go. Next thing. Now we're going to be making our za'atar firecrackers. If you have saltine crackers lying around, this is a great way to make use of it. And what you do is you make this, like, oily spiced mixture in a Ziploc bag. You dump in a bunch of saltine crackers, and then you let them sit overnight. So this one does require a little bit of forethought. But on the day of your big event, all you have to do is dump everything from the bag onto a sheet pan, stick it in the oven for 10 minutes, and you're done. First, we're going to make our oily mixture, and it's half and half olive oil and vegetable oil. So it's going to feel like you're using a lot of oil, and you are. But the saltines, we're going to use two full sleeves of it. They can really take it, and they need a lot of oil to get that glossy, burnished finish on the outside. To use a full cup of olive oil is, frankly, expensive. You don't need it to all be that. Some of it can just be doing the, like, fattiness without all of the flavor, and that's where you're going to, like, sort of even it out with a little bit of the vegetable oils. So you have all this happening in your Ziploc bag. And then we're going to add a little bit of garlic powder and a little bit of za'atar. Za'atar is a spice blend that's a Middle Eastern pantry staple, and it's usually sesame seeds, sumac, and, like, a marjoram or thyme. And then we're going to do our garlic powder. And then we're going to seal up our bag and zhuzh that around. And then this is this, like, incredibly flavorful, super delicious oil that you've got going on here. All right, so saltines going in the bag. So now we're going to seal that up, get most of the air out of there, and then zhuzh it all over gently so that you're not breaking them. Movie magic. These guys have been sitting overnight. Okay, look at this. This is sitting in liquid. You can see all of this oil that's at the bottom of the bag. And overnight, there's none left. It has soaked up every last drop. And we're just going to line these bad boys up and give them a quick bake in the oven. So it basically all fits on one sheet pan plus a little spillover on my quarter sheet. So we're just going to throw these in the oven for 15 minutes. The oven is at 250, so quite low. It doesn't take much time at all, and you're just sort of sealing all of that goodness on each cracker. Oh my gosh, they're so perfect. So I'm just going to arrange them on a little plate. Using the za'atar is great because it is like a built-in flavor mixture. So if you have a favorite spice blend to use, this is a great place to do that. You might be surprised just how quickly these crackers disappear. Okay, this snack is called bocorones with olives and orange. It is an elevated take on a tinned fish product or a packaged fish product. These are bocorones, white anchovies. So these bocorone fillets are in a little bit of vinegar and oil. They're beautiful. I'm just going to lay a bunch of them out on this plate. I'm going to move them around after I pour everything on top so that we can be sure to see each of the fillets. Now we're going to get to our olive oil. In your pot, we're going to use a couple of cloves of garlic and then just tear it into these large pieces. Doesn't have to be nice. Just like letting it sort of fall apart as it would after you smash it. So we're going to get a couple of olives. What you're going to do is smash them to get that pit out. No problem. And then just tear your olive along the smash lines basically into a couple pieces and toss that into the pot as well. I love Castelvetrano olives. They're super buttery and delicious. Very rich for an olive and not so briny. Like unlike a Kalamata, which I feel like is like, have you heard of vinegar? Castelvetranos are a little bit more like mellow and fun and to me, they are the perfect addition to this spread. And then the last thing we're going to add to our oil before we go heat it up is a few peels of orange. So you're just going to take your wide peeler and peel your orange from top to bottom and then you're going to have a nice little piece. And you can go like kind of around the corner if you want it to be a little bit longer. We're going to have our orange as well. And then we're going to cut a little bit of red onion. And this is going to be a non-cooked element that is just going to add a little bit of freshness and a little bit of bite to the finished product. So now we're going to go pop this over to the stove and heat it really gently for eight to 10-ish minutes. So we've got this gentle sizzle going and the edges of the orange are curling up and that's how you know it is good to go. And we can head back to the prep stand. Okay, so just to make sure that we're highlighting all the flavors in here and making sure they're as brought to the fore as possible, you're just going to do a pinch of salt and toss that around. We're just going to dump this over the top and then you're going to get all the bits and bobs. Get in there with your fork, spread everything around. Make sure there's a little bit of everything everywhere. Kind of want to arrange things so that you've got nice, like, accessibility to boquerones. Nobody has to dig too deep to get to a fish. We're going to squeeze our other half of our orange over it so we just get a little bit more of that sweetness. And then we're going to take a little bit of sherry vinegar just for some added sharpness. We're going to finish with our red onion. So just a couple pieces here and there. And so now we're just going to finish this with a little bit of flaky salt. Nobody was ever mad at flaky salt. A little bit of pepper. Sorry, I forgot the pepper. So there you have it. These are the boquerones with olives and orange. We are now making marinated mozzarella and pepperdos with chili and thyme. This is a really great recipe that takes literally two minutes to make. Almost no time at all. And it gets better as it sits. First, we're going to put our mozzarella pearls. I'm sure you've seen them, like, olive bar fodder as well. So cute. These guys and these guys' pepperdo peppers are often both in, like, an olive bar, pepper bar portion of your grocery store. We're going to arrange them both in this little serving dish. So now what we're going to do is we're going to make our flavorful marinade, which is just red wine vinegar. So we're going to go to the stove. All right, so we're warming our vinegar. So now we're going to grate in garlic. We're going to add a couple sprigs of thyme. We're going to add a little bit of Aleppo pepper and then just a big pinch of salt. And we're going to let that heat through for just about a minute. We're going to run that back to our cheese and our peppers. So what I'm going to do is take our thyme and I'm going to put that on our cheese. You can see it's got, like, little bits of garlic in there too. That's so flavorful and fun. And then we're going to dump all this flavorful liquid over the cheese and the peppers. We're just going to finish it again with a little bit of black pepper, a nice drizzle of olive oil, because right now it's just vinegar. So you kind of want that added glug of the oil. And then flaky salt, of course. Is it a fancy party snack if it doesn't have flaky salt on it? And that's that. That is our marinated mozzarella and peppadews with chili and thyme. We are now making some sizzled rosemary with salami, pecans, and dates. This is like charcuterie board plus one. I like a spicy salami here because it just adds a little more heat to the finished product. So now we're going to slice our salami about a quarter inch thick and make these really nice, fatty, spicy coins. Then we're going to pit some dates. You can just rip them open and tear them in half. Dates are great. They play off salty, fatty, meatiness, and also nuttiness really well. The pecans we're just going to use straight from the bag raw. So no need to do anything here. And now let's head to the stove. So what we're going to do is place our salami in a cold pan. We're starting it cold because that will render out the most fat from the salami. We want the meat itself to crisp up a little bit. And we also want that fat that cooks out to be in the bottom of the pan because that's going to be our cooking fat for everything else. So we're going to give it three minutes without touching and then give it the most time to really render out as much as possible. If you disturb it, it sort of like interrupts that process. So now we're going to toss for about a minute. And salami, obviously you can, it's cured, you can eat it right away. So it's not, we're not cooking anything here. We're just crisping it up. Okay, so now what we're going to do is use our slotted spoon to leave all the fat still in the pan and transfer our salami to this bowl. Now we're going to reduce the heat on our stove and throw in a couple sprigs of rosemary. They're just going to sizzle for like 30 seconds. So we're going to get a little bit of that rosemary flavor into the fat itself. All right, so right when you see the leaves starting to crisp, you can tilt those to the side. Make sure you leave all the fat you can back in the pan. And then you can just transfer your rosemary to your bowl. And now we're going to do pecans. You want to definitely get that roasty, toasty, nutty flavor. And then a big pinch of salt here. The fat is salty as well, but you really want the salt to be on the nuts itself. And then you're just going to start, toss it every couple, 30 seconds, every 20 seconds for about two minutes. We're pretty toasty here. We can almost turn off our heat. The residual heat that's here will heat through your dates and you can add back everybody else and give those dates a couple seconds to just heat through, get nice and warm and caramely. This is like, are you joking me? Everything in here is so alluring and delightful. And I just want to dive in there. It's just like a combination of textures and flavors. It's so fun. All right, and now we're just going to dump this bad boy right into a serving dish, making sure we can see that gorgeous rosemary sprigs. And we're going to finish it with a little flaky because why not? The salami is obviously salty, but the dates and the pecans can take it. They're all here. They're all done. All five quick snacks are ready to party. Friends, come to the party. Okay, let's dig in. I'm going in on a date. I'm going to have a little piece of this chip, just a little bit crispy. If I had a favorite, it's some hybrid between these three. Like you start here. We're building up. Put a little meat on top. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's a s'more. It's a s'more. We're going to be here snacking on the rest of these. But if you are in need for a quick recipe to feed company or just yourself, these are recipes for you and they're available on bonapetito.com.