Football Charcuterie Board
Celebrate game day in style with this versatile, easy football charcuterie board. You can make a fun football cheese ball as the centerpiece of the board and fill in around it.
Why Make This Charcuterie Board?
Superbowl Sunday is coming up fast, and there is no easier appetizer to make to keep everyone happy during the big game. It takes less than half an hour and requires zero cooking skills or special tools.
It’s also easily customizable to you and your guest’s tastes. You can add sweet and savory items to your board, making it truly unique.
Common Ingredients for a Football Charcuterie
Traditionally, a charcuterie board is a selection of meats, but recent trends have an endless variety of delicious food types. Technically, this would be more appropriately named a grazing board or grazing platter. Some ingredients to consider adding are:
- Meat: Deli meats like pepperoni, salami, ham, prosciutto, chorizo, or summer sausage. Make a fun meat rose that will take less than five minutes but you’ll look like a pro. You can even add chicken wings to a football charcuterie. Pigs in a blanket are also a fun idea to add to a football charcuterie. Mini pepperoni pizzas would also be a good choice.
- Cheeses: Choose your favorite cheeses. Some popular favorites are cheddar, Colby Jack, Swiss, provolone, blue, brie, and gouda are good choices. Learn how to fold cheeses in this post. We even included a buffalo-flavored gouda for this board. (Go Bills!) We also added a cheese ball in the shape of a football to this board. More on that later.
- Veggies: Carrot, bell pepper, cucumbers or celery sticks are all good. You could also use broccoli florets, small, tender asparagus spears, or anything else you like.
- Fruits: Some popular fruits are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, oranges, melons, apples and cherry tomatoes.
- Dips or Condiments: Homemade or store-bought favorite dip like French onion dip, shrimp dip, guacamole, ranch dip or hummus. Condiments like fancy mustard or mayonnaise.
- Accoutrements: Pickles, olives, peppers and the like. Place them in small bowls.
- Bread and Crackers: An assortment of bread, crackers, tortilla chips, pretzels or potato chips.
How to Make a Football Cheeseball
Ingredients
- Cream cheese
- Cheddar cheese
- Bacon
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Hot sauce
- Chives
- Parsley: dried or fresh
- Garlic and Onion powder
- Pecans
- Slice of white cheese to cut for the laces of the football.
How to Make it
Place all of the ingredients in a medium bowl.
Mix the ingredients together by hand, with a mixer or with a food processor.
Spoon the ingredients into a pile on the board that you plan to serve on or on a plate large enough to accommodate.
Pulse pecans in a food processor until they are fine but not too fine. Push the nuts onto the sides of the football and over the top.
Brush excess nuts off of the board with a kitchen brush. Cut slices of white cheese to form the lacing of the football.
Prepare the rest of your ingredients. Arrange them on your chosen board. Place dips in small ramekins or bowls.
How to Store Leftovers
Scoop off any leftovers from the board with a spatula for the dip. Place it on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Do not freeze.
For the other cheeses and meat, place like items in separate store containers. Use within 3-4 days. If your board stayed out for more than two hours, it’s best to discard any meat or cheese for food safety reasons.
Most fruits and vegetables can be stored in containers and refrigerated for several days. Some items like apples and pears will brown, so if you don’t want to eat them when brown, discard them too.
What Type of Board to Use
The best answer is whatever you have in the house. Use a cutting board, tray, serving platter, or anything else that is convenient and that you have on hand. You don’t need one huge board, small boards scattered around the room can be fun, too. Your guests can mingle and try new things on every board.
Other Helpful Things For Your Board
Be sure to have some utensils on your board. You’ll need spoons for scooping out dips and olives. Small forks for pickles, meats and cheeses. Cheese knives if you have any uncut cheese on your board.
This football charcuterie is an easy party food to make for tailgate parties, Super Bowl Sunday, or any watch party.
See More Grazing Platters and Charcuterie
- Crudités Platter
- Seafood Charcuterie
- Valentine’s Day Charcuterie
- Charcuterie Board for Two
- Grazing Platter
- Memorial day, Labor day, Fourth of July Platter
- Halloween Charcuterie
- Thanksgiving Board
- Christmas Dessert Board
Football Charcuterie
Ingredients
- 2½ pound mixed cheeses. Pick some of your favorite and try something new!
- 2½ pounds mixed meats
- mixed seasonal fruit or vegetables
- bread or crackers
- you can get creative, and add other items, to taste
For the Football Cheeseball
- 1 16-ounce cream cheese
- ¾ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 4 slices bacon, crisped
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon bottled hot sauce
- ¼ cup chopped chives
- ¼ cup carrot grated
- 1 teaspoon parsley fresh or dried
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoons onion powder
- ½ cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 slice white deli cheese
Instructions
For the Board
- Slice cheeses into bite sized pieces and arrange on board.2½ pound mixed cheeses. Pick some of your favorite and try something new!
- Arrange meat in bite-sized pieces on board.2½ pounds mixed meats
- Wash and slice fruit into bite sized pieces.you can get creative, and add other items, to taste, mixed seasonal fruit or vegetables
- Add broken bite-sized pieces of fresh bread or cut baguette slices and toast to make crostini. You can also use your favorite crackers, pretzels and bagel chips.bread or crackers
- Add sauces, dips, condiments, pickles, olives, or hummus in small bowls.
- Arrange everything on your board and enjoy!
For the Cheeseball
- Soften the cream cheese to room temperature. Grate the cheddar cheese.1 16-ounce cream cheese, ¾ cup grated cheddar cheese
- Crisp the bacon in your oven or air fryer.4 slices bacon, crisped
- Finely grate the carrot. Chop the chives.¼ cup chopped chives, ¼ cup carrot
- Add the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, chives, carrots, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and spices to a medium bowl. Mix them together well by hand, with a mixer or in a food processor.1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon bottled hot sauce, 1 teaspoon parsley, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoons onion powder
- Spoon the mixture onto the board or a plate you'd like to serve it. Shape it into a football shape with your hands.
- Using your hands, push the chopped pecans onto the sides of the football. Add the remainder to the top.½ cup finely chopped pecans
- Slice thin pieces of the sliced white cheese. Cut them down so that they fit on the cheeseball, and place them so that they resemble the stitching on a football.1 slice white deli cheese
See all of my favorite tools and gift ideas on my New Amazon Store!Check out Binky’s Amazon Store!Notes
- salami
- ham
- bacon
- sausage
- pork
- turkey
- pate
- cheddar
- Swiss
- muenster
- Mimolette
- gouda
- provolone
- brie
- Alouette type
- cream cheese blends
- port wine cheese
- chutter
- Stilton cheeses
- apple
- pear
- grape
- orange
- pineapple
- cantaloupe
- melons
- apricot
- peach
- plum
- dried cranberries
- olives
- capers
- mayonnaise
- mustards
- dips
- jams or jellies
- pickles, vegetables, or peppers
bomb
Thanks so much!