An easy Thanksgiving charcuterie snack board
Updated for 2022
Save this Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board recipe for the upcoming holiday season festivities. These snack boards make a great addition at both large or small family thanksgiving celebrations as well as a Friendsgiving get-together.
What is a Charcuterie board?
The traditional charcuterie board is the pretty-as-a-picture platter with small bowls of nuts, decorative swirls of a variety of meats, and a selection of hard and soft cheeses.
Snack boards for a crowd post-pandemic
Recognizing that in the post-pandemic world, we’re still very much preoccupied with hygiene, so what is a hostess to do? Create individual charcuterie boards?
If you’re not up for THAT, here is a more realistic alternative and a new take on serving suggestions for your 2022 holiday boards. These four delicious appetizers offer a variety of flavors for your guests to enjoy before you sit down for the big meal on Thanksgiving day. The best part is they can be picked up individually for a little less commingling of germy hands and cheese knives!
Using a combination of muffin liners, toothpicks and small skewers, you can still display these on a beautiful wooden platter for very Instagrammable focal points at your family gathering.
Ham, Cranberries, and Brie ala Ritz
Forget the baked brie--you need the oven space! This easy Thanksgiving appetizer requires no cooking and is the perfect sweet and salty pairing for holiday food! The best part is all the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store!
Ingredients:
▢ Sliced Ham
▢ Cranberry sauce
▢ Brie cheese
Bacon Wrapped Dates
Sweet and savory magic! Pairing savory meat (bacon or prosciutto), dried fruits (dates work best), and blue cheese and you’ve got the perfect appetizer for turkey day.
Step-by-step instructions:
Just wrap bacon (or prosciutto) around the pitted dates (pro tip: add a little blue cheese inside and you’ve got a little bite of heaven!)
Greek Salad on a Stick
Ingredients:
▢ Feta cheese (block, no crumbles)
▢ Dried oregano
▢ Olive oil
▢ Kalamata olives
▢ Grape tomatoes halved (optional)
▢ Mini cucumbers sliced
Step-by-step instructions:
Cut the block of feta cheese into cubes. Mix up a bowl with a few tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with oregano. Toss the feta cubes into the mixture.
Thread skewers in this order: olives, tomatoes, cucumber slices and feta cubes. Serve immediately or assemble a few hours in advance, cover them and pop them in the fridge in an airtight container. Plan to let them come to room temperature about 20 minutes before serving.
Pro tip: Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice before serving.
BLT bites
Ingredients:
▢ 1 box Saltine Crackers
▢ 2 packs of bacon
▢ 1 bag of romaine lettuce
▢ 3 Tbsp ranch dressing (Caesar, Italian or dressing of choice)
▢ Sun Dried Tomato Paste
If you can’t find this, you can also make a sun-dried tomato paste by blending a jar of sun-dried tomatoes with a can of tomato paste. In that case, you will need 12 oz jar sundried tomatoes and 1 small can of tomato paste.
Step-by-step instructions:
Start by cooking your bacon in the oven. Lay strips of bacon over slightly crinkled aluminum foil for 15 minutes at 400 F. Flip bacon halfway through. Cook longer if you prefer bacon crispier. When finished, break bacon strips into 3-4 pieces to top the crackers.
For the saltine crackers, lay them on a baking sheet and brush with butter. Bake them for 7 minutes at 350 degrees for a crispy, delicious cracker!
Next, dress your lettuce by adding dressing to lettuce in a bowl and mixing.
Then add small spoonfuls of sundried tomato paste to the crackers, top with pieces of the dressed lettuce, and then top with a piece of crispy bacon.
If you want a "closed" sandwich, top with an additional cracker.
Sweet treats
To balance out all the savory on the board, we need a selection of sweets too! You know the expression, “there is no such thing as a bad dessert?” That most definitely applies! Just pick up a selection of items like fresh fruits, dark chocolate, yogurt or chocolate covered pretzels in individual portions for an easy grab-and-go sweet fix until your guests get to indulge at the post-meal dessert table.
Quantity Calculator
If preparing a traditional charcuterie board, you’d multiply 1/2 ounce of meat and 1/2 ounce of cheese times the quantity of people you’re hosting. If you’re going to serve appetizers on a snack board, a good rule is to serve 5 appetizers per person. Be sure to factor how long your guests will be enjoying appetizers before the meal. You can expect guests to eat about 4-5 appetizers each during the first hour.
How many appetizers do I need to prep?
Here’s a quick breakdown that factors in both the number of guests and how long you’re feeding them until dinner is served:
Shopping List
There is nothing fussy about our selections! We have curated recipes that you are likely to already have on hand. If not, rest assured, you can find all of the items at your local grocery store. If you’re looking to stretch your dollar a little further during the holidays, Trader joe is tough to beat for both selection and price!
Produce
▢ dates
▢ romaine lettuce
▢ fresh fruit for embellishments (look for the best value for your money)
▢ grape tomatoes (optional)
▢ mini cucumbers
Cheese
▢ blue cheese
▢ brie cheese
▢ feta cheese (block, no crumbles)
Meat
▢ bacon
▢ sliced Ham
Grocery
▢ cranberry sauce
▢ sun dried tomato paste
▢ ranch dressing
▢ saltine crackers
▢ dark chocolate
▢ yogurt or chocolate covered pretzels
▢ dried oregano
▢ olive oil
▢ kalamata olives
Preparing for your guests
Assemble the appetizers for your board a few hours before guests arrive. Plate the appetizers and secure in plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge. Remove about 30 minutes before serving so the cheese has time to come to room temperature.
Finishing touches
This is the fun part! Fill the empty spaces on your board with plenty of colors, flavors, and festive flair. Add seasonal produce like sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme, red or green grapes, mandarin oranges to make the board as pretty as it is delicious! For a truly festive Thanksgiving Charcuterie board, you’ll need some decorative embellishments like mini pumpkins, corn husks, candy corn, or pumpkin seeds.
Did you know?
Fun fact: Charcuterie (pronounced: shar-KOO-ta-REE) is a french word dating back to the 15th century. Literally translated, it means “the products of a fancy pork butcher.”
Share your board!
If you follow these tips to make your own fall board thanksgiving or special occasion, let us know! Take a picture and tag @honestwoodcraft on Instagram or Facebook so we can reshare it. We have so much fun seeing what you come up with!
About the author
Husband and wife team Jason and Erin created Honest Woodcraft in 1999 with a simple goal of bringing nature home. At Honest Woodcraft our hardwood products are a natural choice for entertaining as they are durable, functional and stylish enough to take center stage. Visit our shop or give us a follow on Instagram or Facebook.
