Appetizers are an often overlooked part of any meal, with the main course and arguably desserts taking the spotlight of any meal.
And yeah, it makes sense that main meals should get the attention they need, but that doesn’t mean that you have to cut back on appetizers!
They’re often some of the most fun that you can get with recipes, with tons of different ways to make them interesting for you or your guests to enjoy them.
Take sticks or skewers, for example. Not only are they helpful tools for keeping your hands clean when cooking and eating food, but they also open up a world of creativity when it comes to how you can present your food.
Don’t believe us? Just check out the following recipes that we have gathered for you here, and see what we mean!
1. Antipasto Skewers
Starting this list with an absolute classic when it comes to appetizers, we have an antipasto salad that has found its way onto a miniature skewer recipe!
As you’ll quickly find with many of the recipes here, there are just as many skewered appetizers that can be made cold as there are cooked ones.
This particular dish is a very popular type of dish to make if you love Italian cuisine and flavors. That combination of classic Italian dressings and mozzarella is incredible when served fresh!
2. Lemongrass & Sriracha Grilled Chicken Skewers
Chicken is a very popular ingredient to try skewered, and this is just the recipe to try this method with!
Sriracha is the perfect complement to a dish that has just a little bitterness and flour flavors to it already!
3. Rainbow Veggie Skewers
Of course, not every skewer dish has to be filled with meats or cheeses for it to taste great. There are also plenty of vegetable appetizer stick recipes that you can try.
And, for our money at least, this is one of our favorites!
It is a rainbow of colors on display here!
4. Spicy Lemon Chicken Kebabs
Spices and lemons flavors seem to go hand in hand, with this being our second dish so far to have these two flavor combinations.
If you’re looking for the best way to bring out all the flavors, don’t forget to grill the lemon on the skewer too!
5. Cuban Sandwich On A Stick
This particular skewer recipe is a simple Cuban-inspired dish that only takes 4 ingredients to throw together to make. So you’ll always have a recipe on hand when you want to put your appetizer on a stick!
Plus, with no cooking involved, it can be whipped up and served quickly as a flash too!
6. Greek Salad Sticks
Greek salads are always a popular dish at any gathering, being both full of flavor, as well as being super healthy!
Plus, these stick appetizers are also vegetarian-friendly! What more could you ask for?
7. Fajita Chicken Kebabs
Fajita chicken and skewers are a match made in heaven when it comes to the main course. So why wouldn’t they be a phenomenal starter dish too?
If you find the portions here a little too big for a single person’s starter, simply spread your ingredients out over more skewers, so long as you have them handy!
8. Balsamic Glazed Beef Skewers
Beef skewers are likewise an ever, popular option when it comes to main course meals, so turning these into a mini version of themselves for an appetizer course is a no-brainer, as far as we are concerned!
And of course, with a bed of rice served by them, they can easily be served as a full meal as well!
9. Greek Appetizer On A Stick
You can never have enough Greek salad when it comes to a simple and easy appetizer, so of course, we’d bring in another amazing skewer recipe for you to try!
Make sure you have plenty of olives, grape tomatoes, and feta cheese handy for this dish (and skewers, of course)!
10. Homemade Mini Corn Dogs
Ah, the humble corn dog. Wrapped in batter with a juicy succulent center.
It’s practically begging to be put on a stick at a table, not just at a county fair!
11. Tempeh & Cucumber On A Stick
This is the perfect dish to make for yourself if you’re looking to avoid meats on your mini skewers.
Tempeh is a staple dish in its own right in Indonesia, where this little nugget of goodness is made from fermented soybeans. This also makes this a great recipe for vegans as well as vegetarians!
12. Pizza On A Stick
Pizza might be one of THE most popular dishes in the world.
So of course we’re going to love a recipe that manages to combine these all-time favorites into an appetizer that is both novel and delicious!
And of course, this is still a pizza dish, so feel free to mess around with whatever kind of filling your heart (and your belly) desires!
13. Mini Cheese Balls On A Stick
Cheese balls are a very popular snack bite or appetizer across the world. However, many of the best recipes often have breadcrumbs or batter outsides. Tasty for sure, but also a mess to have to handle.
Unless, of course, you’re putting those cheese balls on a little skewer for handy eating. Then, you have clean eating as well as a brilliant appetizer dish to try!
14. Easy Meatballs
Everyone loves meatballs, in all the forms they come. Italian, Swedish, and Tex-Mex, they’re probably some of the most ubiquitous ways to prepare meat out there. You can even put them in a sub sandwich, for cry out loud!
So of course we’d love to have them as part of an appetizer course!
These particular meatballs have a delightful sauce on them that makes them even better to the taste (as well as kind of making skewers necessary for keeping your hands clean)!
And if you don’t have time to make your meatballs, store-bought also works fine!
15. Italian Grinder On A Stick
We’re back to the Italian flavor with this next appetizing… well, appetizer!
Italian Grinder is perhaps one of the most popular types of sub sandwich out there, but they can often be pretty heavy on the carbs, thanks to the bread buns they are served in.
But here, there’s nothing to fear of unhealthy carbs in this little dish!
16. Fruit & Cheese Kebab
This is the perfect party appetizer that you can have prepared for when your guests come well in advance.
Both fruit and cheese are popular items to have on cocktail sticks at a party, but it feels like you never see them mixed. Guess the sweetness of the fruit and the savory flavors of the cheese are too much for some people.
But here, with the right type of cheese and fruit carefully chosen, you have a dish that is perfect for getting people’s taste buds working!
17. Pizza Sticks
Just as there is more than one kind of pizza out there, of course, there is going to be more than one recipe for pizza on a stick!
One of the things that we love about this kind of pizza is how much less mess there is when eating it. While you may be cleaning up a surface and yourself for ages after, this pizza stick makes eating them hassle and mess-free!
18. Prawn Pinchos With Smoky Paprika Mayo On A Stick
Prawns are another popular food that is a staple of appetizer courses, so you’d better believe that we’d find a good recipe that lets it be skewered like this!
This pincho recipe serves your perfectly prepared prawns n a bed of other tasty ingredients, but it is also a simple matter of getting them all onto a cocktail stick or skewer when you’re looking for convenience.
19. Smoked Ham On A Skewer
Mmm. Smoked ham. It’s a simple pleasure, but one that’s so good when it is done well.
And you’re telling us that we can have it ready to bite into on a stick?
Sign us up!
20. Pasta Salad On A Stick
Okay, so there may be some people that are raising their eyebrows at this one a little. As if pizzas weren’t enough, now we want to put pasta salad on a skewer?
Well, if you think of them less as pasta salad balanced on a stick, and more like antipasto salad with a little pasta extra, suddenly it starts to make a lot more sense!
21. Chicken Satay With Peanut Butter Sauce
Chicken satay and peanut butter sauce go together like… well, peanut butter and jelly. It is a bona fide classic dip to serve with chicken that has been prepared just right!
So, if you’re looking to keep this classic Thai dish easy on the taste buds, but clean off your hands at the same time, you may want to consider skewering those chicken fillets you have.
Plus, with the spiciness of this particular peanut butter sauce, you have a dish that is plenty interesting both to bite into as well as how it sits in your mouth!
22. Tomato Basil Peach Skewers
Probably better known by most people as a Caprese skewer, these little mouthfuls of juicy goodness and sweet flavor are a treat to make and serve.
Plus, after having so many cooked recipes to try out in the run-up to this one, it’s kind of nice to see a dish that requires little to no cooking time for a change!
23. Bourbon Brat Skewers
Now, if you’re looking to go all-out when it comes to your cooked and skewered appetizers, you have recipes like this to keep you interested and engaged in your cooking!
With both the brat and the vegetables soaked in a beautiful bourbon-base sauce, how could not love a recipe like this? It’s both interesting to prepare and cook and has just the right amount of heat when eaten and in your belly.
If you want to make something special for that party you’re hosting tomorrow, this is a great way to kick off your meal!
24. Caramel Apple Skewers
This might seem more like a dessert recipe than it does an appetizer at first.
However, once you consider that appetizers are just as much meant for easy grazing at a party as they are for benign presented before the main course, you’ll find that these are the perfect sweet treat to have at the ready!
25. Miso Sesame Grilled Chicken Skewers
Miso is perhaps the most popular flavor that is associated with Japanese cuisine (it’s a coin flip between that and teriyaki, at least for us).
Glazed in a purpose-made sauce that will melt in your mouth, complemented by some roasted sesame seeds for good measure, this is a dish that you’ll want second helpings of!
26. Spicy Shrimp & Watermelon Kebabs
Finally, if you love your flavors tropical and grilled at the same time, we cannot recommend this particular recipe enough!
Are There Any Cheese Snacks on Sticks That I Need to Try?
Looking for cheese snack recommendations? Well, you’re in for a treat! Have you tried cheese snacks on sticks yet? These delightful bites offer the perfect combination of convenience and deliciousness.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is a big question for many people who might enjoy eating appetizers on a stick but are unsure of how exactly to go about making them for the first time.
Which is fair. Many of the recipes we’ve covered may lean towards the more complicated side of recipes, especially for what are supposed to be smaller portions.
Generally speaking, two factors will affect the complexity of a recipe:
-How many ingredients are you using?
-Does it need to be cooked?
Appetizer recipes, and even recipes in general, will generally be easier to work with if they use fewer ingredients. If you aren’t confident in your skills just yet, try to stick to recipes that use two or three ingredients overall (not including your skewers).
Recipes that do not need to be cooked will also not only make your recipes less complicated but also a much quicker preparation time too!
When it comes to skewered appetizers, just as important as cooking them is making sure that they are presented well too!
They can be served either hot or cold, as well as either part of the larger meal, or simply on their own as a true appetizer course to wet the palette.
Depending on how formal the event is, appetizers can be left on a table before guests are seated, at least at an informal gathering.
That’s kind of the beauty of food on sticks or skewers: They can often be tailored to an event as much as they can be to a specific palette!
This will usually depend on the type of food that is being used in the appetizer.
Generally speaking, the only foods that you’ll be cooking on a stick or skewer are seafood or meats, as most cheeses will simply melt off of a skewer.
Most meat will cook in the oven at a medium-high temperature between 15 and 20 minutes, though you should check with the recipe you are working with in case they need to be cooked longer or shorter than this.
Final Thoughts
Well, there you have it!
From hot to cold, from mild to spicy, from veggie-friendly to meat lover’s favorite, there are so many potential ideas here for you to try for your appetizer course.
So, which of these tasty bite-sized snacks will you try first?
26 Appetizers On Sticks You Need To Try
Appetizers are often a tricky dish to make interesting, especially with relatively little food. However, if you have a few skewers handy, then you’re set!
Ingredients
Directions
- Pick a recipe from above
- Click the recipe name and visit the website
- Collect the ingredients and the food
- Enjoy – don’t forget to leave a review
Recipe Video
Cooking is great for your mental, physical, and emotional health. What’s the worst that could happen? Find a recipe that you like the sound of and cook it along with me. You might even unlock a new passion!
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