TOP 10 BEST APPETIZERS OF THE YEAR! The MOST LOVED Recipes I Made!

I have hosted or attended many events this year around food from graduation parties to birthday parties to pampered chef parties. I have done them all and made so many appetizers and out of all of them these are my top 10 favorite appetizers of the year. The very last one is probably my favorite of the year so be sure to stick around for that. I'll also have for you an opportunity to have these recipes in a printed format so stay tuned to get those details as well. All right let's jump in and start with that first appetizer of the top 10 favorites of the year. This first appetizer is marinated cheese and the reason it's on the top 10 list is because it is so vibrant and so fresh and delicious. I start with one block of cream cheese and I am going to cut it down the middle in half and then I'm going to cut each of the halves in very thin slices about a quarter of an inch or even thinner for each. Now you want to make sure your cream cheese is cold it makes it easier to slice. Next I'm taking a shortcut with this sharp cheddar cheese that is already pre-sliced but I do have to trim it because I want it to be the exact same sizes of my cream cheese slices and that way everything will stack together nicely. So I'm going to make those into the right size and then I'm going to alternate between the two cheeses and I'm just going to continue that until the entire platter is full of all of the cheese squares and then we're going to get ready to make our marinade. We're going to start with half a cup of olive oil and then I also have a half a cup of white wine vinegar. This is a jar of diced pimentos. I'm going to do two ounces so half this jar, three cloves of minced garlic, three tablespoons of chopped parsley, three tablespoons of minced green onions, a teaspoon of sugar, and two teaspoons of fresh basil. You could also use dried but I wanted the real freshness here so I'm going with fresh basil and then a little bit of salt. We're going to whisk this all together. You can also do this in a mason jar to shake it all up. I pour my fresh herb vinaigrette all over the top of the cheese and let it just seep into all of that those herbs with that cheese. I'm going to let it sit overnight in the fridge. It's just going to get better and better and be so good. It was a hit. I highly suggest making it. I just served it with some wheat thins. You can use any cracker but the more it got to room temp throughout the party the better it got. This next appetizer made it on the top 10 list because of how easy and delicious it is. It is a crock pot appetizer, a dump and go, and it is a margarita chicken dip. We're starting with the chicken that I have shredded. This can either be from your rotisserie chicken or my husband just grilled up some chicken tenderloins on the grill. I add one block of cream cheese that I cut into cubes along with all of that diced up chicken and then I'm going to add two and a half cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and then to that I'm going to add a fourth a cup of lime juice. I'm going to add two tablespoons of orange juice. This is all freshly squeezed. This is a margarita dip so we're going to add tequila. This is a fourth a cup of tequila and I'm using the silver tequila. Then I'm going to add a sprinkle of salt. I also have here the zest of the lime. I'm going to add that in and I'm going to press one clove of garlic. I put this on the base of my crock pot and about halfway through the one hour of cooking I will stir it and make sure everything is melting nicely and then when it's done I'm going to top it with some pico de gallo that I just drained to get the liquid out and I'm also adding some fresh cilantro. My friends absolutely love this. It was the dip of the year. It is so easy and it is perfect to bring to any party. This next appetizer made it on my favorites list because it only requires three ingredients. Starting with this onion and garlic ancho chili crunch blend. This brand is from Kinder's but any chili crunch blend in oil will do. Next I'm adding sweet chili sauce. This brand is Frank's Red Hot. It's our favorite. Again any brand works here and I'm adding a half a cup of each of the sauces and then I'm going to mix that really well until it's well blended and before I pour the sauce onto my cheese I'm going to score my brie. This means I'm just cutting lines across the top in both directions. This lets the oil and flavor seep more into the cheese and helps it also melt easier. I pour all of the sauce covering the top and the sides of my brie and I'm going to bake it in an oven at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes just enough for the cheese to get melty. You could also put this in a cast iron skillet on your grill or your campfire and serve it with any bread or cracker or toasted baguette which is my favorite and this turns out to be such a creamy sweet with a kick of heat and I think anyone you serve it to is going to love it. I knew this next appetizer had to be on the top 10 because of how I put it on the table and as soon as I did everybody went right in for it. It draws you in with its gorgeous colors and of course it's amazing flavor. It is a bruschetta dip and I start with the garlic and herb aloe cheese. Any kind of garlic and herb cheese spread is going to do so great in this dip and all you have to do is just spread that out onto your serving tray and then we're going to top it with some cherry tomatoes. I did chop these in little pieces and then I added on top some chiffonade ribbons of fresh basil. Now you could serve it just like this with crackers but to take it up over the top I am going to drizzle on some balsamic glaze some balsamic vinegar glaze and that is going to add some sweetness and tanginess and the combination of flavors go so perfect together. This is the showstopper dip. This is what everybody is going to go to as soon as you add it to your party. Now this next appetizer I served at a game day party. I turned beef wellington which is a very fancy elevated dish into a simple appetizer using meatballs. So the first thing I do is make the and I'm going to finely thinly slice some onions. I'm going to take two white onions and one red onion and using my mandolin get them in really thin slices. Then I'm going to saute those in olive oil till they're nice and soft and caramelized and I'm going to add a little vinegar. Now I didn't have sherry vinegar on hand so I just used this rose balsamic vinegar. Any kind of vinegar is going to work it's just going to add that little tang and it's also going help in reduction. To the same pan I'll add a tablespoon of butter and olive oil and I'm going to add my sliced portobello mushrooms about a pound. When they're done I'm now ready to assemble my wellingtons and I start with my puff pastry sheet. I am only using one sheet and I've taken it out of the freezer and let it defrost. I'm using my rolling pin to smooth it out and get it a little thinner and a little longer. I am now going to use frozen meatballs but I've defrosted those in the microwave and so I put one spoonful of the onion mushroom mixture on top of the puff pastry sheet and then I'm adding my meatball right on top of that. I'm cutting my sheet into squares leaving just enough of the dough so I can wrap the meatball bundle up into all of the dough. After I have them all wrapped in bundles I am going to put them in my air fryer but I'm going to put them on the bake setting that way they get crisp without burning and I'm going to put an egg wash on them that'll give them a nice golden color. After 15 minutes they came out so nice and golden crispy on the outside decadent in the inside with the mushroom onion mixture and perfect with that meatball. It is so good and we serve these with a horseradish cream sauce that was the best condiment to complement these. This is definitely an appetizer you will want to make and speaking of making these appetizers I have the perfect thing in a printed format. What I have here is my 2026 Danielle Keller Creates calendar. I have a recipe for each month. Here I have the ingredients listed of everything in the recipe along with a QR code for scanning with the time stamp and the exact moment to go to the recipe in the video I created so you can follow along as I make these recipes. This calendar again has a appetizer for every month so one appetizer so you get 12 appetizer recipes. This calendar actually has extra appetizers than is in this current video and it makes a great gift either for your friends or for yourself. I'll leave a link in the description with all the details so you can check it out and I just love making these. I've been making them for two years now. It's my favorite thing to highlight all the appetizers I've made this year and speaking of which let's get back to those recipes. If you're keeping count this is number six. This is my sixth favorite appetizer I made this year. Now what I have here is a pizza crust and this one is special because I made it with my sourdough mix. I like many others have been in my sourdough era and I accidentally stumbled into it when somebody gave me a starter and I've been making lots of sourdough loaves in the meantime. However for this recipe I recommend if you are not in your sourdough era to just get the refrigerated pizza dough and just roll it out and make the crust. So what you are going to do is put the rolled out dough, make it long enough so it can accommodate a whole package of thinly sliced roasted turkey breast and then we're going to have nine pieces, nine slices of swiss cheese and then I'm just filling in the cracks and crevices with the shredded mozzarella cheese. Then I'm going to roll up my pizza dough and I'm going to make sure it's nice and tight and then I'm going to do slices so I create pinwheels. I'll put these pinwheels face up on a baking sheet. I'm going to put them in my oven at 375 for about 15 minutes once they're nice and golden and once I take them out of the oven I'm now gonna be brushing on this wonderful butter sauce. My sauce is Dijon mustard, honey, a little Worcestershire sauce and butter. I make sure to get that butter sauce not only on the tops but all over the sides so everything is just oozing with butter and so pillowy soft and these turned out amazing. These are definitely a crowd favorite. We absolutely love these. They are just the perfect texture and whether you use sourdough bread mix or whether you use just a store-bought refrigerated pizza dough, you're gonna end up with the same result. Delicious, cheesy, salty, buttery goodness. And this next appetizer that made it on the top 10 list is this sweet curry chicken salad. Starting with one block of softened cream cheese, eight ounces, one cup of mayonnaise, two teaspoons of curry powder, a teaspoon of salt and I'm going to mix that all together. Now it's ready for my other ingredients including this rotisserie chicken. Now I just took it all off the bone but I'm going to use my manual food chopper to get it into even smaller pieces. I think that's going to help make sure that every single bite has a lot of chicken in it. So I'm just going to chop up my chicken really finely and I'm going to dump it into the bowl with the mixture and now I'm also going to add eight ounces of crushed pineapple. I did drain it just a little bit and this is a 20 ounce can so I'm doing a third so eight ounces of that and then a half a cup of dried cranberries and I'll give everything a really good stir and once it's all combined I'm going to add it to my springform pan that you usually make a cheesecake in. It has removable sides and this is going to help form kind of a mold cake of this. It's going to present really well so I'm going to add all of the mixture onto here and I'm going to let it sit in the fridge overnight. Just before serving I will go ahead and detach the springform pan and now I have my chicken salad but I'm going to take these crushed up pistachios and get them all along the rim. Sprinkle some on top. I also have an orange wedge for garnish. You could do any garnishes on top. Serve it with some wheat thins. You could serve it with any cracker and this was so good. The balance of the fruits with the curry is so yummy. Everybody absolutely loved this. I served it at a graduation party and it was an absolute hit. This next appetizer is so delicious and you'll see why it made the top 10 list. I am making these chicken dumplings. I start with a pound of ground chicken or you could use ground turkey. I'm adding a teaspoon of ginger paste and a tablespoon of minced garlic. I also have this broccoli slaw or you could use like cabbage slaw. Something that has a little crunch to it. So I add about a cup of that to the mix. Then I'm going to blend that with some soy sauce. About two tablespoons as well as a little bit of sesame oil. I add a splash of mirin and I'm going to make sure I combine everything really well and then I'm going to set that aside while I prepare my wontons. I have these wonton wraps. I'm going to put one in each of the muffin cups that I've sprayed with olive oil spray and I'm also going to put some oil in the cup just to help with flavor and make sure everything is also going to be brown nicely. I take a scoop with my medium scoop and put a dollop of each into the muffin cup and then I'm going to bake these into my oven 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. While those are cooking I'm going to make a sauce. I have two tablespoons of red curry paste to it. I'm going to add a teaspoon of sesame oil. I'm going to add a splash of that mirin. I'm going to add a little bit of the ginger paste as well as some soy sauce and a little bit of oil. I stir that up until it's nice and smooth and now that my dumplings are out of the oven I'm going to top them with some chopped green onions, a little bit of that sauce and also a little bit of sesame seeds. That's going to make everything just look so elevated. The colors really work well together and I made about 22 of these so they were perfect to make a whole appetizer plate and also enjoy them for dinner one night. These were just so good. They'd be perfect for a New Year's Eve party or any other event and now you can see why they made the top 10 list. This one was a favorite because I had it at one of my fall parties and everybody loved it. They kept raving about this. This is a wrapped brie. I have one sheet of puff pastry. I just pinch the seams together and I have here this pumpkin honey butter spread. You can use any kind of pumpkin butter. You could use apple putter but for the fall I do recommend finding pumpkin butter because this went so well. I went ahead and put about two tablespoons on the puff pastry sheet. I smooth that out and then I take my brie wheel. Before I lay it down I score it meaning I take my knife and I make lines through the cheese in both directions. That's going to help everything melt faster and it's also going to help that butter spread just ooze into the crevices. Then I trim the excess dough and I wrap it up like a present. Next I'm using three pieces of baker's twine. I'm going to bring it underneath and then tie it up on the front which is actually the bottom and I'm trying to get crevices that look like pumpkin indentions. Once I have that I'm going to flip it over put it on my baking sheet. I have a baguette that I've drizzled with olive oil and I'm also going to put an egg wash on top of the brie wheel so it gets a nice golden crust. Into the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes until it looks like this. Everything is golden brown. It smells amazing. I used two little sage leaves for the leaves of the pumpkin and half a cinnamon stick for the stem and let me tell you everybody kept going back to this. Couldn't get enough of it because the flavors just work so well together. It was decadent and creamy and delicious and it is definitely going to be a hit if you make it at your party. And here we are number 10 the best appetizer I made this year. I made this recently. What I have here is a takeout meal of cashew chicken. This is breaded chicken with a sauce, cashew sauce. It's more like a gravy and it's savory than sweet and it comes with cashews and green onions. I decided I wanted to turn this into a dip because cashew chicken is so popular where we live. It actually originated here and so I knew my friends would love that I turned the number one specialty dish around this area into a dip. All right so I finally chopped my breaded chicken and I actually pull out my manual food chopper to help me get it into really fine small pieces and then I'm going to add all of that to a big mixing bowl along with one block of cream cheese that I have softened to room temperature. The whole container of that cashew sauce as well as two tablespoons of chopped green onions. I'm going to blend all this with my hand mixer and actually later I did add another half block of cream cheese to make it extra creamy. Now if you can't find this cashew chicken meal at your Chinese restaurants you can also do this with sweet and sour chicken and the more I started thinking about it I thought this would also be really good with general sour chicken with that extra spicy kick. So you can be so creative with this and I've got all these ideas and you'll probably see them in future videos. All right let's get back to our dish. We're going to put it into a baking dish. We're going to bake this in an oven at 350 degrees just until the cheese warms through. Everything is already cooked so I'm just looking to heat it through and then I'm going to drizzle on top the cashew sauce. So I got two on the side so I had an extra one to drizzle on top. I put it in a little baggie snipped off the end so I could do this drizzle effect and then I also added on top they had the little container of cashews and green onions so I sprinkled those on top and then I added a little bit more of the green onions that I've chopped. I put those on top. I think this turned out so great but what else really helped to make this an elevated dish was I served it with these wonton chips. So what I do is I take wonton wraps and I cut them in half and then I brush on sesame oil and then I sprinkle on some garlic salt. I put them in the air fryer they go super fast like three four minutes in the air fryer and I serve them all around my cashew chicken dip and doesn't this look amazing? My friends absolutely loved this. They thought it was creative and delicious and just the perfect thing to add to all of our party foods. And those were the top 10 appetizers I made this year. Be sure to leave a comment let me know which was your favorite and don't forget I have my Danielle Keller Creates calendar with these appetizers and more available for you. The link is in the description box. As always thank you so much for watching. Be sure to like and subscribe and I will see you on the next video.