Football season runs about five months, and you are going to feed people for most of them. Early on it is a folding table and a grill in warm weather. By January it is a thermos and whatever holds heat. The food has to work for both.

So three things are worth sorting out early: a wing method you trust, one dip you can make without a recipe, and one big pot of something that feeds everybody. Get those down in September and you have solved every Sunday between now and the playoffs.

Here are our best Game Day and Tailgating recipes and ideas to make, from the first Football Sunday to the last.

6 Essental Chicken Wing Recipes for Football

Wings are the one food nobody questions on a Sunday, in September or in January, so this is where to start. Six versions here, which is enough to rotate all season without repeating yourself.

Dry-Brined and Crispy

Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings teaches you the technique everything else builds on, and it solves the problem that keeps people from smoking wings at all: smoked wings are usually rubbery. The fix is a dry brine of baking powder and salt the night before, which pulls moisture out of the skin and raises its pH so it browns and blisters instead of steaming. Then a low smoke with fruit wood, no fryer, no oil, nothing to clean up but the grate.

What comes off is skin that shatters when you bite it and meat that tastes like smoke all the way through rather than just on the outside.

Our recipe for Zesty Dill Pickle Wings uses the same principle with kosher salt and Big Dill Pickle Seasoning, then finishes with more after cooking. Gas grill, air fryer, or oven all work, which makes it the most flexible wing here.

Sauced and Spicy, or Sticky and Sweet

Buttermilk and Buffalo-Glazed Wings is the chicken wing everybody typically wants, and the buttermilk soak is why this version beats the wings at the bar. It tenderizes the meat and gives the coating something to grab, so the glaze clings instead of sliding off into a puddle at the bottom of the bowl.

Make our Buffalo Wing Sauce from scratch while they cook and you will never buy the bottle again. It takes about as long as finding the bottle in the door of the fridge, and you control exactly how hot it gets.

Our recipe for Vietnamese-Style Caramel Wings is the sweet outlier of the whole group. Maple syrup, butter, lime, and fish sauce cooked down with Salted Caramel Spice, which sounds wrong on chicken and absolutely is not. The fish sauce keeps it savory rather than sweet, and it lands closer to sticky barbecue than dessert.

Beyond the Usual Suspects

Black Truffle Parmesan Chicken Wings is three ingredients. Wings, salt, and Black Truffle Parmesan Seasoning, with grated parmesan and parsley at the end. That is it, and it tastes like something off a steakhouse appetizer menu.

Two tablespoons go on for the dry brine and the last one goes on after cooking, which is the trick. Truffle is volatile and the aroma cooks off, so seasoning again at the end is what puts that smell back on the plate right as you set it down. Grill, air fryer, or oven all work.

Garlic Chile Crunch Wings does what chili crisp does without the oil. Garlic Chile Crunch turns wings slick and soft within minutes; this is a dry seasoning, so you get the same garlicky heat and crunch while the skin stays crisp enough to hear.

Serve them with the Smoky Honey Yogurt Dip (recipe further down), since a cool honeyed yogurt against that heat is the pairing the recipe was built for.

If you are only buying two jars for the season, buy these two.Buffalo Wing Seasoning covers the wing everybody expects, and Big Dill Pickle Seasoning covers the one they will ask about. Both work as a dry brine, both finish the wings after cooking, and both end up in a bowl of sour cream by the second quarter.

Tip on Chicken Wings: Frozen wings are fine, but they have to be thawed completely and patted bone dry, because the ice crystals are why frozen wings steam instead of crisp. And if you bought a bag of wings that came pre-seasoned, do not try to reseason them. Most are salt-forward and one-note, and adding more just makes them saltier. Give people something to dip them in instead, which is what the next section is for.

Game Day Dip Recipes, and What to Dip in Them

You really need more than one dip to serve for the big game, and they should not all be the same temperature or texture. The other half of the job is what goes next to them, which is the part most spreads get wrong.

Dips for Chicken Wings

Mt. Elbert Ranch Dip is just 3 ingredients and takes only 5 minutes: combine sour cream, buttermilk, and two tablespoons of our famous Mt. Elbert All-Purpose Seasoning. That is the whole recipe, and it is genuinely better than anything sold in a plastic tub, because bottled ranch is built to survive a warehouse and this one is built to taste like buttermilk and herbs. Plus as it sits, the flavors meld, and it tastes even better.

A cool, tangy ranch against a hot wing is the entire reason ranch exists. Make this first, make double, and it will also handle the carrots, the celery, and anything you pulled out of a fryer.

If your crowd is blue cheese people, that side of the argument is just as easy and worth putting out alongside. Stir 2 ounces of crumbled blue cheese into a quarter cup each of sour cream and mayonnaise, add a tablespoon of lemon juice and a sliced scallion, then season with Salt & Pepper Tableside Seasoning. It came to us from a longtime customer at our Platte Street spice store, alongside her recipe for Vindaloo Wings, and it stands up to any other chicken wing recipe featured on this page.

Beyond those two important classics, each of our wing recipes has a dip built for it specifically. Creamy Dill Pickle Ranch Sauce is another good one, specifically for the pickle wings, and it doubles as the sauce for a chicken sandwich or wrap to be eaten later in the week.

Smoky Honey Yogurt Dip is built for our garlic chile crisp wings, using the same jar of Garlic Chile Crunch plus honey, smoked paprika, and Greek yogurt. Five minutes, and the honey against that chile heat is the reason those wings work.

And our recipe for Shallot Herb Dip was developed for our truffle parm wings. Tangy and herby, it can be made a full day ahead, and it is the one that makes those wings taste like a restaurant appetizer rather than a party tray.

Dip Tip: Mix any sour cream or yogurt dip the night before if you can. The seasoning needs time to hydrate, bloom, and meld, and a dip made 12 hours ahead tastes noticeably deeper than one made 12 minutes prior. Every dip recipe in this section holds a full game day in the fridge.

Dips for Potato Chips, Crackers, or Pretzels

Classic onion dip is the one people actually reach for, and with us you do not need a full recipe.

Seven Onion Dip Mix easily stirs into sour cream and gives you seven different kinds of onion doing the work instead of one French one. Dill Dip Mix is the other side of that coin, and it is the one that empties first next to a bowl of ridged chips.

Deviled Egg Dip is our sleeper pick of this whole section. It takes classic deviled eggs, a game day favorite, and turns it into a dip that's even more tailgate and party-ready. Hard boiled eggs mashed with mayonnaise, sour cream, capers, mustard, and Supreme Shallot Salt, finished with dill on top. It tastes exactly like a deviled egg without piping a single one, which is the entire appeal when you are making food for twenty people.

Pimento Cheese is one of the most useful dishes on the table because it does three jobs. It is a cracker dip, it is a celery filler, and it is the best thing you can spread on a burger. Sixteen ounces of sharp cheddar, pimentos, and a short list of seasonings including Cayenne, Toasted Onion, and White Pepper, which is milder and earthier than black and keeps the cheese tasting like cheese.

Dips for Tortilla Chips

Roasted Jalapeño Salsa will ruin jarred salsa for you permanently, which is the point. Roasting the jalapeños first is what does it, turning raw grassy heat into something rounder and smokier that you cannot get out of a jar.

Fiesta Guacamole is a guacamole recipe that's built to be customized rather than followed exactly. Three avocados, sour cream, lime, and two tablespoons of whatever seasoning you want driving it, whether that is Family Style Fajita Seasoning, Peruvian Chile Lime Seasoning, or Taco Seasoning.

Then you add whatever you want stirred in: corn, diced tomato, jalapeño, red onion, cilantro, or even diced grilled skirt steak if you have leftovers from the nachos. Three cups worth, and it is the one recipe on this page that comes out different every time you make it.

Taco Salad Dip is the one to make when you are actually feeding a crowd. Eight to twelve servings out of a 9x13, layered like a proper party dip: seasoned ground beef on the bottom, then a sour cream base whipped with Mexican Street Corn Seasoning, lime, and cotija, then lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and olives on top.

Fifteen minutes of prep and it is the dish people stand over rather than walk past. Build it in a clear glass dish if you have one, because the layers are half the appeal.

For something hot instead of cold, Queso Fundido with Homemade Chorizo is worth the extra step over a jar of queso, and the chorizo comes together while the cheese melts. Serve it straight out of the skillet and it will not last long enough to congeal, which is the usual problem with queso at a party.

Dips for Vegetables and Pita Chips

Simple Savory Hummus gives raw vegetables a reason to be on the table at all. It is also genuinely from scratch: you toast white sesame seeds and cumin seeds together, grind them, then build the hummus on that instead of opening a jar of tahini. That toasting step takes three minutes and it is the whole difference between this and grocery store hummus.

Finish it with Ground Sumac Berries and a drizzle of olive oil. Sumac is tart and lemony and it is what will have people asking you what you did differently.

One more thing worth knowing: the 2-ingredient dip trick probably works with any spice blend you already own. One to three tablespoons of seasoning into eight ounces of sour cream is a dip, full stop. Red Rocks Hickory Smoke gives you smoky, Capitol Hill gives you oniony and herby, and Buffalo Wing Seasoning turns into a buffalo dip without any extra shopping.

Handheld Foods: Sliders, Burgers and More

Nobody sits down with a knife and fork during the fourth quarter, so almost everything on a game day table should work in one hand.

Piled on One Tray

Steak Sheet Pan Nachos has the best ratio of impressiveness to effort on this entire page. Sear a sirloin or skirt steak with Hudson Bay Steak Seasoning, baste it in butter, then rest it a full ten minutes before slicing. That rest is the whole thing, since slicing early dumps the juice onto the cutting board instead of into the nachos.

The layering matters too: chips, half the cheese, then steak, then the rest of the cheese on top. Cheese above and below means the steak is anchored rather than sliding off when someone grabs a chip. Four minutes under the broiler, then pile on tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, scallions, pickled jalapeños and a drizzle of crema. Eight servings out of one pan, and it goes to the table looking like you worked much harder than you did.

Elote Walking Tacos solves the plate problem entirely, which is the actual constraint at a tailgate and one nobody designs around. Everything goes into an individual bag of chips: no plates to run out of, no forks to lose, and no dishes to haul home dirty.

It is also a build-your-own, which means you set out the components and stop being the person assembling food for twenty people. This is our newest recipe and it may be the single most practical thing on this page

Served on a Bun

Smoked Pulled Pork is the all-day commitment that pays off biggest, and it is also the least demanding thing here once it is going. A bone-in butt feeds eight to twelve people, gets rubbed the night before, and then mostly ignores you for hours while you do something else.

One thing worth knowing: season it again after you pull it. All that rub is on the outside, so the interior meat comes out underseasoned unless you hit the shredded pork with a little more salt and rub before it goes on a bun. That single step is the difference between good pulled pork and the kind people ask about. Then it keeps working all week as sliders, nachos, and quesadillas.

BBQ Meatloaf Sliders sound humble and then outperform everything on the table. Meatloaf is a genuinely smarter slider filling than ground beef, because it holds its shape, it slices clean, and it reheats without turning into a crumbly mess in the bottom of a foil pan. Bake it the day before, chill it, slice it cold, and it will be neater than anything you assemble on site.

The BBQ glaze on top caramelizes in the oven, so each slice comes with its own sauce built in and you are not handing people a bottle. Twelve of these disappear in about ten minutes.

Caribbean Green Jerk Fried Chicken Sliders are our more ambitious version of sliders, with grilled pineapple and citrus slaw served with jerk-fried chicken on Hawaiian rolls.

Sweet Jerk Sloppy Joes feed a crowd for almost nothing and hold warm in a slow cooker for hours. And our recipe for an Easy Steakhouse French Dip Sandwich is the grown-up option, and the au jus makes it feel like more than a sandwich.

Burgers and Hot Dogs

West Coast Burgers with Sauce comes with a proper sauce instead of a squeeze bottle, which is what separates it from every other burger at the lot. Black Label Burger is the classic done right, with cold butter worked into the mix.

Mexican Street Corn Black Bean Burgers means the vegetarian at your party is not eating a frozen puck, and Mexican Street Corn Dogs put elote flavor on the easiest protein there is.

Two-Bite Recipes

Bacon-Wrapped Bajan Jalapeño Poppers are the thing you set down and then watch vanish while you are still washing your hands. The bacon crisps around a cream cheese filling cut with Bajan seasoning, and the pepper underneath goes soft and mellow in the oven, so the heat shows up at the end of the bite instead of hitting you first.

Two bites each, no fork, no plate, which is exactly what you want when people are standing up. Make more than you think you need, because you will not get one otherwise.

Mac & Cheesy Pretzel Dogs wrap hot dogs in real pretzel dough with a cheese sauce built from Cheesy Popcorn Seasoning. More effort than the rest of this section, and the payoff is that nobody else brought them.

Black Garlic Meatballs hold warm in a slow cooker for hours, which makes them the low-maintenance option on a table full of things needing attention. Black garlic is sweet and molasses-like rather than sharp, so people taste something deeply savory they cannot quite name.

Southwestern Egg Rolls are the recipe people assume you bought. Rotisserie chicken, Monterey Jack, corn, black beans, spinach, and pickled jalapeño rolled into flour tortillas, fried until the outside blisters, then sliced on an angle and served with an avocado ranch you make in the same fifteen minutes.

Truffle Salt and Horseradish Deviled Eggs come from one of our co-founders, and the difference is butter. Most deviled eggs are all mayonnaise; these use softened butter with just two tablespoons of mayo, which makes the filling denser and richer instead of loose.

Horseradish powder gives it a sharp edge that cuts the butter, and Italian Black Truffle Sea Salt does the rest. An eighth of a teaspoon is all it takes, so this is a cheap way to put truffle on a table. Eight servings, twenty minutes, and they will be gone before the wings are off the grill.

Serving Brunch Before Kickoff

A noon kickoff means people are showing up at nine, and this is the part most game day lists skip entirely. Everything here can be made the day before, which is the only reason it works.

The Casserole

Hash Brown Casserole is the single best thing to bring to a morning tailgate. Cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and chicken stock make the base, seasoned with Chicken Fried Steak Seasoning and smoked paprika, then thirty ounces of shredded potatoes and two cups of cheddar folded in.

The topping is what makes it: crushed potato chips or corn flakes and more melted butter, which crisps under the foil-off stretch at the end. Six to eight servings, it goes in a 9x13, and it travels in the same pan you baked it in. Assemble the night before, bake in the morning, and your car will smell like a diner the whole drive over.

The Eggs

Bacon & Mushroom Quiche makes two full deep-dish quiches at once, which is the right math for a crowd. A pound of bacon, eight ounces of mushrooms, onions cooked down in the bacon grease, twelve eggs, and two cups of Swiss. You pick the seasoning driving it, either Nantucket Herb & Citrus Rub or Pyramid Peak Lemon Pepper.

Quiche is also the rare brunch dish that is arguably better at room temperature than hot, so it can sit on a folding table for an hour without anyone minding. Eight servings across the two pans.

Mini Quiches are the smaller, more composed version, baked individually in ramekins with caramelized shallots, Gruyere, and a layer of seared squash, zucchini, or tomato. Six servings, and the vegetable slice on top makes them look like something out of a bakery case.

They can be turned out of the ramekin onto a plate or eaten straight from it, which makes them a better fit for a driveway or a backyard than a parking lot. Save these for the game you are hosting.

The Bacon

Smoky Candied Bacon is three ingredients and twenty-five minutes, and it is the thing people will still be talking about at halftime. Thick-cut bacon on a sheet pan, half a cup of Whiskey Barrel Smoked Sugar, and a tablespoon of Whiskey Barrel Smoked Black Pepper over the top. Into a 400 degree oven and that is genuinely it.

Both the sugar and the pepper are cold-smoked over whiskey barrel oak, so you get real smoke flavor without a smoker anywhere near it. Let it cool ten minutes before you touch it, because the sugar sets into a candy shell as it cools and it will not do that if you pull it apart hot.

Both of these will earn a permanent spot in your spice cabinet once you have them. The sugar goes on the rim of an old fashioned and into a BBQ glaze, and the pepper is what you reach for any time you want smoke without firing anything up.

The Bread

Savory Everything Bagel Rolls are the ambitious one on this page and worth saying so plainly: this is a yeast dough with two proofs, so plan on most of a day or an overnight rise in the fridge. What you get for it is twelve rolls with a filling of cream cheese, mozzarella, and half a cup of Five Points Everything Bagel Blend spiraled through them.

They bake in a 9x13 like cinnamon rolls, get brushed with butter twice, and come out of the oven golden and pull-apart. Serve them warm with smoked salmon, capers, sliced cucumber, and heirloom tomatoes and you have turned a tailgate into something closer to a brunch.

The Bloody Marys

Mike's Super Thick Bloody Mary Mix is our founder's recipe and it does something clever: instead of starting with tomato juice, you build the whole thing from tomato powder and cold water. That is how you control the thickness, and it is why this comes out heavier and more concentrated than anything you pour out of a bottle.

Horseradish powder gets mixed into a paste first and left to sit so its heat develops, then everything goes in with celery salt, lime, bitters, Tabasco, dill, and a few tablespoons of A-1. Three to four cups, and you pour it back and forth between two pitchers to blend it rather than stirring.

If that is more project than you want before a game, Super Quick Bloody Mary Mix gets you most of the way there in a fraction of the time.

Making Chili for When the Weather Turns Colder

In September you can get away with wings and a folding table.

By November you are standing in a parking lot at 35 degrees wondering why you did not bring something hot, and by January it is the only thing anybody actually wants. Chili is the answer to all of that. One pot feeds everybody, it holds for hours in a slow cooker, and it gets better the longer it sits.

Award-Winning Chili is the one to learn by heart, and the spice list is why it beats whatever you have been making. Roasted granulated garlic, toasted onion, cumin, coriander, cayenne, smoked Spanish paprika, Mexican oregano, and your choice of mild or medium chili powder, all going in while the beef is still browning rather than after the liquid.

That timing is the part most recipes get wrong. Spices bloom in fat, not in broth, so adding them to the pan while the meat is rendering pulls out flavor that would otherwise just sit there. Ground beef, kidney and black beans, fire-roasted tomatoes, and about forty minutes of simmering gets you six to eight servings. Then eat it the next day and understand why people double the batch.

Colorado Green Chili is the other direction entirely. Green chile season peaks in late summer, so buy roasted chiles when you see them and freeze what you do not use; a bag in the freezer means you can make this in January. It smothers burritos, tops a plate of fries, or holds its own in a cup.

We've got one jar for to help you for each pot. And if you cannot find fresh roasted green chile where you are, the Hatch powder gets you most of the way there from the pantry.

Chili Tip for Game Day: If you're tailgating in the parking lot, cook the whole thing at home the night before and transport it sealed. Reheat on a propane burner in a Dutch oven over low heat, stirring occasionally so nothing catches on the bottom. And season it for the middle of your crowd, then set a jar of Cayenne Pepper next to the pot. You cannot un-spice a pot of chili, but anyone can add to their own bowl.

Something Sweet: The Perfect Desserts for Game Day

Somebody always brings chips. Almost nobody brings dessert. Dessert is the thing people forget to assign to someone, so bring it and you'll be the hero. All three of these easy dessert recipes for game day travel well in the pan or the tin they were made in.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies earn the top spot here. Browning the butter first is what separates these from every other chocolate chip cookie, and a half teaspoon of Pure Espresso powder deepens the chocolate without tasting like coffee. Two dozen, finished with flaky salt.

Kitchen Sink Blondies are the right format for serving a big crowd at the tailgate: cut into squares, no plates, no forks, and there is even a hint of bourbon in them!

Pumpkin Spice Crispy Rice Treats are the seasonal move and the easiest dessert to make here. No baking at all, just 30 minutes to set, and cooking the pumpkin puree down with the butter first is what keeps them from going soggy. Plus pumpkin spice and football season tend to go hand-in-hand, and these pumpkin treats will make you the star of the parking lot.

Pure Espresso Powder is the one baking ingredient most people do not own and should, because a half teaspoon deepens chocolate in anything you bake. Pumpkin Pie Spice will cover everything from these rice crispy treats to coffee, lattes, and pies through November (and beyond).

How to Actually Pull All This Off in a Parking Lot

A parking lot is not a kitchen, and everything gets easier once you plan around that instead of fighting it. Here are a few things we have figured out the hard way:

Prep everything you can at home. 

Cut the vegetables, bag them, mix the dips, portion the seasonings. Arrive with assembly work only, because a folding table is a terrible place to chop an onion.

Know what holds and what does not. 

Meatballs, sloppy joes, pulled pork, and chili all sit in a slow cooker for hours without suffering. Wings and anything fried do not. Build your timeline around that instead of hoping.

Start earlier than you think. 

If kickoff is at noon, people are eating by nine. That is what the brunch section is for, and it is the difference between a spread that peaks on time and one that runs out early.

Bring one heat option rather than a spicy dish. 

Season for the middle of the crowd and let people adjust their own. A jar of chile powder next to the food does more good than guessing for twenty people.

Build the Rotation Once, Use It All Season

Nobody wants to reinvent the spread every week from September to February.

The whole point of sorting out a wing method, a dip, and a pot of chili early is that you stop thinking about it, and the food gets better every time you make it.

Learn the dry brine on the wings first, because it works on every wing recipe here and on chicken generally. Make the ranch dip because it takes five minutes and proves how much better homemade is. Then make the chili once in October, taste it the next day, and you will understand why people double the batch by December.

And check your jars at the start of the season rather than the morning of a game. If a rub smells faint instead of sharp when you open it, it has been sitting since last year and it is time for a refill. Better to find that out in August than an hour before kickoff.

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