Cocktail Party

By Food & Wine
Updated January 11, 2017
For your next cocktail party, serve some of our favorite dishes and drinks for your guests. From fun and elegant finger foods to classic cocktails, these great cocktail party recipes are delicious, fun and easy to make. They are perfect year-round and perfect for any occasion.
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Daiq on a Hot Tin Roof

© Eva Kolenko
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This refreshing daiquiri from Benton Bourgeois of the Hot Tin bar, at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans, uses passion fruit for a tiki twist on the classic. The Smith & Cross rum is highly recommended, as it adds a spiced tropical note to the drink.

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Tiki Ribs with Pineapple Pickles

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Star chef Danny Bowien coats ribs with a soy-spiked caramel glaze, which makes them savory and sweet. His tiki-style garnishes: shredded coconut, maraschino cherries and, when he has them handy, cocktail umbrellas.

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Fried Peanuts with Asian Flavors

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To make these addictive peanuts extra-tangy, Chris Yeo soaks them in lime juice before frying them and tossing them with tart shredded lime leaves. He served them at the Atlanta party because Georgia is the peanut capital of the country.

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Marinated Olives

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These spicy olives are infused with fennel, a favorite flavoring of chef Trey Foshee.

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Lobster Sliders

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These are lush, miniature takes on classic New England lobster rolls.

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Marasca Fizz

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This Champagne cocktail calls for pitted sweet cherries soaked in an anise-infused syrup.

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Herb-Marinated Chicken Skewers with Harissa

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Andres Barrera briefly marinates chicken in herbs and cumin before skewering and grilling it; then he serves it with a cool chickpea puree and fiery harissa. His harissa is a knockout, scented with toasted and ground cumin seeds, coriander and caraway seeds, but jarred harissa also works.

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Cameron's Cooler

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Scotch-lover Father Cameron Ayers (a close friend of Duggan McDonnell's) challenged the mixologist to come up with a Scotch-based cocktail that was bold and refreshing but stayed true to the whisky's roots.

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Pimento Cheese & Bacon Crostini

BURCU AVSAR
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A thick layer of cheddar cheese, chopped pimentos and bacon crumble make for an irresistibly cheesy crostini.

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Chicken Drumsticks with Asian Barbecue Sauce

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Instead of making a traditional American barbecue sauce, Grace Parisi prepares a sweet, sticky, slightly fiery version using Asian ingredients, like chile sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar and ginger.

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Grilled Merguez Sandwiches with Caramelized Red Onions

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A North-African lamb sausage flavored with the spicy pepper spread harissa, merguez is delicious in sandwiches like these (fresh Mexican chorizo or another spicy sausage will also work well in this recipe).

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Shrimp and Chorizo Flatbreads

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Store-bought pitas are topped with good-quality prepared hummus, fresh shrimp and spicy slices of chorizo.

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Mai Tai

PHOTO © LUCY SCHAEFFER
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The origin of this classic rum cocktail is one of the great debates in tikidom. Both Ernest Beaumont-Gantt (a.k.a. "Donn Beach," the father of tiki culture) and Trader Vic founder Victor Bergeron lay claim to its invention. This version borrows from Beaumont-Gantt's recipe, which adds dashes of Pernod and Angostura bitters for complexity.

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Wine Bar Nut Mix

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This fantastic sweet-savory mix of pecans, almonds and walnuts from The Casual Vineyard Table, by Carolyn Wente and Kimball Jones, makes a great gift.

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Mini Burgers & Crispy Onion Rings

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The accompanying onion rings are unbelievably crispy, thanks to the club soda in the batter.

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Golden Spritz

© David Malosh
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Salers, a traditional French aperitif made from the bitter root of the gentian plant, has become a pet mixer among US bartenders. At Herbs & Rye in Las Vegas, Emily Yett adds the yellow liqueur to her crisp vermouth spritz.

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Negroni

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The Negroni is commonly credited to Count Camillo Negroni. He was a Florentine aristocrat who, in the early 1900s, asked for gin in his Americano in addition to the usual sweet vermouth and Campari.

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Green Goddess Sangrita

© David Malosh
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Joaquin Simo, co-owner of Pouring Ribbons in New York City, created this spicy-sweet take on sangrita, the typically tomato-based chaser for tequila. "The combination of tequila and sangrita is designed to be sipped, not shot," Simo says. "It can be consumed pretty much any time you're relaxing with friends."

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Mojito

© Wendell T. Webber
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The oldest-known recipe for the mojito appeared as the Mojo de Ron in a 1929 Cuban guide called Libro de Cocktail (The Cocktail Book).

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Goat Cheese-Stuffed Mushrooms with Bread Crumbs

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Goat's-milk cheeses are typically lower in cholesterol, calories and fat—and higher in calcium—than cow's-milk ones. Here, creamy chèvre is stuffed into antioxidant-rich mushrooms and topped with crispy herbed bread crumbs.

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Classic Cheese Fondue

© Rob Howard
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Chef Ryan Hardy makes his luxurious fondue with two kinds of Swiss cheese (Emmentaler and Gruyère) and two kinds of spirits (white wine and Kirsch), all traditional ingredients. Some of the dipping items are also classic, like cubes of crusty bread and pickles, but some are unconventional, like slices of Hardy's salami and other hearty house-cured charcuterie, which are all wonderful with the winey fondue.

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Kill Devil Punch

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A block of raspberry ice releases berries into the bowl as it melts.

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Tennessee Rose

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Mixologist Suzanne Bozarth sweetens this winter whiskey sour with cassis to give it a pink blush.

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Brewsky Sangria

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This tangy beer-based sangria was inspired by a British customer's request for a shandy, a refreshing blend of lager beer and lemonade or soda.

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Bruschetta Duet

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We like the variety here—the same toast spread with two different toppings. The green-olive tapenade, which uses pre-pitted olives, can be made in minutes with a blender or food processor. The sautéed mushroom topping is equally savory hot or at room temperature.

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Cocktail Meatballs

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According to Southern tradition, the hostess at a ladies' luncheon should serve little meatballs in a chafing dish or on a platter with toothpicks as a satisfying snack for any men in attendance. The recipe here is by Debra Shaw, the cafeteria manager at the Golden Age Nursing Home in Greenwood.

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Shrimp Cocktail with Tomatillo-Horseradish Sauce

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Spicy Cocktail Shortbreads

© MIKI DUISTERHOF
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Gail Monaghan has made these curried shortbreads for years and even packaged and sold them for a time. They are delicious with a glass of Champagne, or at the end of a meal with fruit salad, ice cream or sorbet.

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Americana

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Almost all of the cocktails at JP incorporate wine; the garnishes are made by chef Darren Bartley, who brandies peaches for this drink.

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Coconut-Crab Cocktail

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When FoodNation takes Bobby Flay to San Francisco, he gorges on Dungeness crab. Here he combines morsels of sweet crab with Asian flavors—lush coconut milk, piquant lime juice and aromatic cilantro—then serves it with salty chips.

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