Thrill your guests with this easy and delicious charcuterie cup recipe! Layer your favorite meats, cheeses, and crackers in a convenient cup for a tasty and elegant snack or appetizer.
These handy personalized cups make any party a blast with an assortment of tasty and complementary finger food. I love to serve these at my cocktail parties with spinach artichoke dip, baked brie, and crab rangoon.
The entertaining season has begun—football season is underway! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s will be here before you blink your eyes. Charcuterie cups are a tasty choice for a transportable snack for social guests who want to move about the party.
What to Put in Charcuterie Cups
- Pretzels: I like the tiny twists, nubs, or bites.
- Chips: like Cheez-its or any toasted chips
- Nuts: pecans, almonds, pistachios, or cashews flavored or unflavored
- Olives: I use jalapeno and blue cheese stuffed green olives
- Meat: salami, prosciutto, or pepperoni
- Fruit: grapes, strawberries, blueberries, dried apricots, dried cherries, or dried figs
- Cubed cheese: pepper jack, cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, or any hard cheese that cubes well
- Pickles: small chunks of baby dills or sweet pickles
- Crackers: crispy artisan crackers like tall multigrain crackers, breadsticks, and cheese twists
- Herbs: dill, thyme, rosemary, or Italian parsley
How to Make Charcuterie Cups
I use these charcuterie cups. They are well made, arrive quickly, and come with two kinds of cocktail picks. Fill the bottoms of the cups with pretzels, chips, and nuts. Then, thread the cocktail picks with olives, cured meats, fruit, cubed cheese, and pickles.
Put the threaded picks into the cups. Fill in with crackers, breadsticks, or cheese twists, and garnish with a dill, thyme, or rosemary sprig.
Preparation and Serving Tips
- Choose a wide variety of flavors, textures, colors, shapes, and sizes. It is hard to mess these up, but variety makes them so appealing.
- Fill the bottoms of the cups with tiny twist pretzels or toasty Cheez-Its. The amount will vary depending on the size of the cup.
- Dry the olives, fruit, and pickles well so the chips, crackers, breadsticks, and nuts stay crisp.
- Place tall crackers, breadsticks, and cheese sticks in the back to make the cups aesthetically pleasing.
- You can prep the meat, cheese, and herbs up to 24 hours before and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Do not assemble more than a few hours before, as the meat and cheese will dry out. Keep the cups in the fridge until ready to serve.
More Ideas
- I love these charcuterie cups, but you can use short plastic glasses or small glass jars.
- Add sweets like chocolate-covered nuts, chocolate or yogurt-covered pretzels, gummies, chocolates, or pirouettes.
- Use cookie cutters to cut slices of deli cheese into different shapes. This is ideal for holidays, graduations, and birthdays.
More Party Recipes
Charcuterie Cups
Equipment
- 8 paper cups, plastic cups, or short glasses
- 16 assorted cocktail skewers (6-7 inches)
Ingredients
- 10 ounces tiny twist pretzels or Cheez-its or a mixture of both
- 1 cup nuts (cashews, almonds, pistachios)
- 16 long rectangular crackers
- 8 ounces assorted stuffed olives
- 5 ounces salami, prosciutto, or pepperoni
- 1 ½ cups fruit (grapes, strawberries, blueberries, dried apricots, dried cherries, or dried figs
- 8 ounces assorted cubed cheese
- 2 baby pickles
- 8 herb sprigs (dill, thyme, rosemary, or parsley)
Instructions
- Fill the bottoms of the cups with pretzels, chips, and nuts.
- Add any long crackers, breadsticks, or cheese straws to the back of the cups.
- Thread the cocktail picks with olives, cured meats, fruit, cubed cheese, and pickles.
- Put the threaded picks into the cups. Fill in with crackers, breadsticks, or cheese twists, and garnish with a dill, thyme, or rosemary sprig.
Notes
- Choose a wide variety of flavors, textures, colors, shapes, and sizes. It is hard to mess these up, but variety makes them so appealing.
- Fill the bottoms of the cups with tiny twist pretzels or toasty Cheez-Its. The amount will vary depending on the size of the cup.
- Dry the olives, fruit, and pickles well so the chips, crackers, breadsticks, and nuts stay crisp.
- Place tall crackers, breadsticks, and cheese sticks in the back to make the cups aesthetically pleasing.
- You can prep the meat, cheese, and herbs up to 24 hours before and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Do not assemble more than a few hours before, as the meat and cheese will dry out. Keep the cups in the fridge until ready to serve.
Laura
Wow love this idea! These Charcuterie cups are super fun and perfect for when friends come over or your entertaining
Jupiter Hadley
I do like the idea of individual cups instead of a big board. What a fantastic idea.
Beth Pierce
Thank you, Jupiter!
Yeah Lifestyle
I love a charcuterie board – it’s one of my favorites! But doing it this way is genius. I love all of the meats and pickles so much! This is fun for a party and also for a fancy snack!
Archana Singh
This is such a great party snack and so easy to customize. Whether you are having a cocktail party or superbowl party, guests love them!
Rosey
Easy serve, easy clean-up and doesn’t take long to make. That’s my kind of party eats.
karen
omg these charcuterie cups are awesome!!! Such an amazing idea actually, perfect for parties, love it.
Lavanda M
I love love love making charcuterie! I love how easy and fun they are for parties and events!
Tania M
What a cute idea, and easy to prepare. People can hold these easily while standing at cocktail parties.
Beth Pierce
Yes indeed!
Tisha
Create easy and customizable charcuterie cups filled with pretzels, meats, cheeses, fruits, and crackers. Perfect for any party or gathering!
Michelle
Made 30 of these charcuterie cups for a wedding shower and they were a hit! I had two helpers and we lined up the cups and made them assembly line style. Easy to do and very cute.
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Michelle! They are a lot of fun!
Catalina
The Charcuterie Cups were such a clever idea! I made them for a small get-together, and they were a huge hit.
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Catalina! So glad that they were a hot!
Krystle Smith
This recipe is definitely a keeper. It’s versatile, easy to prepare ahead of time, and allows for a lot of creativity in terms of ingredients. I’m already planning to make these for my next party!
Beth Pierce
Thank you, Krystle! Enjoy!