Best Snacks to Buy at Costco for Your Super Bowl Party
We ate a lot of snacks, appetizers, and party platters from Costco to find the ones worthy of your Super Bowl party spread
By Perry Santanachote
Which teams are competing in Super Bowl LVII? Does it matter? This day is as much about food and socializing as it is about the game. And this year is the first Super Bowl since the pandemic that will feel somewhat normal. Not normal enough that Tom Brady will take the field, but normal enough that you might have a bunch of friends and family crammed into your living room to yell at the TV while sharing communal trays of food.
Whether you’re serving wings, pizza, chili, or dip, you can one-stop shop at Costco, which ranks as the top warehouse club in our grocery store and supermarket ratings. But the servings each option contains are no joke. One bag of wings can fill half a freezer. To find the snacks that justify the precious storage space, Consumer Reports gathered party platters, frozen appetizers, desserts, and sausages (so many sausages!) to see which ones tackle our taste buds. Here are our picks.
Perfection! If anyone you know says they don’t enjoy pigs in a blanket, you’re right to suspect they’re a robot. The pack comes with plain piggies and piggies sprinkled with everything bagel seasoning. The franks are juicy and not too salty, while the pastry is crisp and tender at the same time. We’re not sure if the everything seasoned ones are worth 12 more calories a pop, but it gives them a little something extra. Provide your own mustard and ketchup for dipping.
These mini pizzas are so satisfying yet not at all satiating because we apparently cannot stop eating them. “They’re probably the best frozen pizzas I’ve purchased except for my favorite, Red Baron,” says a taster. “My daughter ate an entire one without hesitation, and she’s picky, so this was like winning the Super Bowl for me.” The thin crust gets nice and crisp, and there’s just the right ratio of sauce to cheese. Cut these 5-inch pizzas into quarters, and you have an ideal two-bite snack for your party spread.
Gotta love a dish that requires no heating. Costco’s shrimp are plump, sweet, and perfectly cooked. “They taste clean and fresh,” says a taster. The cocktail sauce leans towards the sweet side, so get a bottle of horseradish to add a little kick. Actually, while you’re at it, get an extra bottle of cocktail sauce, too. The party tray’s ratio of shrimp to sauce is a little off.
There were surprisingly few dip options at the Costcos we went to. Like, this was it, if you don’t count guac and salsa. Luckily, it turned out to be quite good—if spinach artichoke is your thing—because both flavors are prominent, as is the tartness of the cheesy base. While the package instructions say you could eat it hot or cold, we definitely recommend heating it in the microwave. Pro tip: Skip the potato and tortilla chips and pick up a package of Schwartz Brothers Organic Everything Bagel Chips (below) to scoop up the dip.
Skip the potato and tortilla chips, and pick up a package of Schwartz Brothers Organic Everything Bagel Chips to scoop up the aforementioned spinach-artichoke dip.
These enormous cooked wings in the deli section pack a flavorful garlic-lemon-pepper punch. (Note that some locations only have drumsticks in the same seasoning.) Reheating them is as easy as popping them into a toaster oven or an air fryer for 6 minutes. The bold seasoning even converted a chicken wing hater among us. And everyone prefers these to the wings you can find in the freezer aisle. “The dry rub on these wings is superior,” says one taster. If it’s buffalo wings you crave, Costco also sells Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.
Costco’s beef chili, found in the deli section, has a nice balance of seasonings. They don’t skimp on the beef, but there’s also a good ratio of meat to beans. If your party guests come expecting a meal, this four-pound vat of chili won’t disappoint, but we also picture it heaped atop Frito pie and nachos.
You can definitely taste the apple in these fat, snappy chicken sausages. The fruit makes them quite sweet, but it works. “It has a certain trashiness that’s very appealing, especially when paired with football,” says one taster. The bits of apple make the sausage look a bit like head cheese when sliced, so it’s not the prettiest-looking sausage, but this isn’t a beauty contest.
We wish there were more vegan snack options at Costco beyond raw fruit and vegetables, but at least we found these spring rolls. “They’re so delicious my family ate them for two meals,” says one taster. They come out super crisp whether you heat them up in a toaster oven or an air fryer. The only downside is the wrappers fray quite a bit, making them look a bit ragged. The plum sauce is more citrusy and complex than what comes with most Chinese takeout.
No one was excited to try cauliflower pizza, but was there a morsel left behind when we were done? Nah, it was gone within minutes. Everyone was wowed, in awe, at how good a cauliflower pizza crust tasted. Those who didn’t know it was a cauliflower crust thought it was a regular crust. It’s crisp, sturdy, and topped with well-seasoned sauce and toppings.
If you or your guests are vegetarian, Milton’s Craft Bakers Roasted Vegetable Cauliflower Crust Pizza has a nearly identical crust to the Kirkland (above) without the meaty toppings. It’s a little bland compared with the Kirkland and needs more cook time than the instructions indicate.
Getting a custom cake at Costco is not easy. You can’t call ahead or order online; you need to place your order in person one to two days in advance. Is it worth it, though? Heck yeah. The bakery also has premade cakes in their case—there’s just no guarantee there will be one with a cute football design on it. Our tasters insist this is the best grocery store chocolate cake they’ve had. “It reminds me of my all-time favorite recipe from Ina Garten,” says one taster. “It’s that good.” The chocolate is chocolatey, the cake is moist and tender, and the thin layer of mousse in the middle punches up the chocolate flavor and delivers a subtle textural contrast.
Slow clap for the person who pitched this in a meeting: Chocolate-covered pretzels, but make ’em thin mints. We didn’t know Girl Scout Thin Mints could be improved upon, but that salty crunch was exactly what we didn’t know we wanted.
Good Snacks That Didn’t Make the Final Cut
Kirkland Signature Italian Style Beef Meatballs
These meatballs have a brown, crisp crust and moist, meaty inside. They’re well-seasoned enough to stand on their own, but we’re still craving a sauce, whether BBQ or marinara, and feel they need to be nestled in a crusty roll or a mound of pasta—not exactly Super Bowl party fare.
Amylu Teriyaki Pineapple Chicken Meatballs
The meatballs didn’t brown up, but they’re sweet and umami-packed. There’s a strong artificial garlic powder taste to the flavoring. The meatballs are moist, but we feel they’re missing a glaze or saucy element.
Teton Waters Ranch Uncured Grass-Fed Beef Polish Sausage
These sausages are snappy and juicy, but so salty that most tasters could only eat one bite. Save them for a summer cookout when you can grill them up and serve them with buns and lots of mustard and sauerkraut.
Phillips Crab Cake Minis
We’re split on these. Some tasters enjoy these, but some think they taste only of filler and not crab. They’re certainly no Maryland crab cakes, but they’re good enough to keep some people chowing down on the crispy bites during a game. They also don’t need to be piping hot to be good.
Don Lee Organic Cauliflower Bites
These are a great vegetarian option. The tots look appetizing, crisp up nicely, and have an interesting bite to them (crunchy and gooey at the same time) that keeps you going back for more. Thing is, they’re much less tasty at room temperature, which is an inevitable state at a Super Bowl party.
Foster Farms Classic Buffalo Crispy Chicken Wings
We have no hate for these enormous wings. The wings are tender and well-seasoned, and the buffalo sauce is balanced. But at the end of the day, these wings aren’t quite as tasty as Costco’s deli wings.
Cuisine Solutions Sliced Grass-Fed Beef Sirloin
Again, nothing but love for these tender and well-seasoned sirloin strips, but they’re more fitting for taco night, steak and eggs, or a weeknight stir-fry.
Hard Passes
Kirkland Signature Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
None of us like them, not even the kids. “It’s like eating chewy vanilla extract,” says one taster.
Amylu Cranberry & Jalapeño Chicken Meatballs
The cranberries and jalapeño are not vibing with each other. And like their teriyaki pineapple cousins above, they need a glaze or sauce. The artificial garlic is even stronger in this one.
Amylu Roasted Garlic & Asiago Chicken Sausages
The texture is slightly mealy, and there are hard bits encountered while chewing that are off-putting.
Sabatino’s Paleo Organic Basil & Cracked Black Pepper Smoked Chicken Sausage
The texture is rubbery, and we only taste the seasoning, not the meat.
Petite Cuisine Mozzarella Sticks
“It’s an overly processed cheese plug wrapped in breading,” says one taster. The cheese sits inside a breaded rubbery casing, which often splits open in the oven and oozes cheese all over the tray. Cooking them was a pain, and you still need to buy marinara sauce separately.
El Monterey Mexican Grill Chicken & Cheese Taquitos
These taquitos are underseasoned and don’t have nearly enough filling. The tortilla is wrapped around itself, so the inside is doughy. Maybe they would’ve been better deep-fried.
Royal Asia Vegetable Spring Rolls With Edamame
Unlike the Summ Vegetable Spring Rolls in our picks, the filling of these mini spring rolls was soggy, and the wrappers didn’t turn an appetizingly golden color.
Realgood Foods Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeños
All the things you love about bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapeños aren’t found here. The bacon used for these is thick, so the inner layers steam and don’t get crispy. The cheese is dried out and crumbly. And the peppers turn soggy when baked.
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