2 Party-Ready Appetizers You Can Make with Freezer Shortcuts

Dress-up store-bought frozen appetizers with these go-to tips from Food Network's The Kitchen.

Bacon-wrapped onion rings and cereal-coated mozzarella sticks, as seen on Food Network's The Kitchen.

Bacon-wrapped onion rings and cereal-coated mozzarella sticks, as seen on Food Network's The Kitchen.

Photo by: David Katz

David Katz

There’s a time and a place for super-fancy, knife-and-fork-needed appetizers, but game night isn’t it. When you invite pals over for a few rounds of poker or a no-holds-barred Scrabble face-off, what you’re likely craving is something easy, not necessarily elegant. And on those occasions, it’s A-OK to take a few welcome shortcuts from the supermarket.

The key is dressing them up to make them your own. On an episode of The Kitchen, the co-hosts hosted a game night of their own, complete with a menu of fuss-free eats and drinks, including two appetizers that get their start from the freezer section. Read on below to get the can-do recipes, then check out all of the how-tos from the show.

Bacon-wrapped onion rings, as seen on Food Network's The Kitchen.

Bacon-wrapped onion rings, as seen on Food Network's The Kitchen.

Photo by: David Katz

David Katz

On their own, frozen onion rings turn into crispy, golden rounds after just a few minutes of warming. But these bacon-wrapped beauties are perhaps the ultimate in crispy satisfaction.

As Jeff Mauro notes in the show, the key is baking the bacon-wrapped rings on a sheet pan lined with a baking rack. That allows the renderings to drip onto the sheet pan, which means the bacon can get crispy.

Cereal-coated mozzarella sticks, as seen on Food Network's The Kitchen.

Cereal-coated mozzarella sticks, as seen on Food Network's The Kitchen.

Photo by: David Katz

David Katz

When it comes to frozen mozzarella sticks, there’s surely plenty of gooey-good flavor happening beneath the crust. But when you dunk those sticks into crushed nacho cheese corn chips for a bonus breading blanket, the additional cheese flavor is next-level indulgent.

It’s important to dip the packaged mozzarella sticks into a few whisked eggs before moving onto the chips, since you’ll need that liquid to act as a glue for the chips.

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Tune in to The Kitchen on Saturdays at 11a|10c.

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