James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
If your team isn't in the big game, then the majority of the fun when it comes to the Super Bowl is gathering with friends, eating, and celebrating football. While there's absolutely nothing wrong with pizza and wings, there are definitely ways to up your game whether you're hosting, or bringing something to someone's house.
At this point the Chiefs and Eagles have been to multiple Super Bowls, making it a little passe to suggest "burnt ends" or "cheesesteaks" to represent the teams -- so instead let's pay homage to the host city New Orleans, which just so happens to have some of the best food on planet earth.
Let's dive into three New Orleans-themed ideas for your Super Bowl party, ranging from an easy dish anyone can throw together -- up to something that requires some skill. One of the best things about Cajun and Creole cuisine is that it was inherently designed around being cheap, using what was around, with technique and skill turning often humble ingredients into something incredible.
Can you make a sandwich? Good, now you can make a muffuletta. The New Orleans variant on an Italian sub or grinder is taken to another level with a few key ingredients. The best thing about this sandwich is that it's designed to be shared, needs to be made ahead -- and if you make two good-sized muffulettas they can easily feed 8-10 people.
The biggest sticking point here is bread. Muffuletta bread probably isn't something you'll be able to find outside of New Orleans -- so we'll have to make do with a loose facsimile. Round focaccia or ciabatta work perfectly fine as substitutes, even if they're not wholly traditional.
From there you're adding some olive salad, cold cuts, provolone cheese -- and you're done. Here we can also save on some items to make it even more cost-effective.
Considering we're cooking for a crowd we're going to axe the shrimp and go for a much cheaper chicken and sausage variation of the classic dish. It might seem intimidating, but really this is a pretty simple recipe you can bang out in a large pot and have everyone help themselves.
Bulked out with rice, jambalaya is filling. Put a bottle of hot sauce next to the stove (Crystal hot sauce preferred), and guests can make it as hot as they like it.
Gumbo is one of the greatest stews in the world, bar none. In fact, it might be the greatest stew. A perfect blend of layered flavor, complexity, heat, and umami -- I'm not going to pretend for a second that the gumbo I make at home can hold a candle to anything you'll find in New Orleans.
The roots of the dish are as varied as the city of New Orleans itself. African, Native American, French, German, Spanish -- there are elements of numerous world cuisines in this one dish. The difficulty comes partly from the technique, and partly from seasoning and tasting to make sure it all comes together in harmony.
Traditionally either okra or filé powder is used to thicken the gumbo along with the roux. Filé powder, which are the leaves of the sassafras tree can be found in the spice aisle of most major grocery stores.