11 Easy Chicken Thigh Appetizers To Try At Home! (2024)

Chicken thigh appetizers incorporate many elements that satisfy discerning palates and allow a mouthwatering experience before a heavier meal.

When it comes to chicken-based recipes, nothing gets more flavorful and delicious than a pleasantly prepared plate of dark meat.

Chicken thigh offers more connective tissue and fat, providing a richer and more intense flavor than any part of the chicken.

But while chicken thigh certainly deserves to be a centerpiece on your table, this delicious ingredient can also be a highlight to stimulate one’s appetite before the main course.

Whether for a huge or more intimate gathering or simply to include in your weekly recipe rotation, you can set the delectable dining mood by placing chicken thigh appetizers such as crunchy Chicken Spring Rolls or a serving of some luscious Skewered Honey Balsamic Chicken.

To make things easier, we’ve compiled a number of chicken thigh appetizers you can choose from that are sure crowd-pleasers.

The #8 Buffalo Chicken Dip incorporates all the most favorite flavors in one easy and convenient dish!

Whether it’s to be served as an appetizer, a convenient tailgating primer, or to be enjoyed on your couch, these BBQ Chicken Thigh Sliders are certainly a great way to go!

These tender chicken thighs are served with zesty BBQ sauce, melted cheese, and some slaw to round up the flavors in your mouth in a tasty fashion.

Sliders are more petite sandwiches that are easier to handle and bite into, making them an absolute treat at parties and cookouts.

To make your chicken juicy and tender, brine the boneless chicken thighs for about 30 minutes, making them soak in the moisture while filling in with flavor.

All you need is 4 minutes to cook the chicken thighs on each side before glazing them with the special BBQ sauce, which elevates the flavors of the chicken.

Once cooked, the chicken already looks so delectable to taste, so place your cheese to have them melted over your chicken and slab on your prepared coleslaw so you can add your buns and get on to biting!

A delicious and refreshing recipe that can get your appetite going while also opening your world to chicken thigh appetizers is this Chicken Lettuce Wrap dish.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps are mouthwatering, adding familiar Asian flavors to your juicy chicken thighs.

It includes sweet and savory flavors from the chicken mixture, which is scooped into lettuce cups or rolled into one satisfying bite, providing a crunchy texture contrast.

The chicken mixture also features mushrooms, ginger, and bamboo shoots with other ingredients to pack in all of the tastes.

To provide an even more flavorful combo for your wrap, Hoisin sauce and oyster sauce are added to provide all the umami you would want in a bite while also being supported by other select sauces such as soy sauce, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, and sesame oil.

This recipe is a simple and light option that can surely get your appetites going.

When picking out chicken thigh appetizers, you’d want to choose easy-to-make recipes that are also convenient to serve and eat.

These Chicken Spring Rolls check all those boxes, especially in the eating category, since it’s considered a favorite finger food served in many gatherings.

Fantastically light Chicken Spring Rolls loaded with fresh veggies wrapped in transparent rice paper wrappers provide all the satisfaction you would want to have and give to your guests.

This recipe is Vietnamese-inspired, with chicken thighs cooked to a garlicky perfection, served with vegetables such as carrots, celery, cucumbers, basil, or mint for added freshness, all rolled into a damp rice paper wrap.

From the fresh vegetables to the flavorful chicken, this dish provides instant happiness every time it’s served.

This appealing dish presents plenty of bright-colored greens, from the green peppers and cilantro, added onto strips of dark meat chicken.

This simple stir-fried dish features flavorful Cantonese cooking, with its hot-take brought on by the chili peppers, garlic, and shallots.

The inclusion of cilantro and cumin in this dish provides an East and West fusion that is so delectable.

You can serve this dish over steaming white rice or over thick noodles, or it can also be enjoyed on its own as a delightful appetizer.

This stir-fried chicken and green pepper with cumin and cilantro recipe go perfectly well with white wine, allowing you to savor the peppery flavors from the dish with the distinct herby flavors of the wine.

A light and refreshing chicken thigh appetizer option is this bowl full of color and flavor!

This BBQ Chicken Grain Bowls features appealing textures from the shredded chicken, loaded with flavor and bright hues from the avocado, mango, radishes, jalapeno, and cilantro.

With BBQ chicken being quite a staple on the ranch, this combination provides an appetizing primer to any meal.

And with the chicken being cooked in an Instant Pot, it makes food prep a lot easier!

This delicious, comforting, and luscious recipe is a great primo option, providing great flavors and textures to your chicken thigh appetizer.

This Honey Balsamic Chicken is perfect for serving with any meal and can deliver a more luxurious experience to your dinner.

The honey glaze along with the Worcestershire sauce is to die for!

Using chicken thighs also adds to the deliciousness of this dish, with the dark meat providing just the right texture to complement any main course.

These Candy Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites are savory and delicious and can be crazily addictive!

It’s filled with chicken thigh meat, bacon, sugar, and barbecue rub.

Chicken thighs retain more moisture, making the dish a lot more decadent.

This recipe lets you enjoy an earthy flavor and aroma from smoking the chicken on the griller for about 45 minutes.

But trust me, it’s worth the wait!

This dish can be eaten as is, especially when you want something light, but it can be so tempting to add white rice or mashed potatoes to your plate because it’s just too good!

When choosing appealing chicken thigh appetizers, serving one option in dip form is always a fantastic crowd-pleasing choice.

This Buffalo Chicken Dip is a hearty and creamy dip that works great for any gathering and is an excellent choice to serve close to meal time.

Moist and tender chicken thighs provide the best protein option for this dish, with the meat shredded to attain the desired consistency and texture.

For the buffalo dip sauce, copious amounts of cheese are matched with ranch dressing and half a cup of hot sauce to achieve that famous buffalo dip flavor.

All these ingredients are placed in the oven for up to 30 minutes till it becomes creamy and bubbly before they can be devoured with plenty of corn chips.

In Vietnamese cuisine, bun, or rice noodles, can be served as Rice Noodle Salad Bowls that provide refreshing ingredients.

Fresh vegetables provide a delicious crunch, with lots of aromatic herbs.

While the noodles provide the filling element, the main feature of this dish is the grilled chicken skewers that make it all more delicious.

This dish can be a light primer that can get your guests’ appetites before a heavy meal, with the lightness of the noodles and the flavors of the lemongrass chicken watering the mouths of those who taste them.

For those who have been craving some Thai food, especially the taste of pad Thai, then these Pad Thai Egg Rolls can provide the fix you’re looking for.

Juicy and tender chicken thighs are cooked and chopped into pieces, incorporated with the pad Thai sauce ingredients, and combined into the pre-cooked rice noodles.

The pad Thai mix is then stuffed into egg roll wrappers and fried or baked into a crispy and delicious dish.

When it comes to chicken appetizers, chicken wings are probably the first thing that comes to mind.

However, a serving of juicy dark meat from boneless chicken thighs, prepared into convenient little bites, smothered in Buffalo sauce, makes this a more delectable option.

These Buffalo Chicken Bites offer crispy skin with tender meat while providing the sweet, spicy, sour flavors we all love.

Serve it with some celery and blue cheese dressing, and you got yourself a tasty primer that can compete with your main dish.

Check out our list of chicken leg quarters here too!

The bottom line

Chicken thigh appetizers are delicious and full of flavor, providing all the more reason to save up space before any meal.

When opting to present an impressive and satisfying option for your meal, choose any of these chicken thigh appetizers, and you’ll undoubtedly make all your guests and tummies happy.