These Kentucky Derby Party Recipes will make your gathering perfect. These menu and derby party ideas include appetizers, main dishes, sweets, and cocktails to make your celebration complete!
If you like throwing parties, check out these Fall appetizers, Fall cocktails, and Fall desserts to get some menu ideas!
Kentucky Derby Food
Put on your crazy hat and cheer for your favorite horse during the Run for the Roses. Celebrate the Kentucky Derby with family, friends, and these delicious foods that are perfect for your Derby Party Menu!
Derby Day Sweets and Treats
These sweet treats are perfect for drinking with your Mint Julep at your Derby Party. Let’s start with some brownies!
The best way to celebrate the Kentucky Derby is with Derby Pie Brownies. Chocolate Brownies covered in bourbon, toasted pecans, and chocolate chips!
These boozy Bourbon Balls are made with 4 ingredients and are great for your Derby party or your holiday cookie exchange too!
The moist, rich brownies are spiked with Kentucky bourbon whiskey and then topped with a creamy layer of bourbon frosting for a perfectly boozy party dessert!
These pie pops are perfect bite-sized treats, and most importantly… super easy! These will surely impress your party guests with their Southern flavor and stylish little bow ties.
Wearing ladies hats may have gone out of fashion, but these festively decorated Ladies’ Hat Piñata Cookies will still be fun treats to serve at a Kentucky Derby Party.
While my mind tends to think of the Triple Crown Races: The Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, these adorable no bake horse cookies are perfect for any horse themed party.
A Derby Party Menu would not be complete without a pie that has bourbon in it!
This vegan-friendly Salted Bourbon Chocolate Pie is made with chocolate, cream (or coconut cream), bourbon, and sea salt, is simple to put together, and is perfect for parties!
Perfect for the Kentucky Derby with its rich chocolate-y goodness while you watched the ponies trot around the race track.
What is a party without cake and cupcakes?
This cake is a delicious combination flavor. The Bourbon is accented perfectly with a generous amount of nutmeg. They’re really amazing together. Then this cake has chopped pecans and lots of good quality butter, all topped off with a thick caramel glaze.
If you’re having friends over to watch the Derby, these cupcakes are the perfect dessert to set out on your buffet table.
DERBY PARTY APPETIZERS, STARTERS, AND MAIN DISHES
You can’t go wrong with iconic regional dishes like the Kentucky Hot Brown. Check out these spins on it!
This Hot Brown Skillet Dip is the best parts of the open face turkey sandwich transformed into a bubbly, cheesy, skillet dip that is perfect for Derby Day!
Kentucky Hot Brown Dip is one of the best hot dip recipes you need and the ultimate Kentucky Derby food. Everything you love from the classic Southern sandwich gets baked into a hot cheese dip recipe loaded with turkey, bacon, and tomatoes.
This easy Kentucky Hot Brown Casserole is loaded with turkey (or chicken), bacon, tomatoes, and a creamy sauce. It’s the perfect dish for weeknight dinners and Derby Day celebrations!
These Kentucky Hot Brown Sliders are so good. Yummy turkey, buttered buns, fresh ripe tomato, cheese gravy (yes, I said CHEESE GRAVY), and bacon.
No Kentucky theme party is complete without some true Southern specialties like deviled eggs, fried green tomatoes, and grits!
This Benedictine Cheese Ball is a riff on the traditional cucumber dill spread that is eaten all over Kentucky, especially at the Derby!
These savory, crispy pimento cheese straws get an update with the flavor of pimento cheese!
Creamy zesty Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs, perfect for the Kentucky Derby!
These Cheese Grits are to be enjoyed as a side dish, but could also be a delicious breakfast with a fried egg on top or some asparagus.
Hot, crispy, and tangy fried green tomatoes encrusted in a perfect fried batter are the perfect treat for your Kentucky Derby Party.!
Classic corn pudding with Kentucky bourbon and candied jalapeños.
Creamy, cheesy Pimento Cheese Spread is a great party spread! You can make it ahead of time, it keeps for a few days - if it lasts that long, and you can serve it in a bowl or roll it into a cheese ball and sprinkle with toasted pecans! Serve with crackers or on a burger for a new twist!
Now for some more Kentucky Specialties! Benedictine Spread is a regional spread from Louisville and Burgoo is a typical fundraising meal for Kentucky and Indiana sort of like a chili cook-off!
Derby is all about tradition, so I feel that it’s only right to start with some Derby/Louisville/Kentucky food staples for the blog’s first time covering good eats for this spectacular time of year.
An appetizer version of the famous Brown Hotel’s Hot Brown Sandwich.
This Kentucky burgoo is a typical version, a chicken and beef stew with cabbage, potatoes, okra, and lima beans.
A fluffy, buttery biscuit topped with zesty quick-pickled green tomatoes and a well-seasoned turkey burger piled high with creamy pimento cheese.
Other fun appetizers for your Kentucky Derby Party to round out the collection!
Sweet Pea Crostini – This light and fresh spring appetizer is the perfect way to whet your Derby appetite (without spoiling your dinner).
Sweet peppers are filled with a simple cheesy spinach dip, wrapped with prosciutto, and baked. This is an easy recipe that your friends will love!
KENTUCKY DERBY PARTY COCKTAILS AND DRINKS
Since the run for the horses wouldn’t be complete without a Mint Julep or an Oaks Lily, let’s talk Derby Day Cocktails!
Bright and tropical pineapple meets its tart cousin the lemon and works together to tame the richness of bourbon in my Pineapple Bourbon Lemonade!
My Sparkling Mixed Berry Lemonade is full of frozen berries and made with fresh squeezed lemons and sweetened with honey for a healthy and fun drink!
This Bourbon Sour with Lavender is a sweet spring cocktail! Mix one up in no time with lavender simple syrup, lemon juice (or Meyer lemon juice), and bourbon.
This Barrel-Aged Bourbon Manhattan cocktail is a twist on a classic. Featuring aged quality bourbon, maraschino liqueur and dark cherries, this drink will become your all time favorite!
It's officially Fall and there is a crispness to the air now. Let's celebrate with a crisp light cocktail made with fresh blackberry syrup and sparkling water, my Blackberry Coconut Splash!
A lazy version of a Mint Julep, the official drink of the Kentucky Derby!
Whether you make it as a cocktail or a mocktail, this sparkling mint julep is a lovely drink for a celebration! Large hats optional.
Based on a classic mint julep, this recipe for a basil julep is very refreshing and perfect for sipping as the sun goes down. Fresh basil leaves and rye Whiskey served chilled over ice is the perfect warm weather cooling drink.
This Blueberry Bourbon Smash is made with a quick and easy blueberry syrup and fresh basil leaves. It’s a blueberry cocktail that’s perfect for Derby days!
This Lemon and Blueberry Punch, is fruity and refreshing, but it packs a punch. It is perfect for relaxing with friends, or for serving at a larger party!
HORSES AND HATS DECORATIONS
These party favors and decorations will help you round out your festive Kentucky Derby Party!
I hope you have a great party with all these derby party food ideas! When you make them while wearing your big hat and bow tie tag me on social media with #TakeTwoTapas and the person’s recipe you make so we can see!!
If you love these recipes and party favors as much as I do, please write a five-star review in the comment section below (or on Pinterest with the “tried it” button – you can now add pictures into reviews, too!), and be sure to help me share on facebook!
@TakeTwoTapas.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Kylee
Sunday 24th of March 2019
This collection of deliciousness makes me wish I knew people who held derby watching parties!
Michaela Kenkel
Sunday 24th of March 2019
You make me want to book a ticket to the Kentucky Derby!! Great recipes!!
Julia
Friday 8th of March 2019
It was delicious and easy to prepare! Thank you, it’s very delicious!
Patria Alway
Tuesday 28th of August 2018
I very pleased to find this website on bing, just what I was searching for : D too saved to bookmarks.
Teri
Monday 1st of May 2017
This is by far THE best collection of Derby recipes I have ever seen. Great job and thanks for sharing! I can't decide which is my favorite, but I think I'll start in the drink section and work my way backwards. :)
chubcheeks@bellsouth.net
Monday 1st of May 2017
That was my first thought too!