Giada De Laurentiis’ Beef Pops with Pineapple and Parsley Sauce Are a ‘Phenomenal’ Super Bowl Snack
For a Super Bowl appetizer that will wow your guests, try Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis‘ Beef Pops. Skewered chunks of meat and pineapple are accompanied with a vibrant parsley sauce for a flavorful snack that’s a winner.
De Laurentiis’ Beef Pops require skewers
The chef’s meaty snack is much like a kebab and will need skewers for serving.
“You’ll love my beef pops with pineapple and parsley sauce,” De Laurentiis says on the Food Network video for this recipe. “They’re easy to eat and full of flavor. And the parsley sauce really makes the dish glisten. So it tastes amazing and looks beautiful on the plate.”
For the parsley sauce, you’ll need fresh flat-leaf parsley, fresh garlic, red wine vinegar, crushed chili flakes, sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, and olive oil.
The beef pops are made up of cubed beef fillet, pineapple cut into pieces, and salt and pepper. The beef and pineapple are threaded on the skewers, which need to be “soaked in water for 30 minutes.”
Get the full recipe, video, and reviews on Food Network’s site.
Parsley and pineapple give Giada De Laurentiis’ beef snack its distinctive flavor
“These beef pops are really cool because I get the beef cut in little cubes and you stick them on skewers with little pieces of pineapple of just about the same size,” the chef says in the video. “Between the caramelizing of the pineapple, which makes it super sweet, and the marinating beef which is super tender, it ends up being really yummy.”
To make the parsley sauce, a couple of garlic cloves and a good handful of parsley leaves with stems cut off are blended in a food processor (“Even if a little bit of the [parsley] stem gets in here, it’s no big deal; the food processor kind of chops it all up”).
Red wine vinegar is added to the parsley mixture (“The red wine vinegar just tenderizes the meat”), along with sugar, which the chef says “balances out the acidity of the red wine vinegar.” Salt, pepper, red chile pepper flakes, and a half cup of olive oil are also blended into the parsley sauce.
“The combination of flavors is phenomenal,” the Simply Giada host says. The best part, she adds, is that the parsley mixture serves as a spicy and tangy marinade and dipping sauce.
The raw cubed meat is coated in the marinade and refrigerated for “a couple of hours.”
Afterward, it’s skewered with the pineapple cubes, grilled, and served with the parsley dipping sauce.
Many home cooks agreed De Laurentiis’ Beef Pops are a great party food
One reviewer got creative and soaked their skewers in wine: “The pops are amazing! The succulent beef and bright pineapple combo is a fresh alternative to liven up any party. Easy to serve and eat. Just make sure to soak your skewers first before grilling (I put mine in red wine). So good!”
Another happy fan added, “Very good & easy to prepare. A great dinner for guests, you can have the skewers ready to pop on the grill and it looks (and tastes) impressive.”
