Charcuterie boards are one of my favorite ways to serve up themed foods at a party. I’ve already shared a Mexican charcuterie board, a summer charcuterie board, and my personal favorite – a breakfast charcuterie board – so I thought it was time to do a red white and blue one for the fourth for one of my favorite holidays! One of the reasons charcuterie boards are so popular right now is because they’re pretty. It’s a gorgeous way of serving up all sorts of yummy foods, like a fancy buffet table. And this fun Independence Day charcuterie board is the best because you can really add whatever red foods, blue foods, and white foods you want to make it. I’ve of course given you some of my recommendations as well as some great patriotic recipes to include, but it’s super versatile and a great option for making your own! Make this to serve for your next 4th of July party, Memorial Day, even an Olympics party where you want to cheer on team USA! Its red, white, and blue color themed make it the perfect themed charcuterie board for any team America occasion!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Inexpensive – while some charcuterie boards (like this Christmas wreath appetizer) can get a bit pricey, this one is actually super inexpensive to make, which right now is a great thing. Versatile – like I mentioned earlier, this idea is super easy to customize for your own tastes and specific theme. If you’re doing a sweet land of liberty party, cover this patriotic charcuterie board with just sweets. It’s a great way to get all of your favorite things into one place. Fun color scheme – as long as you stick with the red, white, and blue color scheme when picking out your the perfect combination of foods, there’s really no wrong way to make this!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
The best part of a charcuterie board is that you can really use anything on it. As long as you have a good amount of food and a good variety, you should be good to go. The picture above along with the instructions below are specific to this festive fourth of July charcuterie board, but feel free to get creative with yours!
Mini cheesecakes – I made these patriotic mini cheesecakes (so good) and topped them with raspberries and blueberries to get that red, white, and blue look. 4th of July rice krispie treats – I made these treats and topped some with sprinkles and others cut into a star shape with a mini star-shape cookie cutter to add to the themed look. You could also do my chocolate dipped rice krispie treats if you wanted to! Strawberries – I used this tutorial for 4th of July chocolate covered strawberries to get the fun red, white, and blue dipped look! Plus, they’re delicious. Sugar cookies – you can either use store-bought if you want something easy or you can use my favorite cut out sugar cookie recipe instead!
How to make a july 4th charcuterie board
There’s really no one set way to make the perfect charcuterie board (thank goodness – they’d all look the same), but it’s a good idea to follow some basic instructions to get something social media posting worthy!
1 – Get Your Ingredients Together
Start this patriotic board by washing all the berries and drying them thoroughly, then set aside. You’ll be putting fruit on your entire board but they’re going to go in later. You also want to make any of the desserts you’re planning to add on the board. If you need the recipes I used, check out the ingredient notes above. I typically like to make a full batch of each of the items but only put a few on the board at a time. If you’re not sure what you want to put on your board, I’ve put together a couple of lists of items – red ingredients, blue ingredients, and items that are all three colors later on in this post! One of my other favorite tips is to just walk around the grocery store with your theme in mind. It’s amazing how many items you’ll find for your food tray that you never would’ve come up with off the top of your head.
2 – Add the Largest Elements
After everything is decorated and set, you can begin assembling your board. My first step is always adding bigger items on the tray. In this case, I started by adding three cheesecakes to the top of the board and three to the bottom. Next, I added strawberries and blackberries in large groups in sections of the board that were away from the cheesecake, again to fill up big sections of the board. For the next step, I placed sugar cookies near the berries, leaving the middle wide open. To finish adding in my large items, I added rice krispie treats all the way across the middle of the board, filling in that center section.
3 – Add Medium Sized Items
After my larger items were in, I added in some more medium size items that still fit with my patriotic theme. Chocolate covered strawberries, a few more rice krispie treats, and more berries filled in the gaps around the largest items like the cheesecake and cookies.
4 – Finish with Smaller Items
The best way to really make sure your board looks put together is to finish it off with small garnishing items to fill in the holes. This is also the most fun part because it’s the perfect way to show some creativity with your board! Since we were for the ultimate patriotic food display, I added mini marshmallows, patriotic sprinkles, and epic red and blue candies.
5 – Serve
Once the board is complete, it’s time to serve! Since there is a lot of chocolate on this board, I recommend keeping it in a shaded area where the chocolate is not going to melt. If you have to serve outside, go with things that won’t be impacted by the heat! Let people choose whatever they want from the charcuterie board to enjoy!
Red White and Blue Food Items
I’ve put together a quick list below of things that would be good on this red white and blue charcuterie board!
good Red Food Items
If you need some ideas of red foods to add to your board, here’s a list! You can also always do red candies like M&Ms, Skittles, and jelly beans that come in all colors, but these are some always red items.
Pomegranate seedsRed grapes Red salsaRed bell peppersCherries Grape or cherry tomatoes Raspberries and strawberriesWatermelon
Good Blue Food Items
Same thing but this time blue, which is a little bit trickier if I’m being honest!
Blueberries Blackberries (kind of blue, they look blue enough to make the board) Blue corn chips (to go with the red salsa) Black grapes Blue potato chips
Good White Food Items
There aren’t a lot of foods that are naturally white that are good on a charcuterie board but here are a few you can try for a white section!
White corn chipsMarshmallows Cauliflower (with white ranch dressing) Jicama Angel food cake Yogurt covered raisinsPowdered donutsVanilla creme wafers Block of white cheddar cheese Apples White cheeses – block of white cheddar cheese, goat cheese, brie wheel
Easy Styling Tips & Storage Notes
Use sprinkles and small candies (like the candy stars I used on my board) to really make the board pop. Break up colors and sizes on your board unless you want to do something like an American flag with white stripes, red stripes, and a blue section for stars. Otherwise, try to break up color blocks with other colors. Serve alongside this cream cheese fruit dip. I often put actual dips and spreads on my boards but in the case of this one, I really wanted it to be all food. So add a bowl or container of dip for the fruit on the side! Store any leftovers in the fridge covered in plastic wrap if you want to continue to graze from the charcuterie board. Or if you’re just going to eat things separately, store individuals items in an airtight container according to their individual store info. Keep the board refrigerated until the last moment possible during summer months when the food will get warmed up quickly. Most of the items on this board in particular are best chilled but can also be enjoyed at room temperature. Use cookie cutters to add fun themed elements to your board. For this particular one, stars were a great addition! You can also take pretty much anything and make it themed with the addition of candy melts and sprinkles!
More Easy 4th of July Sweet Treats
If you need more ideas to go with your 4th of July charcuterie board, try these!
Brownie fruit pizza – brownie topped with red, white, and blue treats makes for a yummy patriotic treat! Chocolate chip M&M cookies – chocolate chip cookies with 4th of July M&Ms, these are a classic for a reason! Red velvet decorated cake – top this delicious red velvet cake with blueberries for the ultimate 4th of July cake!Flag cake – this fun red, white, and blue swirl cake is topped with fruit to look like a flag!Cheesecake fluff – a red, white, and blue berry cheesecake fluff that’s perfect for summer parties!
