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This St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board features elements of a Reuben sandwich alongside other Irish ingredients. Add this snack platter to your St. Patrick’s Day menu, or skip the Guinness Stew and Colcannon and make it this your St. Patrick’s Day dinner!
Meat and cheese boards rarely come this festive! Everyone will feel like they struck gold once they see that this St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board is at the center of the celebrations.
Just like with our classic Charcuterie Board, Christmas Charcuterie Board, and Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board, the secret to this St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board lies in the assembly. There’s zero cooking (and no lucky charms) required, and you can outsource most of the prep for the components if you don’t feel like making dressings and dips from scratch. Lucky you (us)!
Featuring flavors and ingredients reminiscent of a Reuben sandwich, as well as other classic Irish symbols (shamrocks) and ingredients (Cheddar, pretzels), this St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board can act as a full meal.
Think of the holiday charcuterie board guide below as inspiration. Feel free to scale up or down depending on how hungry guests tend to be or what time of day you’re serving it. Adjust as desired based on your dietary preferences, taste, texture, and budget.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Green bell peppers: Trim off the stems and remove the seeds and ribs. Then these remind me of a shamrock shape and can act as bowls for the dips on your snack board.
- Dill dip: You’ll usually find this in the refrigerated section of your supermarket near the sour cream and cottage cheese, but sometimes it’s located near the refrigerated salad dressings in the produce aisle. Or if you’d like to DIY, whip up a batch of my Easy Dill Dip.
- Thousand island salad dressing: No Reuben-inspired recipe is complete without it! Buy your favorite bottled Thousand island dressing or whisk together my homemade Thousand Island Salad Dressing recipe.
- Spicy brown mustard: Ina Garten (and I!) adore Maille brand, but feel free to use whatever whole grain mustard you have in stock or enjoy. You can also make Homemade Mustard if you like.
- Sauerkraut: This fermented food is another Reuben staple. Look for sauerkraut at your grocery store in jars near the pickles (I like Bubbie’s brand, if you can find it). If you are planning ahead and have 5 days to spare, here’s How to Make Sauerkraut. (I promise that it’s easy!)
- Corned beef or pastrami: Ask for 1 pound of either at the deli counter to give a nod to the Reuben Sandwich. Prefer a Rachel? Snag 1 pound of turkey deli meat instead. Classic charctuterie choices such as salami are always welcome too!
- Irish cheese: Kerrygold Cheddar or Dubliner are commonly available and absolutely delicious. There are a wide variety of Irish Cheddar cheeses, goat cheeses, blue cheeses, and more made in Ireland. If you have a cheese shop in your town, ask the cheese monger for 16 ounces of Irish cheese that features a mix of their favorites.
- Soft pretzels: Isn’t it grand to live in a world where we can now find the large, twisty soft pretzels in the freezer aisle and the pretzel rolls and buns/sticks in the bakery section? If you’d like to go the extra mile, make Homemade Soft Pretzels.
- Toasted baguette slices: To toast baguette slices, arrange slices from 1 in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush the slices evenly with ¼ cup olive oil, then bake in a 350-degree oven until lightly toasted, or about 15 minutes. Crackers make a great substitute.
Step-by-step instructions
- Select a board, then set dips and and spreads around the board as anchor points for the snacks (use small bowls or hollowed-out green bell peppers).
- Fold or roll corned beef and place in clusters around the dips. Add sliced cheese in piles around meat.
- Fill in the gaps with pretzels, crostini, fruit, and veggies. Layer and overlap when needed; step back to view the board from afar to spot any slim spots.
- Garnish with herbs or clover and tuck in forks, spreaders, tongs, and other utensils where needed.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: My St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board makes enough for 4 large appetizer or small meal servings. To round out the spread, consider serving this with a round of Irish Coffees or Guinness beer and Bread Pudding or Apple Crisp for dessert.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: Assemble the full board, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to one day in advance. Bring to room temperature right before the party starts (but keep the dips refrigerated until serving time).
- Pick your produce: I tried to stick with green veggies and fruits as much as possible, but feel free to customize the board to your taste. Oranges, kiwi, berries, and apples (especially green apples) are all great additions.
- Candy board: If you love a St. Patrick’s dessert board, load it up with sweets like cookies, cupcakes, marshmallows, gold coins, candied orange slices, and rainbow colored candies such as Skittles or M&Ms.
- Props: I bought a faux four-leaf clover plant on Amazon. I cut off some clovers to add as decorations to the board. You could also get a shamrock-shaped Charcuterie board or this absurdly adorable ceramic leprechaun hat.
Frequently Asked Questions
This depends on your budget, the appetites of you and your guests, as well as the other items you’re serving alongside your charcuterie board (if any). I usually plan on 1 to 2 ounces each of meat and cheese per person for an appetizer portion. If the charcuterie board is standing alone as a snack dinner, as this one might, I err on the more generous side and estimate 4 ounces of meat and cheese per person each so no one leaves hungry.
The most traditional St. Patrick’s Day recipes include Corned Beef and Cabbage, Guinness Stew, or Shepherd’s Pie as the main dish. Colcannon (kale mashed potatoes) and Irish Soda Bread are popular St. Patrick’s Day side dish ideas. And for dessert? I recommend Bread Pudding or anything with apples, like Apple Walnut Cobbler or The Best Apple Pie.
Or you can skip the multi-course meal and feast on this easy St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board that pays tribute to many Irish ingredients (but takes less effort to pull together).
Of course! Treats like small chocolate coins, green candies, or festive cookies (follow my Christmas Sugar Cookie recipe and use cookie cutters that resemble rainbows, leprechauns, or shamrocks, if you can find them) are lovely additions to spread. If you’d prefer an entirely separate dessert board that’s healthy enough to serve at breakfast, this rainbow-hued Fruit Platter might just be even better than a pot of gold.
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St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
The meat, cheese, and spreads:
- 2 green bell peppers stemmed, seeded, and left whole for dill dip and salad dressing (optional, see note 1)
- Dill Dip
- Thousand Island salad dressing
- spicy brown mustard or wholegrain mustard
- sauerkraut
- 16 ounces deli corned beef or pastrami (see note 2)
- 16 ounces Irish cheese such as Kerrygold Cheddar or Dubliner, sliced (see note 3)
The fillers:
- large soft pretzels
- toasted baguette slices (see note 4)
- green grapes
- broccoli florets
- cucumbers sliced
- pickles
The garnishes:
- fresh herbs or clovers
Instructions
- Select a board, then set dips and and spreads around the board as anchor points (use small bowls or hollowed-out green bell peppers).
- Fold or roll corned beef and place in clusters around the dips. Add sliced cheese in piles around meat.
- Fill in the gaps with pretzels, crostini, fruit, and vegetables. Layer and overlap when needed; step back to view the board from afar to spot any slim spots. Garnish with herbs or clover and tuck in forks, spreaders, tongs, and other utensils where needed.
Notes
- Green bell peppers: Trim off the stems and remove the seeds and ribs. Then these look like shamrocks and can act as bowls for the dips on your snack board.
- Corned beef or pastrami: Ask for 1 pound of either at the deli counter to give a nod to the Reuben Sandwich. Prefer a Rachel? Snag 1 pound of turkey deli meat instead.
- Irish cheese: Kerrygold Cheddar or Dubliner are commonly available and absolutely delicious. There are a wide variety of Irish Cheddar cheeses, goat cheeses, blue cheeses, and more made in Ireland. If you have a cheese shop in your town, ask the cheese monger for 16 ounces of Irish cheese that features a mix of their favorites.
- Toasted baguette slices: To toast baguette slices, arrange slices from 1 in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush the slices evenly with ¼ cup olive oil, then bake in a 350-degree oven until lightly toasted, or about 15 minutes.
- Yield: My St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Board makes enough for 4 large appetizer or small meal servings.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.