7 Super Bowl food recipes sure to score big with fans, from nacho bars to chile cheeseburgers

Gathering around a loaded table of game-day food is a Super Bowl tradition as important as the big game itself (at least to some of us).

Whether you’re cooking for a crowd or preparing a feast for one, here are our favorite recipes perfect for Super Bowl Sunday.

There are numerous benefits to making sausage sandwiches for a crowd: Sausage cooks quickly. It’s also economical at the meat counter. These days, the choices move beyond Italian and pork sausages. Many large supermarkets sell varieties made from chicken, turkey, lamb — both raw and fully cooked. Flavorings range from red chile spice to sweet apple and onion.

No grill is required for these two takes on winter-ready sausage sandwiches: Chicken chorizo hoagies with pepper fundido, and Italian sausage sammies with white beans, lemon and thyme.

We’ve got nothing against the humble jalapeño, but why not spice things up for Super Bowl LVI with Hatch, Anaheim, cubanelles or poblano? Roast them directly over the heat of a wood or gas grill, on the burner of a gas stove, or with your broiler or toaster oven.

Whichever route you choose, the roasted chiles will add an ideal zing of flavor to our avocado cheeseburgers or green chile pork and short rib stew.

We all like to load nachos in our own special way, so why fight the inevitable and try to please everyone? Turn your Super Bowl meal into an interactive experience with a nacho bar, with an assortment of toppings that can range as far and wide as your nacho-loving imagination allows.

The Tribune’s Nick Kindelsperger has tips on the best toppings, a how-to on frying your own tortilla chips, and the story of how the fan-favorite snack came to be.

Keep the theme going and head straight from nachos to tacos. While ground beef is good in a jiffy, get the heavy lifting done ahead of time with this recipe for slow-roasted pork shoulder sporting a deep red rub of ground Mexican chiles, salt, a hint of cumin and oregano.

Homemade barbecue sauce can be delicious and the easiest versions will take, like, five minutes. Our recipe is relatively simple, but nonetheless substantial, simultaneously tangy and sweet, and perfectly tasty for just about whatever you’re cooking up.

Chicken does it all: It’s got universal appeal, it’s readily available and is relatively inexpensive. The key to success lies in adding flavor from fresh herbs and spices, and upping the ante with bold, sweet, acidic notes.

We’ve got two chicken dishes fit for a crowd, whether you go a little sweet with chicken with apricots and fennel, or grilled, dilled lemon chicken.

If you don’t spend most of your Super Bowl party grazing and snacking, did you even Super Bowl? Load the table with these fast snacks that are nevertheless impressive and add the perfect salty, rich counter to a crisp game day beer.

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.