Make dinnertime fun and easy with finger food dinners for kids! Discover kid-friendly, bite-sized meals that are perfect for little hands, including healthy, quick, and delicious options that even picky eaters will love.
Why is finger food great for fussy eaters?
There’s something about finger food (or in fact any food that can be eaten with your hands) that makes mealtimes feel that little bit more relaxed and that little bit more fun!
And for a lot of kids, a more relaxed mealtime can often mean they are more inclined to try new things.
Or to eat that little bit more than they would if they were battling with knives, forks and spoons and the formality of it all.
Eating is such a sensory experience and if you think about it, lots of the snacks that kids seem to really enjoy like crisps, ice lollies, cake and the like are all finger foods.
Or food that you eat with your hands so why not extend the sensory experience to to main meals too!
We’ve put together our top 15 Kid-Friendly Finger Foods that can be served at dinner time.
Easy Finger Food Dinners For Kids
Mini Chicken Burgers
These bite-sized chicken burgers are perfect for little hands! One of our 15 Minute Meal Recipes, they are not only great for kids, they’re super quick and easy to make too.
Airfryer Cheesy Sausage Bites
I absolutely love my air fryer for quick and easy family meals and over the last few years, I’ve created loads of Family Airfryer Recipes.
These Airfryer Cheesy Sausage Bites were an immediate hit with the kids! Using only 3 ingredients, they are super simple to make too.
Hidden Veggie Sausage Rolls
If you have a fussy eater, then you’ll love this recipe! I’ve been creating Hidden Veg Recipes For Picky Eaters for years and this is one of my most popular recipes of all time!
Tuna Sweetcorn Bites
Fish is great for kids, but getting them to eat it can be a struggle! These Tuna Sweetcorn Bites are a great way to get fussy eaters eating fish.
These little fish bites are a fun way to introduce fish to kids and being in finger food form, they also encourage independent eating too!
Smash Burgers
Burgers make a great finger food dinner for the whole family! And these smash burgers are honestly the easiest burgers you will ever eat!
If you or your kids struggle with the mess of eating a full sized burger, then try these Burger Holders!
Airfryer Tortilla Pizza
I’m always one for making life easy for myself and have been making cheat’s pizza’s for years. Like this Airfryer Pizza Toastie and these Pizza Bagels!
But this Airfryer Tortilla Pizza is super crispy and the perfect finger food dinner served up to the kids with some chopped veggies on the side.
Popcorn Chicken
Popcorn Chicken makes a really fun finger food meal idea! Kids seem to love these mini chicken nuggets and my recipe is a bit healthier than the shop bought version!
Mini Burgers
Use my Mini Burger Hack to make this easy hand held meal for the kids!
You can totally customise the fillings too so lay everything out and let the kids assemble their own burgers for added fun!
Easy Chicken Satay Skewers
I served these Chicken Satay Skewers with rice so not a totally utensil free meal, but you don’t have to serve these with rice or noodles!
Serve them up with a selection of chopped veggies and some dips!
Taco Cups
I used Quorn mince in my Taco Cups when I made them as part of my Meat Free Monday’s Recipes collection, but you could just as easily use beef or even chicken mince in this recipe!
These little tacos are that little bit easier than normal tacos for kids to hold too!
Pesto Parmesan Chicken Meatballs
Delicious chicken meatballs made with just 5 simple ingredients and flavoured with basil pesto and parmesan.
Perfect for a finger food dinner for kids or even mixed into spaghetti and sauce.
Ham & Cheese Roll Ups
These ham and cheese pinwheels are a fun meal idea for kids that you can get them involved in making!
I use shop bought pastry making everything super simple too!
Chicken Goujons
If you are looking for healthy finger food meals for kids, then this is the one for you!
They’re one of our 30 Minute Recipes too so a really good mid-week finger food dinner when you are tight on time!
Baked Salmon Nuggets
This recipe is really easy to make. It literally takes 4-5 minutes to prep the nuggets and just 12 minutes to bake in the oven.
My fish nuggets are an easy finger food idea and you could use different types of fish depending on whsat you think your kids will eat.
Meatball Skewers
This recipe is actually from over on the Pick Plates blog, but it’s such a good finger food dinner idea that I couldn’t leave it out!
If you do try any of my finger food dinners for kids, then please do leave a comment below and share your pictures with me on Instagram. I always love to see your creations!
If you enjoyed this recipe collection, then you might also enjoy:
15 Of The Best 15 Minute (or less!) Kids Dinners – 15 of The Best 15 Minute (or less) Meals for Kids – quick and easy dinner time solutions for busy days! Nutritious and full of flavour too!
20 of The Best “Non-Sandwich” Lunchbox Ideas – 20 Delicious and Healthy Lunch Box Ideas for Kids That Aren’t Sandwiches!
Sally says
Some really lovely dinner ideas here. Fab to have them all in one place too as my daughter loves finger food dinners!