Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner Night

Today, we are taking a trip to the Caribbean to celebrate romanticized pirates and island flavors!  During COVID-19 quarantine, we realized an epic parental fail of ours: Our 12-year-old hadn’t seen any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies!  Well, we had nothing but time to turn that around and expose her to all the exciting adventures of the swashbuckling Captain Jack Sparrow and his band of buccaneers.  To celebrate the end of our movie marathon, I decided to create a themed Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner to enjoy while we watched the final film of the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. 

Shipshape Pirate Décor

First, let’s talk décor.  Now is the time to pull out those skull and cross bones you have stashed away for Halloween!  Do you have any shells you’ve collected?  Coconuts?  Tiki Cups?  Those will all fit in with the theme today!  If it gives you that tropical feel, utilize it for your dinner!

Download a printable version of our Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner Menu here:

Avast Ye, Caribbean Main Entrée!

This was a really fun menu to put together, because I have never cooked Caribbean food before.  For the first dish, I KNEW we needed some Caribbean Jerk Chicken.  I found THIS great recipe from Ambitious Kitchen for One Pan Caribbean Jerk Chicken with Pineapple-Coconut Rice.  This recipe was FANTASTIC!  It made the house smell amazing and was a hit with the whole family.  I will definitely make this again for any family dinner night.  No pirates necessary!

Yo Ho Ho, Tropical Side Dish!

I knew we needed another side dish that really captured tropical island flavors to accompany our Jerk Chicken and Pineapple-Coconut Rice.  After doing some research on island cuisine, plantains seemed the way to go!  Having never prepared plantains (a relative to the common banana, but still quite different!), I researched several different recipes to try.  I found THIS recipe for Sticky Sweet Fried Plantains from Delicious Little Bites.  This recipe was very easy to follow and these sweet little morsels were cooked up in no time!  They were a hit with the kiddos.  I also blended some up with rum and cream for my husband to create an island inspired cocktail (I was not able to partake, as we were still expecting baby #3!). 

Our Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner went over well with the family!  I love that they are open to trying new cuisines.  I also feel that the recipes shared here are pretty approachable for families to try, granted there may need to be some editing depending on personal tastes.

Shiver Me Timbers Movie Snacks

Now it was movie time!  I decided to whip up a Sunken Treasure Popcorn Mix for the kids to enjoy during the film.  I don’t have an official recipe with measurements for this mix, but here is what I used:

Ingredients:

• Popcorn
• white chocolate or almond bark (for melting)
• blue food coloring (to make the chocolate look like water)
• M&Ms (for sunken treasure gems)
• Cupcake flavored Goldfish Crackers (or any other sweet Goldfish flavor you can find)

1. Prepare your popcorn (microwave, stovetop, air-popped, whatever works!).  While popcorn is popping, heat your melting chocolate either on the stove top or in the microwave.  Be sure to not let it overcook or it will get solid!  Once melted, add some blue food coloring to resemble the blue ocean.
2. Spread out your popcorn on a baking sheet.  Drizzle your melted chocolate over the popcorn, and sprinkle with M&M candies and Goldfish Crackers.
3. Once the chocolate has solidified, transfer mix to a bowl and enjoy!

This mix is super simple to throw together and you can customize it to your family’s personal tastes!

Pirate’s Bounty Desserts

To wrap up the evening, we enjoyed some Treasure Chest Cupcakes for dessert. This is a treat that can be as simple or complex as you want to make it!  Feel free to use any cupcake recipe your family enjoys.  Don’t feel like baking?  Go ahead and buy some cupcakes from your local grocery store (no judgement here!) and jazz them up with the treasure chests at home. 

I went with a German Chocolate Cupcake (coconut is tropical, right?).  To make the treasure chests, all you need is a bag of Hershey’s Nuggets.  There are several different flavors to choose from (dark and milk chocolate, almonds, toffee). Pick whatever sounds delicious to you!  We went with the toffee.  Use two nuggets for each treasure chest (one for the treasure on the bottom and one for the lid of the chest).  They will stay put when you place them in the cupcake frosting.

For the treasure, we used some extra mini M&Ms we had around.  To secure your treasure to the bottom of the treasure chest, you can use any icing or frosting you may have on hand.  We had a small tube of black icing that we used to glue the candies in place.  If you don’t have any icing or frosting, you can simply melt the surface of the chocolate just a bit, so the candies will adhere and stay in place.

I also had some leftover edible gold glitter that I sprinkled over the tops to make that treasure really sparkle.  The kids thought these treasure chest cupcakes were really fun and a great way to wrap up the evening!

Set Sail For That Horizon!

I hope you have enjoyed some of these pirate-themed ideas and are able to incorporate them into your very own family dinner night!  Do you have any favorite recipes from the Caribbean that you would utilize for a Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner Night?  Let me know in the comments!     

Looking for other Disney Themed Dinner ideas? Check out our Lion King Dinner Night HERE and our Little Mermaid Themed Dinner Night HERE!

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