Creamy Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe

While Buffalo wings may have a strong claim as one of the best food inventions ever, they can be messy to eat. For one thing, there's all that sauce, as well the blue cheese or ranch dressing. For another, there are all those bones to deal with once you're done. One way to have your chicken, sauce, and dip all wrapped up in a neater package, though, is to take those ingredients, and make them into a dip.

Recipe developer Melissa Olivieri calls this Buffalo chicken dip "simple to make, but big on flavor." Not only do you get all of the same flavors found in your favorite chicken wings, but you also get a few others. "I do love to add shredded cheese and green onions on top of the dip prior to baking it," says Olivieri, explaining that these ingredients "add more texture and flavor to it." For convenience's sake, you can even put this dish together ahead of time, and then bake it when you want to eat it.

The base of this dip is cream cheese, with cheddar added for extra flavor. It also includes shredded chicken breast meat in place of wing meat, since it's far less labor-intensive. Olivieri uses ranch dressing in her dip, although she says it's okay to use blue cheese dressing instead. You'll need some Buffalo wing sauce, too. By Buffalo wing sauce, Olivieri explains that she means a prepared wing sauce, not just a Louisiana-style hot sauce. She likes to use Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce since "This is the perfect blend of heat with flavor for adding to the cream cheese for the dip." However, you can always make your own homemade Buffalo wing sauce. Green onions are sprinkled on top, while carrots, celery sticks, and tortilla chips can be used as optional dippers.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. While it's heating, combine the cream cheese, the Buffalo wing sauce, and ½ cup of the dressing in a bowl until smooth. Stir in the cooked shredded chicken along with 1 cup of the shredded cheese.

Spread the Buffalo chicken dip over the bottom of a 1 quart baking pan, and sprinkle it with the rest of the shredded cheese and the chopped green onions. Once the oven is hot enough, bake the dip until the top is bubbly, and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. Once done, top with the remaining ranch dressing. 

Olivieri suggests serving the Buffalo dip with tortilla chips and carrot sticks, as well as that classic Buffalo wing side — celery sticks. You can also try it with crackers, crostini, or sturdy potato chips, if you prefer.

While this dip is something that can be eaten either warm or cold, Olivieri feels that "Hot is best as it is easiest to dip the chips or veggies into." Try to eat all of the dip fairly quickly, since she says it can only be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, and is not suitable for freezing.