We’re about a week away from the biggest football game of the year, and you can’t have a football party without some buffalo chicken dip. It’s creamy, tangy, spicy, and perfect for dipping your favorite chips, crackers, or even veggies. Not into football? Don’t sleep on this buffalo chicken dip because it can be used for a lot more than just dippin’!
What’s in Buffalo Chicken DIp
Okay, are you ready to see just how easy this is? You only need a few super simple ingredients to make this homemade buffalo chicken dip and once you see how quickly it comes together, you’ll never buy it premade again. Here’s what you’ll need to make your own buffalo chicken dip:
- Butter: This is one of the base ingredients for buffalo sauce. The rich butter helps balance the acidity and heat of the hot sauce.
- Hot Sauce: for real buffalo sauce, you’ll want to use Franks Redhot sauce, but most other vinegar-based cayenne hot sauces will also taste great.
- Garlic Powder: This gives a little depth to the buffalo sauce so it’s not just straight cayenne flavor.
- Ranch Dressing: A little dollop of ranch dressing also gives more dimension to the dip so you get more flavors than just cayenne.
- Cream Cheese: This is what creates the thick, dip-like consistency. It also adds extra creaminess and tanginess to the dip. You can use Neufchatel instead of cream cheese.
- Cooked Chicken: I like rotisserie chicken the best for this recipe, since it’s always tender and moist, but you could always cook up two chicken breasts in a skillet, then chop it finely before adding to the dip. You can also use canned chicken in a pinch, but the texture of canned chicken isn’t the best.
- Blue Cheese: It’s not that you need even more cheese in this dip, but blue cheese offers the most amazing savory and pungent contrast to the bright vinegary buffalo flavor. But if you’re not a blue cheese person you can skip it and your dip will still be awesome!
Can I Bake It?
I chose not to bake my buffalo chicken dip because I just wanted it to be as quick and easy as possible. But if you wanted to bake it, you could top it with some cheddar cheese and bake in a 375ºF oven for 10-15 minutes, or just until the cheese is melted and bubbly. You just need to be careful to not overbake the dip or else it can begin to separate.
How to Serve Buffalo Chicken Dip
Okay, here’s where it gets good. Obviously, you can serve this buffalo chicken dip with crackers, chips, or vegetable crudités, but it can also be used for more than a dip. You can stuff it into a tortilla and cook it up in a skillet for a creamy quesadilla, pile it onto a sandwich with some greens or sprouts for a delicious chicken-salad-like sandwich, or spread it on a pizza dough and top with mozzarella for a super cheesy buffalo chicken pizza!
Want more party food recipes for the big game? Check out our favorite Super Bowl Recipes!
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Servings 8 ¼ cup eachIngredients
- 1/2 cup Frank's RedHot Sauce* ($1.26)
- 4 Tbsp butter ($0.60)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- 8 oz. cream cheese ($2.19)
- 2 Tbsp buttermilk ranch dressing ($0.25)
- 3 cups chopped cooked chicken ($4.00)
- 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (optional) ($1.00)
Instructions
- Add the hot sauce, butter, and garlic powder to a small saucepot. Stir and cook over medium until the butter has melted and combined with the hot sauce.
- Cut the cream cheese into chunks and add it to the sauce pot along with the ranch dressing. Stir and whisk over medium until the cream cheese has melted and created a smooth and creamy sauce.
- Add the chopped chicken to the saucepot and stir to combine. Stir and cook over medium just until heated through. Be careful not to let the dip boil.
- Taste the dip and adjust the heat (hot sauce) or any of the other flavors to your liking. Transfer to a bowl and top with crumbled blue cheese, then enjoy!
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make BUffalo Chicken Dip – Step by Step Photos
Start by making a super simple buffalo sauce: add ½ cup Frank’s RedHot sauce (or any vinegar-based cayenne hot sauce), 4 Tbsp butter, and ¼ tsp garlic powder to a sauce pot. Heat and stir over medium until the butter has melted and combined with the hot sauce.
Cut 8 oz. of cream cheese into chunks, then add it to the pot, along with 2 Tbsp buttermilk ranch dressing.
Stir and whisk over medium heat until the cream cheese and dressing have melted into the hot sauce and created a smooth, creamy sauce.
Add 3 cups of chopped cooked chicken to the sauce and stir to combine. Continue to stir and cook just until heated through. Be careful not to let the dip boil.
Give the dip a taste and adjust the heat (add more hot sauce) or other flavors to your liking.
Transfer the buffalo chicken dip to a bowl and top with crumbled blue cheese (optional).
Serve with your favorite crackers, vegetables, or chips for dipping!
The is the best buffalo dip out there! I have tried so many and this is delicious and comes together so fast. I love that I don’t have to turn on my oven. Doing it on the stovetop means I don’t have to spend 10 minutes mixing hard cream cheese into other ingredients like the oven recipes. I always keep canned chicken from Costco on hand and have found that 2 cans is roughly 3 cups.
Super easy to make and it was delicious!
made the recipe as written & it came out perfect!
Already commented but forgot to select the rating, this is 5 stars!
Made this dip for our super bowl party and it was so popular that I ended up making a second batch during the game! The flavor and texture were perfect, so delicious. I baked the first batch for 10min and served the second batch straight from the stove. Both ways it was delicious! Thanks for a great recipe, I’ll be making this again!
P.S. I followed the recipe as written using chopped rotisserie chicken and omitting the blue cheese.
Really enjoyed this recipe, my biggest issue was just getting the consistency right but I think next time I’ll just use less butter.
I make this without butter and garlic powder (and have for years!), I use a little more ranch (maybe 1/4-1/2 c?) and add in shredded cheddar. That combos never steered me wrong, especially with the consistency!
Canned Kirkland chicken makes this recipe even easier! :)