I have loved Buffalo Chicken in all its forms since first trying it at a Wing-Stop restaurant in Charlotte in 2006. When granddaughter Grayson put together a Buffalo Chicken Dip, I wanted some. Sure enough, it was great. Happily for us, Grayson revealed the recipe. It has some ingredients I rarely use, but I can’t resist this Buffalo Chicken Dip.
Serious discussions on the web about Buffalo Chicken Dip always involve the issue of blue cheese. Some of us love it, others do not. This recipe is delicious whether you choose Ranch Dressing or Blue Cheese Dressing. Or you could use Ranch Dressing and add blue cheese bits.
Diced chicken from a rotisserie chicken (or 2 cups of diced cooked chicken)
8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup ranch dressing (or blue cheese dressing, or plain yogurt)
(1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles)
1/2 cup Frank’s Red Hot Wings Buffalo Sauce
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix ingredients and spread into tart pan or other shallow dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve with celery sticks or Tostitos® chips.
Note
A few months after we posted this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip, what did we see but the august New York Times with a similar recipe. It made me smile that it wasn’t a real recipe, just what Sam Sifton calls a “narrative no-recipe recipe” from Chris Stanford, the Times correspondent in London. It also includes diced celery and lacks ranch dressing:
Melt a bar of cream cheese in a pot and hit it with a big handful of finely diced celery and as much hot sauce as you can manage. Rip apart a roast chicken from the light-bulb rotisserie station in the supermarker and fold the shredded meat into the cheese sauce, along with maybe some grated Cheddar? I think that could be good, for tang.
Now, butter a pie plate or casserole and add the chicken-cheese mixture to it. Dot with crumbled blue cheese and bake at 400 for 20 or 25 minutes. Serve the dip proudly with celery sticks, chips, toast, or tortillas, and own what you have done. Announce like a president: “This is a recipe from London.”
In October 2018, Buffalo Chicken Dip became a real recipe in the New York Times with Ali Slagle’s story. But remember, Grayson had it first!