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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This is a favorite among my friends.  I make it in advance, freeze it, then reheat it for a party.  There are shortcuts for the chicken, but I strongly advise you to follow my instructions - the flavor payoff is worth it.  Oh, and don't tell anyone there's dark meat.  A lot of people fancy themselves white meat only snobs.  They will never know.  Half the recipe if you want, but since you can freeze the leftovers, I think you might as well make a lot.

Ingredients
2 cooked plain-flavored rotisserie chickens from the grocery
1 - 8oz pkg cream cheese
16 oz crumbled blue cheese
1 bottle of blue cheese salad dressing
1 bottle of buffalo wing sauce  (Frank's is tasty)
1 8 oz pkg shredded mozzarella cheese

Optional ingredients
celery salt
crushed red pepper
tabasco
black pepper

Non-standard supplies
none

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375
  2. Pick the chickens once they're cool enough to handle, but still warm.  It's gross, but necessary.  remove skin, bones and all the gross things that accompany chicken on a bone -- you know what I mean.
  3. After all the chicken is in a bowl, go over it again and pull out anything that texturally doesn't fit in just to be sure you don't upset the diners.  Cut pieces with a knife if needed.  You want it to be bite-size but identifiable.
  4. Add buffalo sauce --  I'd say a cup at first.  The vinegar will evaporate from the warm meat, and some of the spices will soak into the chicken.
  5. Add half of blue cheese crumbles, softened cream cheese and 1 cup of the salad dressing.  Stir together.
  6. Add optional ingredients of your choice or more Franks to add more heat.
  7. Since I'm not sure how much meat your chicken yielded, just keep adding dressing and blue cheese until mixture is coated and making a gross wet sloshy sound when mixed and tastes good.  Since the chicken is cooked, taste it.  
  8. Bake until fully melted and bubbly, stirring periodically.  It will look greasy because of the buffalo sauce, but that's ok.
  9. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 mins.  Stir again before serving.  Cool before freezing.
If you freeze this, store it in a ziploc bag, not a lidded container.

To serve from frozen:  Thaw in refrigerator overnight.  Spread in baking dish, heat at 375 until bubbly, stirring occasionally. (about 45 minutes from chilled)

Serve with tortilla scoops, crackers or celery sticks.

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