Buffalo chicken dip turns greasy because it got too hot. Heat is the one that ruins it, and two ingredients do the rest. Cream cheese and cheddar hold together at a bubble and split at a boil, and once the fat pools on top, the pan is half a pan of orange oil by the time the second wave of people gets to it. Fix the heat and this is the easiest crowd dip there is: shredded chicken, cream cheese, hot sauce, ranch and cheddar, mixed at home in a foil pan and warmed on the grill. The flavor is Buffalo's, from the wings Bills fans grew up on, but the pan shows up in every lot.
15 MIN
At home, the night before
45 MIN
At the lot
12
Serves
Ingredients
Dip
- 2 blocks (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup ranch dressing
- ¾ cup cayenne pepper hot sauce (plain, not wing sauce)
- 4 cups shredded cooked chicken (1 large rotisserie chicken, or about 1¼ lb cooked thighs)
- 2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded from the block, divided
Topping
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
- ½ cup crumbled blue cheese (optional, for half the pan)
- Extra hot sauce, for drizzling
Serve
- 2 large bags tortilla chips
- 1 bunch celery, cut into sticks
Steps
At home
- Beat the cream cheese, ranch and hot sauce together until smooth. If you're cooking your own chicken, take it to 165°F first and let it cool.
- Stir in the chicken and 1½ cups of the cheddar. Spread it in the foil pan and scatter the last ½ cup of cheddar on top.
- Cover the pan tightly with foil and refrigerate it overnight, or up to 2 days. Cut the celery and slice the green onions, and pack them in separate bags.
At the lot
- Set up the grill for indirect heat at about 350°F. On charcoal, bank the coals on one side. On propane, light one side and leave the other off.
- Set the covered pan on the cool side and close the lid. Heat it for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring once halfway, until the center reads 165°F.
- Take the foil off for the last 5 minutes to let the cheese bubble. Top with the green onions, the blue cheese over half the pan and a drizzle of hot sauce, and serve with the chips and celery.
- Keep the pan on the cool side with the lid down while people graze, so it stays at 140°F or above.
Why does buffalo chicken dip get greasy?
Heat does the damage; the two ingredients make it worse. All three are easy to avoid.
- Direct heat. A foil pan over the coals boils at the bottom while the middle is still cold. Set it on the cool side of the grill with the lid down, stir it once halfway, and take it off as soon as the center is hot.
- Wing sauce instead of hot sauce. Bottled wing sauce already has butter or oil in it, and that fat has nowhere to go. Use plain cayenne pepper hot sauce; the cream cheese is all the richness the dip needs.
- Bagged shredded cheddar. The anti-caking coating keeps it from melting smooth. Shred it from the block.
If it splits anyway, stir in a spoonful of ranch off the heat and it comes back together.
Ranch or blue cheese?
Ranch goes in; blue cheese goes on top, and only on half the pan. Ranch mixes in smooth and keeps the dip creamy for the people who think blue cheese tastes like a locker room. Blue cheese crumbled over one end gives the wing-joint bite to the people who think ranch on a wing is a crime. Both camps eat from the same pan and nobody has to scoop around anything.
At the lot: Mix it in the foil pan up to 2 days ahead and keep it in the cooler. It firms up overnight, so give it the full 30 to 40 minutes on the grill with the lid down, until the center reads 165°F. Homegating: Bake it in the oven, then hold it in a slow cooker on warm for the whole game. Heat it first, though: a slow cooker warms cold dip too slowly to be safe.
Home gear: a 9 × 13 in. foil pan with a lid or foil, and a hand mixer
Lot notes
- Any grill works: a kettle with the coals pushed to one side does it. Keeping it hot while people graze is covered in how to keep food hot at a tailgate.
- Two pans for a crowd: bring a second pan of dip and put it on the grill when the first is half gone, and the dip is hot all morning instead of for the first twenty minutes.
What chicken works in buffalo chicken dip?
Rotisserie chicken: it's seasoned, it's juicy, and it shreds in 5 minutes. Canned chicken works in a pinch but turns stringy. If you cook your own, use thighs, poached or baked, so the dip stays moist.
More for the dip table: spinach artichoke dip, smoked queso and grilled Buffalo wings for the purists.
Gear for this cook
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