Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip


Looking for a new guilt free appetizer to have for your next get together? Check out this recpie for buffalo chicken dip. It is packed full of all the flavors of buffalo wings. It’s also easy to make and I have managed to lighten it up without losing any of the flavor.

Buffalo Chicken Dip has always been one of my favorite appetizers at any gathering. It’s a creamy, flavorful dip made with buffalo chicken, cheese, and a few other staples and it has been so common that I’m sure you have crossed some variation of this recipe. For this recipe, I figured I would experiment not only with smoking the chicken and the dip itself, but also with trying to lighten up the traditional recipe so that I could enjoy a healthier version without losing the amazing flavor.

Cooking Basics

You are going to need a little time to throw this meal together because in this recipe, you will be smoking the chicken breasts that will be chopped up and used in the dip. You will need 3 cups of chicken for this recipe and that usually equates to about 3 chicken breasts. The first thing you will want to do is trim them down to remove any fat or bone. I used franks red hot for the binder for the rub. You can use your favorite chicken rub to season the chicken. I included a link to one of my favorites below. If you don’t have any on hand then you can just use equal parts salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I also used some ranch powder as part of the seasoning to get a little more of that flavor without having to actually add a bunch of ranch dressing to the dip. Once this is done, you are ready to throw them on the smoker / grill.

Chicken Prep

You will want to set up your smoker / grill for indirect cooking and get it up to 250 degrees. You want to smoke or grill the chicken until it reachs an internal temperature of 165 degrees. This will take about an hour and a half cooking on the smoker. Be sure to flip them at the half way point. Once the breasts have reached the temperature you are looking for, remove them and now it’s time to put together the dip.

Chicken on Smoker

You can choose to use an aluminum pan to cook the dip. I use my cast iron pan to cook with so I don’t have to keep buying new trays every time I want to cook. The first thing you will need to do is chop up all of yoru chicken into whatever size you wish. I usually chop it up into fairly small pieces (1/4” x 1/4”) and add it to the pan.

Chicken Prep

Once this has been added, you can add the rest of the ingredients listed below to the pan. Save about a quarter cup of the cheese to top the dip with when it is close to done and then throw the pan back on the smoker. Kepp the temp at 250 degrees and cook for another hour. At the half hour mark, make sure to stir the dip ingredients together. At this point the cream cheese will have heated up enough that it will be easy to combine. At the 50 minute mark, you can go top the dip with the cheese you saved.

Dip on Smoker

Once the time is up, you can remove this from the smoker / grill. Feel free to experiment with whatever toppings you want. I typically like to throw a few blue cheese crumbles or chopped green onions on top to add another layer of flavor. The dip is now ready to eat!!

Final Thoughts

Alternatives - I love recipes that you can use over and over again and change up to try out different flavors. This is definitely one of those recipes.

  • Chicken - I like the fact that you can add some flavor to the chicken by smoking it but it does dry out the chicken breast a little. If you want the chicken in the dip to be more moist, you could cook an entire chicken or buy a rotisserie chicken from the store to use in the dip. If you decide to attempt a whole chicken at home, I have a great recipe for Spatchcock Chicken that would work perfectly.
  • Cheese - In this recipe, I use a combination of cheddar and blue cheese but if you are not a fan of blue cheese, you could use all cheddar cheese or even replace with your favorite kind. I could see mexican cheese blend working for this as well and I am sure there are many other options.
  • Flavors - There is a restaurant up near where I live that serves “reserve buffalo” wings. They are basically your standard buffalo wings but they have some sweetness to them. I love them and that is why I add some brown sugar to my version fo this recipe. If you don’t want the sweetness, feel free to omit the brown sugar or try something different. As I write this recipe, I wonder how a bit of hot honey may change the flavor of this.
  • Healthy - In this recipe, I have tried to make this a little healthier but if you don’t care about that, feel free to use a whole block of cream cheese instead of using some greek yogurt. You can also substitute full fat ingredients for the reduced fat items. I honestly think this recipe tastes great with the healthy variations.

If any of you decide to get creative, please leave a comment with what you tried and how it turned out either on this post or any of the social media channels I have set up. I would love to hear about it.

Recipe


Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe

Looking for a new guilt free appetizer to have for your next get together? Check out this recpie for buffalo chicken dip. It is packed full of all the flavors of buffalo wings. It's also easy to make and I have managed to lighten it up without losing any of the flavor.

Recipe Information

  • Prep Time: 15 Minutes
  • Cook Time: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
  • Rest Time:
  • Total Time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes
  • Servings: 8
  • Category: Appetizer

Ingredients

  • 3 Cups chicken
  • 4oz Fat Free Cream Cheese
  • 1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt
  • 2 Tbsp Ranch Dressing
  • 2 Tbsp SPG (equal parts salt, pepper, garlic powder) or yrou favorite chicken rub
  • 2 Tbsp Ranch powder (If you don’t have ranch powder just add an equivalent amount of extra ranch dressing to dip))
  • 3/4 Cup Franks Red Hot
  • 1/4 Cup Reduced Fat Blue Cheese
  • 3/4 Cup Cheddar
  • 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar (Optional)

Optional Toppings

  • Blue Cheese crumbles
  • Green onion chopped

Instructions

  1. Trim chicken breast. Apply red hot as binder then add SPG or favorite rub as well as Ranch powder to both sides of chicken breasts
  2. Preheat smoker / grill to 250 degrees (use maple, hickory, or fruit wood if smoking)
  3. Cook chicken on smoker / grill until internal temperature reaches 156 degrees. Usually takes an hour and a half. Flip chicken at 45 mninutes.
  4. Remove chicken but leave heat on
  5. Chop up chicken into smaller pieces and add to pan
  6. Add all remainign ingredients to the mix but save 1/4 Cup of cheddar to top the dip with
  7. Throw the pan back on the smoker / grill to cook
  8. After 30 minutes when the cream cheese has heated up enough mix together all the dip ingredients in the pan
  9. At 50 minute mark top the dip with the 1/4 Cup of cheddar
  10. After 1 hour then remove from smoker / grill
  11. Top with blue cheese crumbles or green onion (optional)
  12. Serve and enjoy!

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