cooking

Buffalo Chicken Dip

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buffalo chicken dip

It has taken me several days to write about the final party dip decision for our dip-for-dinner meal while watching the Super Bowl. After considering all of my dip options for Super Bowl Sunday, I opted for a new RoomMom recipe. Several years ago, I ate something like this at a friend’s house. She picked it up in the pre-made section of her grocery store. Then, I started seeing a variety of Buffalo Chicken Dip recipes popping up on Pinterest. If you like hot wings, you will like this.

Ingredients

  • 1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 chicken breasts, skin on, bone in (about 2 lbs)
  • 1/2 c. Louisiana Hot Sauce (or Tabasco)
  • 1/2 c. blue cheese salad dressing (or ranch)
  • 6-8 oz. shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese
  • Tortilla chips or Frito Scoops
  • Celery sticks

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put chicken breasts on a roasting pan. Rub skin with olive oil and season generously with Kosher salt and black pepper. Cook chicken for about 40 minutes until golden on the top and cooked through. Remove from oven and tent with foil. Let rest until cool enough to handle. When cooled, remove skin and pull chicken off the bone; cut into bite sized pieces and set aside.

roasted chicken breasts   chopped chicken

  • Beat cream cheese, hot sauce, and blue cheese dressing together until smooth.

beat cream cheese

  • Fold in chicken pieces.
  • Spray baking dish with Pam and spread mixture into the dish.
  • Sprinkle Colby-Jack cheese on top.

dip before baking

  • Bake at 350 degrees about 20 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.
  • Serve hot with chips and celery sticks.

Notes

  • You can use 2 (10-oz) cans of chunk white chicken, drained if you do not have time to cook your own chicken. Although, now that I have perfected roasting a package of chicken breasts, I recommend the method above.
  • A pie pan or a 9×9 baking dish is a good size for serving this dip.

buffalo chicken dip close up

Super Bowl Super Dips

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pan fried onion dip2

I am trying to decide which one of my favorite party dips will make the Super Bowl cut this year– definitely something with cheese.

I am including a new recipe for Pan-Fried Onion Dip courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa in tonight’s post, and the recipe is followed by photos with links to my other favorite party dip recipe posts. Please leave a comment to vote for the Super Bowl dip recipe TheRoomMom should serve this Sunday. If you vote for the winning dip choice, you will have the satisfaction of the knowing that you made TheRoomDad (aka my husband) very happy.

Ingredients

  • 2 large yellow onions
  • 4 T. butter
  • 1/4 c. vegetable oil
  • 1/4 t. ground cayenne pepper
  • 1 t. kosher salt
  • 1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 oz. cream cheese
  • 1/2 c. sour cream (or a little more)
  • 1/2 c. good mayonnaise (or a little less)

carmelizing onions

Directions

  • Cut the onions in half, and then slice them into 1/8-inch-thick-half-rounds. (You should have about 3 cups of onions.)
  • Heat the butter and oil in a large sautee pan on medium heat. Add the onions, cayenne, salt, and pepper and sautee for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 more minutes until the onions are browned and carmelized.
  • Allow the onions to cool. I scooped mine out of the pan with a slotted spoon and let cool on a couple of layers of paper towel on a plate.
  • Place the cream cheese, sour cream, and mayonnaise in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until smooth. Add the onions and mix well. Taste for seasonings.
  • Serve at room temperature with kettle cooked potato chips, pretzel sticks, or veggies.

Black Bean Salsa Dip

Black Bean Salsa Dip

hot artichoke dip

Hot Artichoke Dip

I recently tweaked this recipe, and I love the new combination. I especially like the blue corn tortilla chips, but it is also good with mini party rye slices.

bacon almond cheese dip w cracker

Bacon Almond Cheddar Dip

This meets the cheese criteria, and it has crumbled bacon. It is a classic!

dill dip in bread bowl w veggies

Dill Dip

I scoop out the center of a round loaf of bread to use as a serving dish and surround with carrots, celery, red and yellow peppers, pita chips, and pretzel dipping sticks.

sun dried tomato dip

Sun Dried Tomato Dip

The best raw veggie for this dip is definitely sugar snap peas.

Hot Artichoke Dip

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hot artichoke dip

I have an exciting new acquisition for my cookbook collection— The Pioneer Woman Cooks. She has a hot artichoke dip recipe that is similar to one my family has always made. There were some interesting improvements in her recipe (cream cheese), so I took my old family recipe and adapted it a little based on the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. The results were delicious and meal worthy. In my house, party dips can be served as complete meals (especially during the holidays). This is what we ate for dinner on New Year’s Eve. I know you are probably worried that the nutritional value in my New Year’s Eve dinner was pretty poor. Don’t worry, I made potato skins with bacon and melted cheddar too!

hot artichoke dip bite

Ingredients

  • Two 14-oz cans artichoke hearts, drained
  • One 8-oz block cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 c. real mayonnaise
  • 1 c. grated Parmesan cheese (or more), divided
  • 1/2 c. grated Swiss cheese (or more)
  • Tabasco (to taste– I use about 10 dashes)
  • salt
  • pepper

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Add one can of drained artichoke hearts, cream cheese, and mayonnaise to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the mixture 6 or 7 times.
  • Mix in 3/4 c. Parmesan cheese (or a handful), 1/2 c. Swiss cheese (or more), Tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
  • Roughly chop the other can of artichoke hearts into bite sized pieces. Add to the artichoke mixture and stir together gently.
  • Pour the mixture into an oven safe dish about the size of a pie dish. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan cheese on top. Bake for 20 minutes until browned slightly and bubbly.
  • Serve hot with blue corn tortilla chips or slices of party rye bread.

hot artichoke dip eaten

The Cookbook Collection

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cookbook collection

Part of the Cookbook Collection

After a slow start to my meal planning for the holidays, I got into the groove with the Breakfast Cups. I cooked many of my favorite comfort foods over the past few days. Some of the highlights have been Almond Bacon Cheese Dip, Dill Dip, Orzo with Roasted Vegetables, and my family’s sausage breakfast casserole.

Some of my recipes are family recipes, but many come from key cookbooks that anchor my cookbook library. Below is a list of my most used cookbooks along with the names of the best recipes (in my opinion) from those cookbooks. If you click each cookbook name below, it is linked to an Amazon listing.

What cookbooks do you have that you cannot live without?

The Artful Table

The Artful Table: Great Food from the Dallas Museum of Art League (This is the best cookbook I own. Everything turns out well.)

  • Pork Tenderloin with Red Onion Confit
  • Heavenly Potatoes
  • Country-Fried Chicken Salad (use store bought chicken tenders)
  • Picadillo Sarita
Notice the post it notes marking the most used recipes

You can tell which cookbooks are my favorites by the Post-it notes and other scraps of paper sticking out of the top to mark good recipes.

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

  • Sun-Dried Tomato Dip
  • Turkey Tea Sandwiches
  • Banana Crunch Muffins

Barefoot Contessa Parties

Colorado Collage

  • Carrot Basmati Rice Pilaf
  • Ginger Chicken Kabobs
  • Telluride Tortellini with Chicken

Creme de Colorado

  • Pasta with Broccoli

kansas city junior league

Company’s Coming (out of print– available used)

  • Steak Soup

Beyond Parsley

  • Spaghetti Pie
  • Artichoke Sausage Soup
  • Sugared Bacon

Above and Beyond Parsley

  • Pacific Rim Tenderloin
I find scraps of paper with old party notes in many of my favorite cookbooks.

I find old party notes in many of my favorite cookbooks. I never throw the notes away, so I can go back and recycle good ideas I may forget.

Southern Living Easy Entertaining

family cookbook

Family Cookbook (Not for sale at the present time)

  • A few years ago I compiled all of our traditional family recipes into a Shutterfly album with family photos. My dad is famous for kitchen pictures. These are the pictures of people caught mid-bite, or people standing in their sweat pants on a holiday morning stirring a pot of some kind (see photo below). There is usually one group photo at the table during a large gathering too. These were the photos I used to “enhance” the family cookbook. I use my family cookbook all of the time. I have all of my favorite recipes in one location and do not have to hunt through every loose piece of paper and recipe card box I own to remember how to make our family’s Christmas Eve egg nog. This makes a great birthday gift, Christmas gift, or Mother’s/Father’s Day gift.
Making Mashed PotatoesThanksgiving 2007

Check me out making mashed potatoes.
Thanksgiving 2006

Nuts for Christmas (and I don’t mean crazy)

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rosemary mixed nuts

It is only December 2, and I already feel like a crazy person. Every year, I decide to make all kinds of Martha Stewart-ish holiday treats (cocoa kits, reindeer food bags, gingerbread houses…) and then get testy with everyone in my house because they interrupt my projects when they want something– like dinner. Even though I had about 6 loads of laundry to do, several sets of school papers to grade, and various other weekend chores, I chose to mix up a batch of Buttered Nuts with Rosemary and Orange, print cutesy labels, and bag them using one of the clear gift bags I have in my vast collection.

This morning’s project is super fast and will be going to some of my husband’s co-workers or given as a thank you sirsee to the hosts at the (few) holiday parties we are attending if I run out of cocoa kits.

rosemary and orange mixed nuts

Ingredients

  • 2 cups lightly salted roasted mixed nuts can (an 11.5 oz can)
  • 1 T. unsalted butter
  • 2 T. sugar
  • 1 T. fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 1 T. thinly sliced orange zest

Directions

  • Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the nuts, sugar, rosemary, and zest. Cook, tossing, until the sugar is melted and the mixture is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.  Let cool on a baking sheet.

NOTE: Recipe can be doubled easily. I added an additional 1/2 c. of pecan halves and 1/2 c. of plain almonds and a few extra mixed nuts, then doubled the seasonings and butter.