Buffalo Chicken Dip

The tales about my future brother-in-law Shea's dip were legendary. So when Rory and his girlfriend Mary wanted to throw him a surprise party the dip had to be there as well. But since it would have been unkind to ask him to make it I got the recipe from him and did it myself.

I've made this three times and it's really, really tasty, not good for you in the slightest, but really good. Below you'll find Shea's email to me and below that I'll put my notes.

Here is the “official recipe” I use ... I added the changes I made at the bottom which I imagine are completely optional although I have never made it exactly the way they say to.

2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Ranch dressing
3/4 cup pepper sauce, such as Franks Red Hot
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm.

Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with celery sticks and crackers.

Shea’s other notes:
I basically used a stock pot to cook mine on the stove using the basic instructions above. I also added way more than a cup and a half of shredded cheese, probably more in the vicinity of 3 cups, which I feel gave it a better and sort of stretchy consistency, but it doesn't keep as well when the dip cools so you will probably need to reheat a few times. Either way i just eye balled the cheese and moved the stock pot into the over to cook on a low setting for a while.

Also, fuck celery and crackers … I think Fritos scoops work best and will probably be very appreciated by the poker crowd.

If you want to use real chicken instead of canned chicken, go ahead, but it may be wasted effort as the chicken is almost there more for consistency than any sort of flavor. Finally,I have used ranch dressing with bacon in the past, and while it worked and sounds really good in theory, I think regular ranch works better.

My notes:
I find canned chicken to be awful, awful stuff. What I've done a couple of times is buy chicken breast and cube it. Be mindful that this is a dip and people need to eat it in one bit so make the pieces small. Cook with some olive oil, salt and pepper and then begin the recipe.

Use a slow cooker if at all possible. When I made it at Rory's parents house we couldn't find one so I left it on the stove on the lowert possible setting. After awhile the cheese began to separate. Not good eats.