The Nashville hot chicken dip is a great party dip recipe! I first tried Nashville hot chicken a few years ago. I saw the recipe on a PBS cooking show and tried it at home. My family loved it! I had forgotten about it until hot chicken restaurants started popping up all over Cleveland. My son and daughter asked about them and we tried some of the restaurants. There were a couple that were great and some were ok.
The holidays got me thinking about appetizers and what a great dip idea hot chicken dip would be! The chicken, tangy hot sauce, sweet honey, and dill pickles all make a great combination! Not to mention it is a quick and easy appetizer recipe!
The chicken in the Nashville hot chicken dip
I used frozen breaded chicken from the grocery store for the hot chicken dip. You can use any type of breaded or unbreaded chicken pieces for this recipe. I am going to try a plant based chicken in the future to see what it is like. The amount of chicken can be adjusted also. I just suggest dicing the chicken into small pieces so it will fit on a piece of baguette or a cracker that would be used for dipping.
Combining the cream cheese and buttermilk
I warmed the cream cheese and buttermilk for about 45 seconds in the microwave before combining. The cream cheese can look a bit clumpy if they are not warmed before combining until smooth. This is not vital for the recipe to come together but it makes it look nicer.
Layering the hot chicken dip
Once the buttermilk and the cream cheese are well combined and smooth, mix in the honey and the hot sauce. I used Frank’s hot sauce. You can use whatever hot sauce does it for you. Once the cream cheese mixture is ready with the hot sauce and honey, spread it on the bottom of the dish you are going to be using for serving. The next layer is the diced chicken. I pressed the chicken into the cream cheese mixture a touch so the chicken pieces stay put. I suggest making a solid layer of the diced chicken.
Next, mix together the ingredients for the sauce for the topping. At this point you can adjust the honey or the hot sauce to suit your taste. Once combined pour it over the top of the chicken as evenly as possible. Lastly, layer the pickles. If your guests do not like pickles, it is not a game changer for the dip. Just don’t put them on. Slice the dill pickle slices in half and then apply the layer.
Try some of my other appetizers such as the reuben ravioli, or smoked salmon baguette.
Ingredients
Base
- 2 – 8 ounce packages of room temperature cream cheese
- ½ cup of room temperature buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons of hot sauce
- 1 tablespoons of honey
- ½ teaspoon of chipotle chili powder or cayenne powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Topping
- 4 baked diced breaded chicken tenders/large pieces
- 2 tablespoons of hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
- Sliced dill pickles halved. Enough to cover the top of the dip when served
Instructions
For the base
- Combine the cream cheese and the buttermilk. Mix until very well combined.
- Add Hot sauce, honey, chipotle chili powder, and smoked paprika.
- Place into the bottom of an appropriately sized serving dish or bowl
For the topping
- Mix the hot sauce, honey, and garlic powder and set aside.
- Add chicken to the top of the base. The chicken should cover the top of the base.
- Pour hot sauce mixture over chicken.
- Add pickles to the top of the dip.
