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This easy Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe is classic Midwestern fare, and it can be yours in minutes with just 5 ingredients. Serve with plenty of fresh celery sticks, crackers, and chips.
What’s better than chicken wings? This chicken wing dip recipe right here. It’s easier to make, has all classic flavors of Buffalo Chicken Wings, and it requires very little in the way of cooking and cleanup.
Hot melty cheese, buffalo sauce, cool blue cheese or ranch dressing, cream cheese, and chunks of tender chicken ready and waiting to be dipped into. I always serve this spicy, tangy dip piping hot with a pile of Chicken in a Biskit crackers, chilled celery ribs, and carrot sticks.
Make this easy dip recipe for your next Super Bowl party, birthday party, or holiday gathering. People just love this Buffalo Dip recipe any time of year!
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Chicken: I make this easy dip with canned chunk chicken which I always keep in the pantry. Every 10-ounce can of chicken equals 2 small chicken breasts, so you would need 4 small chicken breasts (or 2 large ones), cooked and then shredded with two forks. See my how-to on poaching chicken, which is fast and super simple. You can also use leftover shredded chicken.
- Hot sauce: Frank’s RedHot Original or Buffalo Wing Sauce works best for me, but you may prefer another kind, and that’s okay.
- Salad dressing: For real, authentic, traditional Buffalo Chicken Dip, this recipe MUST be made with blue cheese dressing, not ranch. However, if you don’t like blue cheese dressing, as I don’t, you can use ranch. Just don’t tell anyone from Buffalo, NY.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine chicken and hot sauce. Cook until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Stir in cream cheese, salad dressing, and shredded cheese. Continue to stir until hot and bubbly, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a slow cooker to keep warm. Season with a pinch of salt if it needs it.
- Garnish with thinly sliced green onions, chives, or blue cheese crumbles, and serve with celery sticks, chicken crackers, and tortilla chips.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes about 6 cups of dip, enough for 12 servings, ½ cup each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Freeze the assembled dip in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Cheese: Sharp cheddar cheese is classic in Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip, but you can choose a different one or add a variety. Look for cheese with high stretchability like Monterey Jack and mozzarella cheese.
- Dippers: Serve Buffalo Wing Dip with crisp celery sticks and carrots, tortilla chips, chicken-flavored crackers, and toasted baguette slices.
- Slow cooker: Combine all ingredients in your slow cooker and stir until combined. Cover and heat on LOW 3 to 4 hours or HIGH 1 to 2 hours. Serve warm right from the crockpot with celery sticks and crackers.
- Oven-baked: Start with softened cream cheese. In a large bowl, stir together all dip ingredients. Spread evenly in a 1 1/2-quart or larger baking dish or cast iron skillet. Bake in a 350-degree oven until hot and bubbly, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hot, cheesy buffalo dip is delicious with crisp, fresh celery or carrot sticks, crunchy tortilla chips, and crackers (chicken-flavored crackers are my go-to here).
Buffalo chicken wing dip is made with cream cheese, shredded cheese, blue cheese or ranch dressing, hot sauce, and other spices like garlic powder.
That is a matter of personal taste. For real, authentic, traditional Buffalo Chicken Dip, this recipe MUST be made with blue cheese dressing, not ranch dressing. However, if you don’t like blue cheese dressing, you can safely use ranch. It’s your dip after all! Just don’t tell anyone from Buffalo, NY.
The most natural substitute for blue cheese is ranch dressing, but sour cream or any cool, creamy dip can work.
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Join Us
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Equipment
- Slow cooker (I love my trusty Crock Pot)
Ingredients
- 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken drained and shredded (see note 1)
- 1 (5 ounce) bottle hot pepper sauce (see note 2)
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
- 1 cup ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing (see note 3)
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- fresh chives sliced, or blue cheese crumbles, for garnish
- 1 stalk celery trimmed and cut into 4-inch pieces, for serving
- 1 (8 ounce) box chicken crackers and tortilla chips, for serving
Instructions
Stove top method:
- In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine chicken and hot sauce. Cook until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Stir in cream cheese, salad dressing, and shredded cheese. Continue to stir until hot and bubbly, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a slow cooker to keep warm. Garnish with chives or blue cheese crumbles and serve with celery sticks, chicken crackers, and tortilla chips.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Chicken: I make this easy dip with canned chunk chicken which I always keep in the pantry. Every 10-ounce can of chicken equals 2 small chicken breasts, so you would need 4 small chicken breasts (or 2 large ones), cooked and then shredded with two forks. See my how-to on poaching chicken, which is fast and super simple. You can also use leftover rotisserie chicken.
- Hot sauce: Frank’s RedHot Original works best for me, but you may prefer another kind, and that’s okay.
- Salad dressing: For real, authentic, traditional Buffalo Chicken Dip, this recipe MUST be made with blue cheese dressing, not ranch. However, if you don’t like blue cheese dressing, as I don’t, you can use ranch. Just don’t tell anyone from Buffalo, NY.
- Yield: This recipe makes about 6 cups of dip, enough for 12 servings, ½ cup each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I love how u say you must use blue cheese for real buffalo chicken wing dip & if you don’t, don’t tell anyone from Buffalo NY. I’m from Buffalo &I agree 100%, we take our contributions to the culinary world seriously(beef on weck, 🐔 wings, 🐔 wing dip, loganberry etc…). There’s not even ranch in pizza places, unless they sell salads.
The only change I made was to sprinkle blue cheese crumbles on the top &add more cheese!
Hi Rose, thank you so much for your comment! I appreciate how seriously Buffalo takes its food, and I am grateful to be able to pay homage to such deliciousness. If you have any other Buffalo-inspired recipes or suggestions, please write! Thank you for sharing again, and take care! – Meggan
Fabulous & super simple! Perfect food for Game Day!!!
Glad you loved it, Marla! Take care! – Meggan
I’ve made this exact recipe twice now and my family absolutely loves it. I’m not an executive chef but I am a certified chef and I definitely look forward to seeing more recipes from Culinary Hill. This is one of my favorite websites to go on just to see what I can make next 🙂
Thank you so much Amanda, so glad you loved it and the site! – Meggan
Went to a birthday party and it was a hit!i kept asking my daughter in law for the recipe and she has sent it. Thank you Jessica. I’m going to write this one down so if I lose my phone I will have it!Everyone could not get enough. I really don’t do hot and was skeptical at first but I tried it and it was perfect!she also put in one of those crockpot liners and then she just transferred it to a big bowl. She kept in liner. No dirty dishes!!!
At the end of the day it’s all about the buffalo and the chicken for me. I don’t care if you use blue cheese or ranch to get there – just as long as that chicken and buffalo are swimming in something spicy. Happy, Happy, Happy.
Rotisserie chicken definitely. 2 pkgs of cream cheese is way too much. I had to get another chicken to put in it. I’ll cut to 1 pkg next time. Used 1/2 the amount called for of blue cheese dsg and added chunks of bleu cheese when served and a bowl of bleu cheese chunks by the crock pot when serving. Also jalapenos on the side. Some wanted a little more spice.
Sorry about the cream cheese situation. For me and the people I know, we want it like that. But I can see if you don’t have cream cheese figuratively running through your veins, you might not. 😆 Thanks. -Meggan
Thanks to this I can make buffalo wing dip for the super bowl!!
I am also from Buffalo, please don’t use canned chicken, that doesn’t taste as good as cooking chicken, or even buying a rotisserie chicken.
Being from Buffalo I am appalled that people use ranch dressing with their wings. I don’t personally like either ranch or blue cheese, but still, I’m from buffalo and that’s just the way we do things :). Anyway this recipe is a staple in my house We’ve even had it over pasta! Buffalo chicken wing pasta! Thanks for the recipe!
Yum!!! Thanks for sharing!
No offense but who started the idea to use Ranch instead of Blue Cheese. A hot buffalo wing was started with dipping it in blue cheese dressing with chucks of blue cheese.. THATS a buffalo wing. Also I do 1/2 and 1/2 of the cheddar and Monterrey jack jalapeno.., Ditch the Ranch- leave it for the salads… that is not a true Buffalo wing 🙂
Hi Steve, first of all thank you for being nice about this unfortunate situation. The last person who was upset about ranch in my Buffalo dip dropped a few f-bombs… so… I appreciate you. The reason us weird Wisconsin people started putting RANCH in buffalo dip is because we don’t like blue cheese. I really WANT to like blue cheese, but I just don’t. How do I learn to love the taste of moldy feet? I’m taking suggestions. I taught myself to like salmon by eating it repeatedly, so maybe I just need to do that with blue cheese. But either way you’re right, this recipe should be written with blue cheese, garnished with blue cheese, and have a tiny footnote suggestion you “could” make it with ranch if you suck. 🙂 I will have to get it rephotographed but I’ll put it on my list. Thank you, mostly for just not being super mean about your suggestion. You were so nice that I will actually do what you have suggested. Thanks a lot. -Meggan
I was nearly devastated when I realized we didn’t have the canned chicken to make this for the Super Bowl. LUCKILY, we had some fresh chicken in the refrigerator, so cooked that, shredded it with the kitchen aid mixer (BEST TRICK EVER), and let it ride in the crock pot for a few hours. I will never go back to the canned stuff! This is the best recipe ever, and now its even better! Thank you for making the worst Super Bowl ever worth staying up for 😉
Thanks for the handy recipes! I live in Buffalo and buffalo dip is a staple here, but I have never attempted it myself. Your recipe was true to form, although I did make one substitution to make it even more true to Buffalo style…using blue cheese instead of ranch dressing!!! Yum!
Hi Shinea, thank you!!! Other Buffalo residents have been much more unkind about my recipe in the past, LOL! I do agree blue cheese is more traditional, I just can’t eat the stuff myself! I appreciate you, I’m glad you liked the dip, and I hope you have a spectacular week! Thanks. 😀 -Meggan
We love this dip! We use Tostitos scoops!
Ah yes, the BEST chip for getting the most dip! Good call! Thanks Julie. 🙂 I appreciate you stopping by the blog!
When I was in highschool we had a food day in one of my classes and someonmade buffalo chicken wing dip and I love it I just really don’t like the spicy part I’ve never been a fan of spicy foods. So I was wondering if there is a way I could make it mild but still taste good??
Hi Chelsea! I know what you mean about the spiciness, that can get out of control FAST. The good news is, this recipe is full of stuff to offset the spice: Cream Cheese, cheddar cheese, and ranch dressing. All that really cools the flavor down. What I would do, if I were you, is just add the red pepper sauce a little bit at a time. Maybe start with 2 Tablespoons, taste it, and go from there. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup so I feel like you might even be able to start with a 1/4 cup but I don’t want you to be disappointed. So just add a little at a time until you like the flavor. Also, if you eat it with celery instead of crackers, that helps a lot too! Crackers are good though, so maybe switch back and forth between fresh celery and crackers. 😀 I hope this helps! Good luck!! BTW if you accidentally overdo the hot sauce, you can always add in more ranch or cheese to compensate! There’s really no “wrong” way to make Buffalo wing dip. 😀
What?! Your hubby doesn’t like buffalo-style foods?! I must admit, I have a bit of a secret addiction to it 😉 Well it’s awfully telling that even he loved this recipe 🙂 Pinning for the holidays!
I always learn something about real American food on your blog, Meggan, and that’s one of the reasons I love it. One of, because there are many!! Delicious-sounding dip! When’s your next party?