13 Delicious Ways To Elevate Buffalo Chicken Dip

Buffalo chicken dip is an absolute staple at parties and beyond. It's a perfect complement to dips that are generally served cold, such as salsa and guacamole, and can be enjoyed with chips, crackers, or vegetables like celery (depending on your preference). It's rich, cheesy, hearty, and filling thanks to the chicken, and tangy from the buffalo sauce. Whether you're planning to include it in a spread for the next game day or are just looking for a snack that almost feels filling enough to be a full meal, buffalo chicken dip has you covered.

But why settle for the same simple buffalo chicken dip recipe when there are so many incredible ways to elevate the otherwise humble dish? With that in mind, we've collected some of the best ideas we've encountered to take your buffalo chicken dip to the next level. Most of these are super easy, and simply involve making a few additions or swaps. To ensure your next batch tastes better than ever before, here are 13 delicious ways to elevate buffalo chicken dip.

Let's be honest: Buffalo chicken dip is a pretty heavy dish. The chicken is already hearty on its own, and once you add the cream cheese and ranch dressing, it can get somewhat fatty and overpowering. Consequently, you may want to balance it out with an ingredient that can add a burst of brightness and sharpness to the dish, so try sprinkling some chopped green onions on top of your dip.

In their raw state, green onions provide a fresh, sharp flavor, which brings a nice contrast to the richer ingredients included in the rest of the dish. Not only does this addition improve the flavor of the dish, but it also adds a nice color contrast, as well, instantly making it look more appealing.

Don't worry if you don't have any green onions on hand, either, as chives will add a similar pop of color. Just keep in mind that if you want them to contribute the same sort of flavor to the dish, you'll need to use more of them, since their flavor isn't quite as strong as that of green onions.

One of the things we love about buffalo chicken dip is the fact that you can throw it together with relatively affordable ingredients. For example, some recipes for the dish specifically call for canned chicken, which works because its potentially less-than-ideal qualities are mostly covered up by the other ingredients generally added to the dip. And while canned chicken is fine to use, we think opting for fresh chicken is best if you really want to elevate the flavor of the dip. More specifically, chicken thighs can make your buffalo chicken dip taste significantly richer and more flavorful.

Now, are you wondering why you should use chicken thighs instead of, say, chicken breasts? It's because chicken thighs are fattier than chicken breast, which makes the meat more flavorful and tender. In other words, chicken thigh meat will add a lovely textural quality to the dish that you won't get from either canned chicken or chicken breast, all while infusing the dip with a richer flavor.

Buffalo chicken dip is a recipe that generally comes together pretty quickly, especially if you're using canned meat instead of cooking it yourself. This is fine when you're just trying to throw together a quick snack, but what about when you really want to impress your guests with the recipe? That's when you might want to go above and beyond to infuse your chicken with some smoky flavor.

Cooking chicken from scratch in any manner is a great way boost flavor, of course. But if you want to add even more deliciousness to the equation, you should consider smoking your chicken before adding it to the dip. Smoked chicken has so much more complexity than canned, boiled, or any other type of simply-prepared chicken.

Unless you have a smoker at home, the easiest way to do this is with a charcoal grill. After a couple of hours chilling out on the grill, you'll find that the chicken is deeply rich and smoky, making it the perfect ingredient to elevate the dip. For even more of that smokiness, smoke the cream cheese, as well. Frankly, after preparing your buffalo chicken dip with smoked ingredients, you may never go back to a standard recipe again.

As much as we love buffalo chicken dip, it's ultimately just a snack — not a full meal. For those who love this combo of flavors, that can be a bummer, since you might want to pack away a whole meal-sized serving of the dip in one sitting. Luckily, there's an easy way to transform your buffalo chicken dip snack into a whole meal by using your usual buffalo chicken dip as the filling for lasagna.

You can employ buffalo chicken dip in your lasagna recipe in two different ways. You could simply replace the standard Bolognese mixture with dip, of course. However, if you still want your pasta to taste somewhat like the classic dish — just one with a buffalo-y twist — then layer the lasagna like normal while reserving the buffalo chicken dip for a final layer on top. Either method you choose, it's a great way to enjoy one of your favorite snack dips in meal form.

The one element that buffalo chicken dip is generally missing is acidity. Sure, you get some of it from the inclusion of buffalo sauce, but considering how much cheese, cream cheese, and chicken are in the mix, that subtle acidity can easily be overshadowed. One simple way to elevate your buffalo chicken dip, then, is to add some sort of acidic element to the dish, and dill pickles just happen to work really well here.

For this, you can chop up some pickles and stir them into the dish, allowing you to taste them throughout every bite. Or you can just throw a few dill pickle chips on top, providing guests with the option of snagging some for their plates or avoiding them altogether (depending on their affinity for pickles). We love how the inclusion of this one simple ingredient brings so much to the dish with so little effort. Plus, you'll never have to worry about your buffalo chicken dip turning out bland again.

Buffalo sauce is arguably the most important ingredient in buffalo chicken dip. Without the tangy sauce, this dip is basically just melted cheese and chicken. Adding in that sauce, though, transforms it into a downright addictive snack. Therefore, one of the easiest ways to elevate your buffalo chicken dip is by improving the flavor of the buffalo sauce itself by making your own.

There are obviously tons of different buffalo sauce brands on the market to choose from. But you can make a fresher-tasting dip with your own homemade buffalo sauce using butter, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and apple cider vinegar. Although this sounds like it would take a lot of extra effort, you can actually whip up this sauce in just about five minutes. Plus, you have so much more control over the flavor of the sauce this way.

If you want it to be spicier, add more hot sauce. If you want the whole dish to be saltier, sprinkle some more salt into your buffalo sauce. Once you taste homemade buffalo sauce, you may be tempted to throw the bottled stuff in the trash.

Before anything else, buffalo chicken dip is creamy. That creaminess is what transforms a cheese and chicken mixture into the rich and scoopable delight that it is, and that comes from the inclusion of cream cheese. Therefore, if you want to achieve a richer, creamier, and even more luscious buffalo chicken dip, adding more cream cheese is key. You don't even have to add a lot, either, and really only need an extra ounce or so to get that supreme creaminess.

However, there are some considerations to take into account. First, you'll want to make sure the extra cream cheese you use is softened to make for an easier mixing process. Otherwise, you might have globs of cream cheese that don't incorporate well with the other ingredients, leaving you with pockets of unflavored richness you don't really want. Additionally, increasing the amount of cream cheese will likely weaken the flavors of buffalo sauce and any other seasoning you're using, so make sure to adjust those accordingly.

When you think of the texture of buffalo chicken dip, what comes to mind first? Most likely, it's the rich creaminess. Although we love this texture and think of it as the hallmark of this dish, all that creaminess can get overwhelming after a while. One easy way to elevate the dish is by adding another textural element to the mix. In fact, you can transform buffalo chicken dip so it tastes like something from a trendy restaurant with panko bread crumbs.

If you ask us, the best way to incorporate crunch into your buffalo chicken dip is by lightly frying some panko bread crumbs, then sprinkling them on top of the dish. Make sure to season the bread crumbs with salt (and other seasonings as you prefer, like paprika, onion, or garlic powder) to ensure they're adding both texture and flavor to the dish. It'll only take a few extra minutes of prep time, and the results are so, so worth it.

If you take a look at most recipes for buffalo chicken dip, you'll see that they generally call for ranch dressing. This dressing provides added richness to the dip, which is important with such an indulgent recipe. Plus, the seasonings in ranch dressing add an extra layer of flavor, upping the complexity. But not everyone likes ranch dressing necessarily. Thankfully, other ingredients out there that can offer similar benefits and that may be more catered to your taste — and one such ingredient is blue cheese.

Our recipe for Crock Pot buffalo chicken dip calls for both blue cheese dressing (which you'll use in place of the traditional ranch) and blue cheese crumbles for the top of the finished dip. This combo adds an incredible funkiness and complexity to your buffalo chicken dip that you can never get with ranch alone. It's a great way to take an average dip and turn it into something that feels just a bit more sophisticated.

If you're the kind of person who's always looking for ways to add more veggies to your meals and snacks, then you're going to love this tip for elevating your buffalo chicken dip. Simply open up a can or two of diced green chilies, and throw them into your dip mixture. This is an ideal addition if you feel like buffalo chicken dip can taste too heavy, creamy, or intense after a few bites.

Now, while some pack a bit of spice, most types of canned green chilies you'll find at the grocery store aren't particularly hot. Consequently, they're just going to add an extra note of tanginess and earthiness to your dip, which will help make things taste a little bit fresher. You also don't have to worry about green chilies affecting the texture of the dish very much. Canned chilies tend to be quite soft, so they blend in well with the other ingredients.

Canned chicken is great for your buffalo chicken dip when you're pinched for time or just trying to keep your costs low. Once you mix it with the other ingredients, you won't be able to notice the slightly stringy, dry texture that canned chicken sometimes has, after all. But if you want to elevate the dish, utilizing freshly cooked chicken is generally going to yield a richer and more complex flavor profile, which is why you should consider the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken.

Now, we've already mentioned how smoking chicken or using cooked chicken thighs as options for elevating buffalo chicken dip. But snagging yourself a grocery store rotisserie chicken to shred and use in your recipe offers an even easier way to incorporate fresh-cooked poultry.

Rotisserie chickens are generally relatively inexpensive, and you don't have to handle raw chicken or cook it yourself. A quality rotisserie chicken will also already be flavored with all the seasoning you need, saving you a ton of time without forcing you to resort to canned chicken. Who knew that you could elevate your buffalo chicken dip so easily?

Chicken is the star of the show in buffalo chicken dip, as the name of the dish implies. But you may not realize you can swap out chicken for a different kind of protein entirely and still yield delicious results. In fact, tuna makes for a perfect replacement for chicken in your recipe (it is called "chicken of the sea," after all). Tuna that comes in a can or a pouch is ideal here, since it breaks down in a very similar way to chicken, creating the same kind of texture you're looking for.

This works especially well if you're feeding people who don't eat meat but do eat fish. Then again, you may just want to give it a try when you don't have any chicken on hand but still want to indulge in a big batch of buffalo dip. Either way, you're in for a seafood appetizer that may just be better than the original recipe.

If you're not swapping out your ranch dressing for blue cheese dressing, then there's an easy way to make your buffalo chicken dip automatically taste a lot fresher and more delicious: Simply make your own ranch dressing from scratch to include in the recipe. Most buffalo chicken dip recipes that we've come across call for ranch to add its signature blend of spices along with its rich creaminess. But bottled ranch dressing is just never going to taste as good as the fresh stuff.

For those who've never made their own ranch dressing before, the process of doing so might sound a bit tricky. But you can actually make your own dressing in around 10 minutes, using ingredients like Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and an array of seasonings. Using this fresh dressing to add more flavor and texture to your dip is going to take your buffalo chicken dip to a whole new level.