Chili Con Queso Dip Recipe

The classic game day dish with extra hot sauce. Don’t be alarmed: The full ½ cup of hot sauce colors this mighty appetizer but does not make it scorching hot. Just a regular “Quick, I need a beer,“ hot. Ingredients: 2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I sometimes use a 12 ounce can of cooked chicken) 8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature ( I use the good stuff from our local bagelry) ¾ cup blue cheese crumbles (My favorite is Stella brand) divided into ½ cup and ¼ cup ½ cup Frank’s RedHot Sauce, an all purpose cayenne sauce that gets the job done right ¼ cup ranch dressing 3 tablespoons pickled jalapeños, finely chopped – optional. Plus some whole slices for optional garnish 3 green onions sliced thin – optional I use my mixer to combine all these ingredients except for the reserved ¼ cup blue cheese and the optional onion. It makes it easy to work that stubborn cream cheese into the mix. I use a shallow oven-proof pan, about 9 x 9 or so. A 2 quart Pyrex bowl is also perfect for this. Fill that vessel with the mix and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until you see some bubbling. Throw the last ½ cup of blue cheese crumbles on top and broil for just a couple of minutes until you get some melting and coloring. Take care not to overdo this. Remove and cool on a wire rack and garnish with the optional onion and whole jalapeño slices. Serve with some sturdy cracker/chips that can power through this thick and delicious mess. Adapted from the Frank’s RedHot website via the Washington Post recipe adaptation.