A spicy chicken dip with crunchy topping and diced pickles is sure to please the spicy food fans in your crowd. This Nashville Hot Chicken Dip is a unique spin on the now famous Nashville dish and makes for an easy appetizer. Don’t worry- the heat level can be toned down if desired.
I didn’t realize Nashville Hot Chicken was a thing until fairly recently. Earlier this year, fast food chain KFC even introduced a version of the dish and about the same time, I started noticing this mysterious dish on menus at a couple of local restaurants. As a foodie, I of course then googled the origin of the creation and the trend behind it becoming famous across the US. After all, I just had to see what it was all about 🙂
Traditional Nashville Hot Chicken is fried and then slathered with a spicy paste consisting heavily of cayenne pepper. It is then served on slices of white bread and topped with bread and butter pickles. Talk about taking fried chicken to a whole other level!
I’ve never had the real thing (I’m sure I will one day), but as soon as I learned about the dish, I knew I wanted to make a Nashville Hot Chicken Dip. And I love how it turned out! I like spicy food so this was right up my alley too! When people ask me if something is spicy, my common response is “I’m the wrong person to ask” because I’ve learned that I do not consider something to be spicy when a lot of other people think that it is spicy. Now, I’m not one to order the hottest wings on the menu, but I do like me some spice 🙂
In case you can’t tell from the name, this dip has a kick and is very SPICY. It is Nashville HOT Chicken Dip after all! I will warn you that if you don’t like spicy hot food, you may not be a fan of this one. If you still want to try it, but can’t handle a lot of heat, I do recommend that you use less cayenne pepper than I call for in the recipe. 1 or 2 tsp of cayenne will yield a slightly milder version.
To incorporate the full Nashville Hot Chicken experience, this dip is topped with diced bread and butter pickles and served with bread.
Enjoy and don’t forget to keep some milk handy nearby! 🙂
Nashville Hot Chicken Dip
Ingredients
- 1 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter milk
- 2 cups shredded chicken, cooked
- 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 - 3 tsp ground cayenne pepper (use only 1 tsp if you prefer a milder version)
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup bread and butter pickles, diced
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix together cream cheese and buttermilk until creamy. Add in half of the spice mixture and mix until well combined. Fold in shredded chicken.
- Place bread crumbs, melted butter, and remaining spice mixture in a bowl and combine. Spread bread crumbs evenly over top of the dip.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the dip is heated through.
- Top with diced pickles and serve while warm.
Notes
Nutrition
You may also be interested in this hot dip mix variety pack
from Serendipity and available on Amazon.
You don’t mention at what temperature to bake it at.
Opps, sorry about that. Thanks for letting me know. I have updated the post.