Tips, Tricks and Substitutions

Do you have to use boneless thighs? You can easily use breast instead of thighs so use whatever is in your house and/or your preference. The important thing is that the chicken is cooked and shredded before you make the dip.

Do you HAVE to use these specific cheeses? If you don’t have monterey jack, just make sure you have a good melting cheese like havarti, fontina, young gouda, young cheddar. Any of these cheeses will give you the satisfying cheese pull. The sharp cheddar gives you some more flavor, so an aged gouda, aged cheddar would work well here. As for blue cheese, it can be left out if you want. I’d stay away from the dressing and use freshly crumbled blue cheese though. Gorgonzola will also work of course.

Method

What are other ways to make shredded chicken? I usually make my shredded chicken in the pressure cooker because it’s my fastest option where I can set it and forget it. Another option is in the slow cooker, or baking and then shredding. If you have leftover whole roasted chicken, pick the meat and toss in buffalo sauce. The biggest thing is that the chicken is already cooked and shredded before it goes into the dip.

Does the cream cheese need to be softened? No, but it is going to make your life a lot easier to mix it. It will be easier to mix it once you add the warm chicken (assuming you just finished cooking it) but ultimately, the easiest way to mix it is when it is soft and nice and spreadable.

Ingredients

What type of buffalo sauce do you use? I usually buy Sweet Baby Ray’s buffalo sauce. Use whatever sauce you prefer. I like this one as it’s mild in the spice area but still has a good flavor.

CLose up of shredded buffalo chicken next to a bottle of sweet baby rays buffalo sauce

What is miso and do I need it? Miso is fermented soy beans. It adds a fantastic savoriness to the dish and an extra layer of depth to the dish to make it stand out a bit. I use white miso because it’s the fairly mild. If you have yellow or red miso, I’d use a little less as it has been fermented longer and usually has a stronger flavor. If you don’t have miso, you can easily leave that out as well. But I’d recommend buying it because it lasts in the fridge for a very long time.

Where do you find miso in the grocery store? I find it either by the tofu/vegetarian area where the kimchi is located or in the Asian aisle. I haven’t found a brand I’m particularly attached to, just make sure you know what kind you’re buying.

Do you need to use the specific amount of cheese? You can add more or less cheese, the 2 oz is roughly ½ cup of shredded cheese. I used this as a ballpark so it was easier to replicate. As for the blue cheese if you really love blue cheese, feel free to add more into the the mix. Or less if it is too strong for you.

Equipment

What type of vessel did you use? I used a 1.5 qt casserole dish to bake my dip. This gave the dip a bigger surface area and thus more cheesy topping. You could easily do it in a small glass container or metal pan. A 9 x 9 square pan will work, but it may take a bit longer to get melty, so keep an eye on it. Just look for bubbling and browning of the cheese.