Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip – Easy Buffalo Dip on the Grill
This smoked buffalo chicken dip was a huge hit at my last party! Learn how to make this easy smoked buffalo dip recipe on your pellet grill or smoker!
If you own a pellet grill or smoker, then chances are you’ve made smoked chicken wings at least once. The crispy, smoky exterior that you get from a perfectly smoked wing is unmatched by your local wing spot… even after you’ve downed a few Happy Hour drinks.
So why not turn all of that spicy chicken goodness into a dip?!
This smoked buffalo dip is sure to be your new favorite smoked appetizer dip, and the best part, it’s SO easy to make!
Start by smoking a whole chicken, shred the meat, and mix up the ingredients for buffalo dip. Add to a cast iron skillet and smoke on the grill or smoker, and you’re well on your way to a fantastic cream cheese buffalo chicken appetizer dip that will have your party guests or fellow tailgaters lined up for seconds!
If you’re looking for a fantastic appetizer dip to put on the smoker, this easy smoker recipe is for you!
Why this Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe Works:
- Smoky Buffalo Flavor. The combination of smoky flavor from the smoked chicken and cream cheese combined with the tangy and spicy buffalo sauce really sets this dip over the top! So much better than other buffalo chicken dips you’ve had!
- Easy to Make. Though this appetizer recipe has multiple steps (like smoking a whole chicken and pulling the meat), smoked buffalo chicken dip is surprisingly easy to prepare. With simple ingredients and straightforward steps, you can have this creamy, flavorful party dip ready in no time. Plus, it’s perfect for both novice and experienced grillers.
- Simple Ingredients. This dip calls for simple ingredients that are easy to find in all grocery stores.
- Customize to Your Liking. Want a spicier dip? Use a hot buffalo sauce flavor. Don’t like blue cheese? Substitute more mozzarella instead. This dip is so easy to adjust to your taste preferences.
Ingredients for Smoked Buffalo Dip
This smoked party dip starts out with the same ingredients as most buffalo chicken dip recipes, with a few twists like a homemade ranch dressing and smoked whole chicken. Here’s what you need:
For the Buffalo Dip:
- Whole chicken – If you don’t want to smoke your own chicken, then you can definitely substitute a store-bought rotisserie chicken and pull the meat for this recipe… It will be fantastic either way!
- Seasoning for the chicken – We seasoned our whole chicken with Heath Riles Garlic Jalapeno Rub, but feel free to use your favorite chicken or all-purpose seasoning.
- Cream cheese – I prefer the full fat variety.
- Blue cheese
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- Buffalo sauce – Just use your favorite brand.
- Whole jalapeños – I smoked some whole jalapeños alongside the chicken to add another layer of heat to the dip. Totally optional.
For the Homemade Ranch Dressing:
Of course you can buy your favorite ranch dressing from the grocery store, but it’s really SO easy to make, so I decided to whip up a quick homemade ranch for this party dip. If you want to make my ranch dressing, you will need:
- Sour cream
- Mayonnaise
- Buttermilk – Or you can substitute regular milk and a small amount of apple cider vinegar.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Garlic – You can use garlic powder or fresh minced garlic.
- Sliced green onion – This is optional, but I already had it on hand for the garnish for my dip, so why not?
- Prepared horseradish – This is optional also, but it adds a nice “kick” of flavor to homemade Ranch dressing!
- Spices – Dill weed, parsley, minced onion, salt, and pepper.
- Lemon juice
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Dip on the Smoker
Prepping the Chicken
Start by cutting a whole chicken in half like this:
You’ll notice that I removed the wings from the bird. That’s because the wings naturally lay on top of the breasts and block the breast meat from soaking up that extra seasoning and smoke flavor. And I wanted to expose as much surface area as I could to the smoke. So I just add the wings to the grill separately for a “chef’s treat”.
Once your chicken is split in half, you can rub a bit of olive oil or avocado oil on the outside of the chicken to act as a binder and give your seasoning something to stick to. Then, season all sides with your favorite chicken or all-purpose seasoning.
Chef’s Tip:
For this particular smoked chicken, I used sprayable duck fat for the first time and I was HUGELY impressed with the results! I felt like the duck fat really helped to crisp up the skin, more so than other chickens that I have smoked in the past. If you want to try a duck fat spray, just use it in place of the oil before seasoning your bird.
Here’s what my seasoned chicken looked like when I first put it on the charcoal kettle grill:
*Want to save some time? Just substitute a store-bought rotisserie chicken! Pull the meat, and add it to the other ingredients. Then smoke the buffalo chicken dip on the grill… You still get the smoky flavor, but you’ll save some time!
Smoking the Chicken
Once the chicken is seasoned, put it on your grill or smoker at about 300 – 325 degrees F. I smoked the bird at a bit of a higher temp than normal, because I really wanted the fat to render more and the skin to crisp up.
You can go here for a full tutorial on how to use your charcoal kettle grill as a smoker. I’ve smoked hundreds of smoker recipes on my good ol’ Weber kettle just like this! Or, you can smoke the chicken on your pellet grill.
Smoke the chicken for about 1.5 – 2 hours, or until the internal temp reaches 165 degrees F. Then, remove the chicken from the pellet smoker and allow it to cool slightly. TIP – It’s much easier to shred the chicken while it is still warm.
Making the Homemade Ranch Dressing
If you’re going to make a dang good smoked buffalo chicken dip, then you better start with dang good ingredients. And for this awesome appetizer dip, bottled Ranch dressing just won’t suffice! Especially since it’s SO easy to make your own homemade dressing.
While the chicken is smoking, go ahead and make the ranch dressing for your buffalo dip, so that it has a chance to refrigerate and the flavors can marry together.
Just add the ranch dressing ingredients to a medium bowl, mix together well, and refrigerate covered for at least one hour.
Smoking the Cream Cheese
While the chicken is resting, start smoking a block of cream cheese to add to the dip.
You’ll notice that in this smoked buffalo chicken recipe, we’re adding layers and layers of smoke flavor. And that includes smoking the cream cheese individually to get maximum smoky goodness!
Just cut some crosshatch marks in the top of a block of cream cheese, sprinkle with seasoning (I used Heath Riles Garlic Jalapeno to match the other flavors in my dip), and smoke the cream cheese at about 250 degrees F for about an hour.
Shredding the Cooked Chicken
While the smoked cream cheese is cooking on the grill, shred the smoked chicken. If you shred the meat while it’s still warm, it will be much easier to get it to the perfect size and consistency for your buffalo dip.
We ended up using about 2 cups of shredded cooked chicken for our dip. The rest would make great chicken quesadillas or a smoked chicken salad!
We mixed the white and dark meat, just be sure to remove any of the gristle or fattier bits. Since our skin was rendered nice and crispy on the smoker, we also chopped that up to mix in to the dip for extra flavor. If your chicken skin is rubbery or soft, leave it out of the smoked buffalo dip.
Making the Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip
Once the chicken and cream cheese are done smoking, it’s time to mix all of the buffalo chicken dip ingredients together.
Add the shredded chicken, cream cheese, ranch dressing, crumbled bleu cheese, and buffalo sauce to a large bowl and stir to combine.
Then, spread the dip mixture into a large cast iron skillet and place it on the grill grates to smoke.
Your dip should look something like this when it goes on the smoker:
Smoke the buffalo chicken dip for about 30 minutes at 250 degrees F. At that point, the dip should have a nice orangey color, and all of the ingredients should be melting and marrying together nicely.
Add a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese and a drizzle of buffalo sauce to the top of the dip, close the grill lid, and increase the grill temp to about 300 degrees F. Smoke for an additional 20-30 minutes, or until the dip is nice and bubbly.
Then, you can garnish your smoked buffalo chicken dip with some fresh sliced green onions and a sprinkling of blue cheese crumbles on top.
And get ready to dig in (after it cools for about 15 minutes or so)!
And here’s the finished buffalo chicken dip on the grill:
Serve your dip warm with tortilla chips, corn chips, crackers, or toasted crostini-style bread rounds. Or for a low carb option, this smoked buffalo chicken dip is also great with celery sticks, carrots, or other vegetables.
And then get ready to fend off your friends as they beg you for the recipe or plead with you to make another batch of this delicious dip!
Or, you can whip up another one of these awesome smoked appetizer dips:
- Smoked Queso Dip – Like a Mexican Restaurant But BETTER!
- Smoked Street Corn Dip with Cream Cheese – Easy Party Dip!
There you have it: a step-by-step guide on how to make the ultimate Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip on your pellet grill. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a grilling newbie, I hope this guide will enable you to secure your crown as the King (or Queen) of BBQs. Happy Grilling!
Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe
Want to add this easy party dip to your recipe binder? Just use the recipe card down below to print and save for later:
Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients
- 2 cups smoked shredded chicken *Or substitute shredded rotisserie chicken
- 8 oz cream cheese block
- Heath Riles Garlic Jalapeno Rub *Or substitute your favorite all-purpose seasoning
- ½ cup buffalo sauce plus more for drizzling
- ½ cup ranch dressing
- 4 oz blue cheese crumbles
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- sliced green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Set smoker to 250℉.
- Place the block of cream cheese on a small baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cut crosshatch marks in the block of cream cheese, about ¼” deep. Season the top of the cream cheese block with Heath Riles Garlic Jalapeno Rub (or your favorite all purpose seasoning). Place the baking sheet with the cream cheese block on the smoker, and smoke for about one hour at 250℉.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together shredded chicken, smoked cream cheese, ½ cup buffalo sauce, ½ cup ranch dressing, and 2 oz blue cheese crumbles. Transfer to a medium or large cast iron skillet, and spread in an even layer.
- Place the skillet on the smoker, away from the heat source and close the grill lid. Smoke at 250℉ for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the dip in a thin even layer. Drizzle on some more buffalo sauce. Close the grill lid and adjust the smoker temp up to 300℉. Continue to smoke 20-30 minutes at 300℉, or until the dip is nice and bubbly and the cheeses are melted.
- Carefully remove the dip from the smoker and allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes. Garnish with sliced green onion and the remaining blue cheese crumbles. Serve warm with chips, carrots and celery sticks, or toasted bread rounds. Enjoy!
Notes
- For extra smoke flavor, you can smoke a whole chicken to use in your smoked buffalo chicken dip. Just cut a whole chicken in half, season it with Heath Riles Garlic Jalapeno Rub (or your favorite chicken seasoning), and smoke it at 300 degrees F for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the internal temp reaches 165 degrees F. Remove the chicken from the smoker, allow it to cool for about 10 minutes, and then shred.
