Chicken Wing Dip
A hot, bubbly dip of shredded chicken, cream cheese, hot sauce and blue cheese, baked until gooey. It tastes exactly like a plate of wings with blue cheese. Around here it's "chicken wing dip", never "Buffalo chicken dip", the same way wings are just "wings".
📍 Where to find it
Chicken wing dip is party food more than restaurant food. You'll find it at Bills tailgates, graduation parties, Super Bowl spreads and pretty much every Western New York get-together. Some local bars put it on the menu too. If you see it, order it.
Want to make it? Mix shredded cooked chicken with softened cream cheese, Frank's RedHot and a good pour of Rootie's blue cheese dressing. Top it with shredded cheese and bake until it bubbles.
📜 A little history
Chicken wing dip takes everything people love about a plate of wings (the cayenne hot sauce, the butter, the chicken and the blue cheese) and turns it into something you can scoop. The wing itself comes out of Buffalo, with the Anchor Bar's 1964 story the best known of several origin tales.
The baked, cream-cheese dip came later as a communal party food, perfect for passing around a tailgate. Hot-sauce makers like Frank's RedHot helped make the recipe famous far beyond Western New York, and today you'll find "Buffalo chicken dip" at game-day parties all over the country. Just don't call it that here.
Did you know? Locals call it chicken wing dip for the same reason they never say "Buffalo wings": here, they're just wings.