I love chips and dip – the easiest way to entertain in the summer. I always have the ingredients for classic French onion dip and kettle cooked potato chips on hand to serve with drinks on our patio. This chip and dip combo is a never fail people pleaser!
When making dips I always check to make sure the consistency of the dip makes it easy to scoop with whatever chips or crackers I am serving. If it is too thin, I add a little softened cream cheese. Too thick? Add sour cream or mayonnaise. I also check the dips temperature. Adding a little pepper sauce can perk up a bland dip. My favorite pepper sauce is Clark and Hopkins, made in Richmond, Virginia. And I choose a chip or cracker that can stand up to dipping. Some tortilla chips are too thin and break easily when dipped, so choose a sturdy tortilla chip for your dips. Kettle cooked potato chips are a good choice because they are hearty chips that love to be dipped.
Here’s some of my favorite dip recipes…enjoy!
Neiman Marcus Million Dollar Dip
Million Dollar Dip was first created in the 1950’s by the Neiman Marcus Director of Food Services, Helen Corbitt. The Zodiac Room in the Neiman Marcus’s downtown Dallas location is the first to serve this fabulous cheese spread. It is known as Million Dollar Dip because it tasted like a million bucks!
Neiman Marcus Cheese Spread – Million Dollar Dip
Ingredients
- 8 ounces finely grated sharp cheddar cheese Do not use packaged grated cheese for this recipe. Grate your own cheese from a block of cheese. Much better flavor!
- 15 slices precooked bacon, crisped in microwave and crumbled
- 2 ounces pine nuts, toasted
- 1 cup mayonnaise I like Duke's mayonnaise for this recipe
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- Tablewater crackers, Ritz crackers, flatbread crackers or kettle cooked potato chips for service
Instructions
- Place cheddar cheese,mayonnaise and sour cream in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- Add bacon (reserve 2 tablespoons crumbled bacon to sprinkle on top), pine nuts, green onions and salt and pepper. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed together. Chill until service. Sprinkle reserved crumbled bacon on top of the dip just before service. Serve with table water crackers, flatbread and/or kettle cooked potato chips.
Chesapeake Bay Crab Dip
Ingredients
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 TB mayonnaise
- 2 TB lemon juice
- 1 TB sour cream
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
- 3 TB Clark and Hopkins Chesapeake Bay pepper sauce available locally at Wine Gourmet or on-line
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 8 ounces jumbo crabmeat remove any bits of shell from the crabmeat
- finely chopped green onions and Spanish paprika for garnish
- Fine Cheese Company Lemon and Sea Salt Crackers or pita chips available locally at Fresh Market or on-line
Instructions
- Place softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice and sour cream. Stir to combine all ingredients. Add celery, pepper sauce, white pepper and salt. Stir to combine. Add crabmeat and stir carefully to keep from shredding the crabmeat. When all of the ingredients have been combined, transfer the dip into a serving dish and garnish with green onions and Spanish paprika. Chill in refrigerator until service. Serve with lemon and sea salt crackers or pita chips.
Monte Cristo Dip
Ingredients
- 3 ounces prosciutto
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 ounces Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, finely grated
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
- 1/2 habanero pepper, seeds removed, chopped very fine 1 teaspoon Zen habanero pepper sauce may be substituted for the habanero pepper. The pepper sauce is available locally at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op
- Kettle cooked potato chips and flatbread crackers
Instructions
- Bake prosciutto in 350 degree Farhenheit oven until crisp (7-10 minutes). Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Place cream cheese, Jarlsberg cheese and sour cream in a mixing bowl. Mix well to combine all ingredients. Add one tablespoon of the cooking oil from the prosciutto to the mixture. Crumble the prosciutto into very small pieces and add to the mixture, mixing to combine all ingredients. Chill until service.
- Add the finely chopped habanero pepper (or habanero pepper sauce) to the raspberry jam and stir to combine. Chill until service.
- Place the cheese dip in a serving bowl. Make a dent in the dip with the back of a spoon. Place the raspberry jam mixture in the well in the middle of the dip. Serve with kettle cooked potato chips and flatbread crackers.
Cheers! Becky
