BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP with cottage cheese | healthy, high-protein recipe!

If you're in charge of game day snacks and you want a classic buffalo chicken dip, but a bit lighter and packed with protein, this recipe is for you. Delivering 23 grams of protein per serving, this healthy buffalo chicken dip uses cottage cheese and Greek yogurt as the base. So it's rich, it's creamy, and it is both lighter and dare I say more delicious than the original. Plus it's perfectly scoopable and there's no blending required. Okay, so the first thing you wanna do is grab a nice big bowl because this, everything happens in one bowl. It's like a dump in store kind of recipe which happens to be my favorite. Very easy. First in, we've got two cups of chopped up chicken breast. Now this is chicken that is from a rotisserie chicken. Really convenient from the grocery store. Make sure when you get your chicken home that you shred it up and chop it while it's still warm because it's so much easier to work with when it's warm. Once they get cold, it gets a little bit trickier. Now I'm specifically using the chicken breast because I wanna keep this recipe higher in protein, lower in fat, so overall lighter. I mean we're gonna get plenty of fat from our cheese and stuff, but that's gonna create our balance. You could of course use a dark meat chicken if that's what you had on hand or if you just need a little extra to boost it up, okay? Then the next thing I wanna do is we're gonna add our creamy components. Again, instead of using something traditional like a sour cream or a cream cheese, we're doing one cup of cottage cheese. I'm using a 2% cottage cheese. You could do a full fat cottage cheese if you prefer. And I will say you gotta be mindful of the brand of cottage cheese you're using. I'm using Good Culture. It happens to be very rich and very creamy. It doesn't have a lot of water in it, but if you notice that whatever brand you're using seem to be very watery, you might wanna take a couple minutes to strain the cottage cheese first. Also, if the curds bother you, I am the kind of person, like I love cottage cheese curds. I love that texture. But if you do not like them, you could blend your cottage cheese first, then add it to the bowl, okay? So we've got the cottage cheese. Then I have 2 3rds of a cup of really creamy protein-packed Greek yogurt, okay? So that's gonna be another creamy component for us. Again, I'm using a 2% low-fat Greek yogurt. You could use whatever you have on hand. Now, you wanna note here, we've already, just by making these simple swaps, we've totally taken this from a super high-fat recipe that's low in protein to a much lower-fat recipe, something a lot lighter, that is packed with protein. And I promise you, we're losing no flavor. So these things are very exciting. All right, then we have a half a teaspoon of onion powder, a half a teaspoon of garlic powder. I'm gonna add in a couple tablespoons of chopped up scallions, a little bit of green onion. This is gonna add a little bit of color, a little bit of texture. And then we're gonna do some shredded cheese on top and in the mixture. So what you wanna do, I just wanna show you really quick. I have most of my cheese shredded and ready to go. You're gonna need a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, but you do wanna shred your cheese on the big holes of your box grater. If you prefer, you could buy your cheese already shredded. I do do that very often. But I will say, when I'm making a recipe where the cheese is kind of a major player and I want a really good melting factor, I like to buy the cheese in a block form and melt it myself. And that is because the cheese doesn't have any stabilizers or any fillers, anything that's going to prevent it from being a good melter. So that's why I like to shred it myself, all right? So we're gonna take about a quarter of the cheese mixture and add that into the bowl. And then the rest of the cheese mixture is going to go over the top. Okay, so you can see how simple this recipe, like all the heavy lifting is already done. I'm gonna stir these ingredients together and then we're gonna get it into a baking dish. Now I have to tell you, we do go to a friend's house for Super Bowl every year and everybody's in charge of one dish. And they actually usually ask me to bring a salad. But this year is extra exciting because my husband and his whole family basically are big Patriot fans. So we are excited for Super Bowl this year. I'd like to say I'm as equally as excited. I'm excited because they're excited, let's just say that. I don't follow it quite as much. Okay, once we get everything mixed together, we're gonna transfer this into a bowl. So this looks perfect. Now we just need to add in the star of the show, which is the hot sauce. And yes, I should have done this from the beginning, but I got sidetracked. So you're gonna want a half a cup of your favorite hot sauce. This could be literally anything. We're going with the classic. I'm going with Frank's simply because this is what my husband requests, okay? So that's why we do that. All right, mix that all in. Now it looks perfect. You get it all in there. If it looks a little dry to you, you could always add an extra tablespoon or two, but I find about a half a cup is the perfect amount. Okay, once you've got it all mixed together like I have here, and you can see that everything has turned orange because everything is well incorporated, we're gonna push that aside. And then you're gonna wanna find some type of casserole dish I'm using an eight by eight. It can even be a little bit smaller than this because eight by eight, you're gonna see it fills it about halfway. I like to give it a light coating of cooking spray, just to make sure that nobody sticks. And then we're gonna transfer this into the bowl. It's really easy recipes like this, easy swaps like this that I think are great demonstrations to show you that you can still do all the fun things. You can enjoy the classic foods. And by making small little swaps like this, you can create recipes that are just as delicious that are perhaps more aligned with your personal health, wellness, weight, and or fitness goals. So get it nice and even over the top, just like this. And then we're gonna finish this by taking the rest of that shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkling it right over the top. Now, not only is this a super quick and easy recipe to make, but you could do all of this in advance and then put something over the top and leave it in the fridge until you wanna bake it off. My only recommendation is that you let it come to room temperature or at least sit out of the fridge for a half hour or so before you pop it into your oven. This way, you're not going from super cold to super hot. Okay, so get your cheese over the top. And then it's going into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. And then if you like a golden brown top, you can pop it under the broiler for two or three minutes right at the end. When it comes out of the oven, be very careful. It's gonna be super hot. It's gonna be bubbling around the edges. And then the top's gonna have a nice lightly golden brown color, specifically if you put it underneath the broiler. Now from here, I just let it cool down a bit until it is not boiling hot. And then what I love to do is I just sprinkle a few extra of those green onion, the scallions, right over the top. This is really just for color. And again, it gets a nice mild onion flavor and some great texture. And then my friends, you have this gorgeous, healthy buffalo chicken dip ready for game day. So you can take your veggies, you take your chip, just get on in there and you're gonna see, you're gonna scoop it up and it's rich and it's creamy and it is absolutely delicious. I'm super excited for you to give this a try. And if you want some more delicious game day snacks, make sure you check this recipe out next. Cheers.