Name: Chef John's Buffalo Chicken Dip
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 3 cups diced cooked rotisserie chicken; 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened; 3/4 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®); 1/2 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese; 1/2 cup blue cheese dressing; 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese; 1/2 teaspoon seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay®); 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste; 2 tablespoons shredded pepper Jack cheese; 1 pinch cayenne pepper, for garnish

Why it works: Cream cheese and blue cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 70 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Cream cheese + blue cheesetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together70 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream cheese + cheesetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cheese + blue cheesetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together61 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Chicken + cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,936 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Chicken + blue cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together178 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Blue Cheese	1 oz (28g)	100
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Sauce	not in our table	0

Chef John's Buffalo Chicken Dip