Hot Baked Chipotle Chicken Dip

Ingredients:
-2-3 lbs fresh or thawed chicken, boiled until shreddable (roughly 30-40 min)
-2 pk cream cheese (I used 1 regular and 1 reduced fat)
-1 pack shredded mozzarella
-1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
-1 red bell pepper
-1 c frozen corn
-2 small tomatoes or use some salsa
-Panko bread crumbs and butter for topping

Preheat oven to 350F. Sautée diced pepper, corn, tomato or salsa in a little butter with about a teaspoon of taco seasoning, pinch of garlic, and other seasonings you like as desired.

When veggies are tender, combine with chicken and softened cream cheese. Add remaining ingredients except panko. For the peppers, use the adobo sauce from the can and finely dice extra chipotle peppers as desired. I used about 2, but next time I plan on blending the entire can and starting by adding a third or so and increasing from there for a bit more heat.

Press mixture into a 9x13 glass baking dish and top with a thin layer of panko. Melt a bit of butter and pour over it. Bake until desired golden brown topping. This makes a pretty thick dip, heavy on the chicken, and may not be as chip-friendly as it would be if you either reduced the chicken or added about a cup or so of something like sour cream or greek yogurt.  I used it with scoops, as they are pretty durable, but mostly wanted it for some homemade pretzels.  Just keep in mind what you want to use it with, and adjust as needed.

This filled up my baking dish, so there was a lot of dip to go around.  It got the seal of approval from my family, my best friend, and my boyfriend, so I know it was a pretty solid dish.  Those are very different, and some very picky, taste buds.

I think next time I may use more peppers in more colors just to give a little color variation to the dish.  I was short on time so could not let mine brown as much as I may have liked, but overall I was extremely pleased with the results.

I would definitely recommend this for Super Bowl.  It is a hearty dip, unlike some quesos, so it has the ability to kind of eat like a meal as well.  In my opinion, that is great for an app when it can work like a hybrid dish.  This ends up being somewhere between a dip and a casserole.

I would have liked more heat in this, as I said, but I just did not have the time before the party to chop up all the peppers, and was not where my food processor was.  So just be aware and prepared that you need to allow yourself time to adjust this recipe to the level of heat that you like.  It is well worth the time.

Happy crafting!