Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip

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Looking for an easy baked appetizer for your next gathering? Ready in a flash, your friends and family will flip over this Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip. Serve with toasted baguette slices or your favorite pita chips and crackers.

Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip Recipe 

Howdy! Chef Alli here. Let’s Get You Cookin’….Shall We? 🙂

I’m excited to do a shout-out here to all cheese lovers and pizza fans! Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip is an oven-baked dip that’s loaded with cheese, meat, and pizza sauce along with your favorite pizza toppings.

Serve it up with golden slices of toasted baguette or your favorite crackers – either way. This cheesy appetizer is a big hit at every gathering!

When we have a group of friends over, I usually make two versions of this dip: one for the adults (with all the bells and whistles, shall we say, as instructed in my recipe) and another that’s more of a meat-lovers pizza dip for the kiddos that’s doesn’t include the green bell pepper.

If you enjoy casual entertaining in your home, you may also find that your guests will like some of our favorite Mexican-inspired appetizers, such Walking Taco Pull-Apart Bread, Chili-Cheese Tamale Dip, or Instant Pot Drunken Chicken Nachos. Everybody loves a fiesta of flavors!

What to love about this recipe –

• You can customize it using your favorite pizza ingredients. 
• It’s a huge crowd-pleaser.
• You can make this appetizer ahead of time, then just pop it into the oven when needed. 

How to Make Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip in 3 Easy Steps –

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, green bell pepper, cooked ground sausage and ground beef, and the seasonings; spread this mixture into a 9″ casserole dish.
2. Top the dip with pizza sauce, cheeses, a few more pepperoni, and a bit of Italian seasoning.
3. Bake the dip until hot and bubbly throughout.  Serve with baguette slices or crackers.

Helpful Recipe Tips for Making This Layered Pizza Dip –

• I forgot to soften my cream cheese ahead of time.  What should I do?

Thank goodness for microwave ovens! You can soften lots of things in your microwave by using the 30% power setting instead of full power.  Choose cook time: 30 seconds. Then choose cook power: 30% and press Start.

You may need to do a couple of 30 second intervals at 30% power to get the cream cheese softened to the consistency that makes it easy to stir.  Just don’t use full power since this gets dairy products way over heated, especially at the center and they don’t always cooperate in recipes once that happens! #BeenThere #DoneThat

• Is using a skillet on my stove the only way to cook ground meats?

Actually, NO! If I can’t keep my eye on ground meats cooking on my stove top,  I place my chunk of ground meat (usually 1-2 lbs.) into a 9 x 13 casserole dish and pop it into a 350 degree F. oven for 15 minutes.

When the timer sounds, I get my spatula and crumble the meat really well, continuing to let it cook until all pink is gone, the meat is nicely browned, and the internal temperature is at least 160 degrees F. Lastly, remove the ground beef from the oven and drain any fats that have accumulated.

As another option, you can always use the saute setting on your Instant Pot (or any electric pressure cooker) to cook your ground meats since this is just like using a burner on your stove – it works great!

• Can I make this Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip ahead of time, baking it just before I serve it?

Affirmative! When I’m having guests or family over, I love to make everything I can previous to my gathering so I’m not stuck in the kitchen cooking while everyone else is having all the fun.

I make this dip ahead of time a lot and it works just great. Remember to remove the dip from the fridge ahead of time so it can rest at room temperature for awhile to remove some of the chill – this will help the dip bake a lot more quickly for you.

• Would this dip be good served over slices of toasted French bread?

Yes!!! I had both some pizza dip AND a few slices of French bread recently, so I put the two together and popped them into the oven.  Talk about FANTASTIC!! I felt like I was eating my own little pizza sub-sandwich.

I admit that the dip is easier to eat with dippers, but having it on a thick slice of toasted French bread was just delightful….not to mention completely sinful.

• My family doesn’t care for green bell pepper.  Can I leave that ingredient out?

You can customize this pizza dip however your little heart prefers! My guys aren’t super thrilled with bell peppers in my cooking, either, but when I add them to this pizza dip, they didn’t even seem to notice.  They scarfed this warm and ooey-gooey pizza dip right down!

More Recipes to Enjoy –

• Chili-Cheese-Dog Tater Tot Bake 

• Southwest Sloppy Joe Dip

• Halloween Mummy Poppers 

• Smoked Queso Dip with Crispy Pickled Jalapenos 

• Air Fryer French Bread Pizza

• Hillbilly Chili with Cinnamon Rolls 

• Instant Pot Hot Beef Sandwiches with Brown Gravy 

Printable Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip Recipe –

Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip

Chef Alli

Looking for an easy baked appetizer for your next gathering? Your friends and family will flip over this Hot and Creamy Pizza Dip that's made with cream cheese, pepperoni, and sausage and ready in a flash. 

Servings: 12 servings

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Ingredients

 

Pizza Dip

• 12 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 small green bell pepper, seeds and membranes removed, diced
• 1/2 lb. ground sausage (may use ground Italian sausagbrowned and fats drained
• 1/2 lb. lean ground beef, browned and fats drained
• 1 tsp. Italian seasonings
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (may substitute 1 tsp. granulated garlic, if preferred)
• 1/2 cup mini pepperoni, divided use
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes optional
• 1/4 tsp. seasoned salt
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup mini pepperoni, for garnishing the top of the pizza dip
• Italian seasonings, to garnish the top of the pizza dip before baking
• Toasted baguette slices or your favorite crackers, for serving

Toasted Baguette Slices

• 1 baguette
• vegetable or canola oil

Instructions

 

To Make the Easy Cheesy Pizza Dip

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese with the sour cream until nicely blended; stir in the green bell pepper, cooked sausage, cooked ground beef, Italian seasonings, garlic, red pepper flakes, and seasoned salt.
• Spread the prepared dip mixture into a greased 9" pie plate or casserole dish. Top the dip with the pizza sauce, shredded cheese, Parmesan, a few more pepperoni; lastly, sprinkle a bit of Italian seasoning over the top.
• Bake the dip, uncovered, on the center rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top, and hot and bubbly throughout. Serve the dip warm with toasted baguette slices or your favorite pita chips and crackers.

To Make the Baguette Slices

• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

  Using a serrated knife, slice the baguette into 1/4-inch thick slices, placing each one onto a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Using a silicone basting brush, lightly brush each slice on both sides with a bit of oil. Bake, uncovered, on the center rack of the oven for 4-5 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Notes

This dip can be served with toasted baguette slices or crackers as preferred.  Or, serve the dip on fat slices of warm French bread as a mini sub sandwich. 

This dip can be assembled ahead of time and then baked when it's needed for serving guests.  

Nutrition

Calories: 356kcalCarbohydrates: 15gProtein: 19gFat: 25gSaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 882mgPotassium: 368mgFiber: 1gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 786IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 159mgIron: 2mg

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Let’s Get You Cookin’,
Chef Alli

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