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With Christmas comes all kinds of social functions – potlucks and parties, gift exchanges and Christmas caroling (my personal favorite), work events and church stuff. Often we’re asked to bring party foods to these occasions, but sometimes it’s hard to come up with something that both “normal people” and “health-conscious people” can eat. Chip dips are my go-to dish for such occasions because they’re easy to healthify without anyone being the wiser. They can be served with regular tortilla chips, but if those don’t fit into your eating lifestyle, grab a spoon and dig in! I mean, you could also serve a dip like this with celery and other veggies, or low-carb crackers of some type, or cheese crisps…but trust me, the easiest way to get this stuff in your belly is with a spoon.
This dip has a fair amount of spice in it due to the chopped jalapenos and my new favorite condiment: sriracha chili sauce. Sriracha sauce has what I would describe as a warming heat that hits the back of your throar (as opposed to the spicy, tip-of-the-tongue bite from jalapenos). I’m not a huge spice lover because spicy foods make my nose run and then I can’t enjoy what I’m eating, but I can handle sriracha for some reason. We get sriracha chili sauce from Walmart in the ethnic foods section, and I’ve also found it at a discount grocery store. Here’s the brand we get if you want to see what it looks like. It does contain about one gram of sugar per teaspoon, but that’s a very trace amount in this dip when the amount I used is divided up among the servings this dip makes. Trim Healthy Mamas, I put this trace sugar into the same category as things like store-bought dressings and Reddi-Whip…the condiments we’re allowed to have that contain trace amounts of sugar per serving.
The crumbs on top of this dip are SO AWESOME. They’re my new go-to for topping casseroles, and I used them for a green bean casserole that I’ll be posting next week. I used Light Rye Wasa crackers for the crumbs because they’re easy and good, but you could also possibly use crushed pork rinds or Joseph’s pita crumbs (I haven’t tried either of these options). Trim Healthy Mamas, you could also substitute your own favorite flavor of on-plan Wasa crackers. These Light Rye Wasa crackers have 5.5 net carbs per cracker, so in this recipe that comes to 2.75 net carbs or less from the crackers per serving.
When I took this dip to a church function, it got great reviews and I took home an empty pan. Try it!
Have you seen my Supreme Pizza Party Dip or my Caramelized Onion Party Dip?
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 1 lb. bacon, fried, drained, and chopped
- 2 8-oz. packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- 2 T sriracha chili sauce
- 4-6 jalapenos, deseeded and chopped
- 1½ cups shredded cheese of choice (I used a Mexican blend)
- ½ tsp. each onion powder and dill weed
- ¼ cup salted butter, melted
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese (the kind from the green shake container)
- 6 Light Rye Wasa crackers, crushed (3/4 cup crushed pork rinds or Joseph's pita crumbs might work as well)
- Set a small amount of chopped bacon aside for topping.
- Combine all the dip ingredients in a food processor until mostly smooth. Taste and add more spice if desired, either in the form of more jalapenos or more sriracha.
- Spread the dip into your pan of choice. I used a 10 inch round baking dish which made a nice thick dip, but a 9x13 inch pan might work as well for a thinner dip.
- Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of the dip. Top with reserved bacon bits.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-30 minutes or until heated through and the topping is toasted. For low carbers, serve with veggies, chips made of baked Joseph's pitas, cheese crisps, pork rinds, or just eat it up with a spoon! Yields 12-15 servings.
Instead of the crumbs, you could even just top this dip with shredded cheese and bacon bits to keep things simple. I really do like the cracker topping though.
Horseradish and black olives would be a great addition to this dip as well...
I highly recommend using real pork bacon in this. You can try turkey bacon, but I can't vouch for the results and texture.
Suggested products:
Does any brand of sriracha chili sauce not have sugar? I grabbed the recommended brand Trim Healthy Table book said but when I brought home and looked it had sugar in the sauce.
I’m not sure on that, but they look at it the same way they do salad dressing and other condiments – 1g of sugar per serving isn’t a huge deal. 🙂
One more thing: I used Pork rinds for the topping with the bacon and butter because I couldn’t find the Wasa crackers in our Kroger! They are remodeling it and it is an adventure every time I go shopping! They worked just great.
Thanks so much for letting me know!
I made this for a New Year’s party and everyone loved it! Thank you for all your experimenting and sharing so that we can enjoy the results. Wishing you all the best in 2016!
This is a winner!! Will appear on our table for New Years…. And maybe before…
Thank you for all your lovely recipes. This one sounds great. I love jalapeno poppers – this sounds like it might satisfy this requirement in my life. I think I could also make it with canned green peppers for my family, who cringe when I even mention jalapeno peppers.