Chipped Beef and Onion Dip

This post first appeared over at Real Housemoms where I'm a contributor.

Chipped Beef and Onion Dip, served in a bread bowl, is a creamy hot dip that is full of thinly sliced beef and golden caramelized onions.  It's the perfect dip for a party!

Our family has been making this dip for years. It’s one of those recipes that everyone requests I make when we have parties. It’s a recipe that I’ve made so many times that I really don’t even need a recipe to make it anymore. That’s the kind of well-loved recipe that you should write down, am I right? I decided it was finally time to put pen to paper, or rather, fingers to keys so that future generations of my family (and you!) can enjoy it for years to come.

There are just a few simple ingredients that you’ll need to make this creamy dip: just cream cheese, butter, a jar of dried beef, an onion, and a splash of milk. Oh, and you can’t forget the bread bowl. Specifically Hawaiian bread! I know some of you might be tempted to pick up some other kind of loaf, but if you're going for bread, go with Hawaiian. No bread? Try bagel chips! So good.

Which brings me to the chipped beef, also known as dried beef. Have you had dried beef before? It’s thinly sliced beef that is salted and dried. You know, the stuff you use to make cream chipped beef on toast. Sounds odd, tastes fabulous. Trust me on this one.

Now, I’ve read that some folks rinse their beef before using it in recipes to remove some of the salty taste. I totally don’t, HOWEVER, it will be salty if you don’t. The first time you make this dip you might want to rinse and pat dry the dried beef before adding it. I just pull it out of the jar and chop it up as is because we are salt lovers around here. Lots of sweet caramelized onions and that Hawaiian loaf we were talking about give the dip just the amount of sweetness it needs to go with the salty.

If you’ve been making the same old dip for every party you have, this dip is the perfect recipe to try if you want to mix things up a bit. It is so easy to make and my whole family loves it. I hope yours does, too!

Chipped Beef and Onion Dip

   

Ingredients

• 2 pkg cream cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 Tbsps butter
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 1 jar dried beef, chopped
• 1 Hawaiian bread round loaf
  

Instructions

1. Add the cream cheese and milk to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally breaking up the cream cheese with a spoon until the cream cheese is softened.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion to the butter and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring often until golden and caramelized.
3. Add the onion and dried beef to the cream cheese and stir to combine. See notes about rinsing beef.
4. Hollow out the center of the Hawaiian bread loaf to make a bread bowl. Tear the bread you remove into bite-sized pieces for dipping. Serve the dip in the bread bowl.

Notes

• Dried beef can be rinsed and dried with paper towels to remove some of the salty taste before adding it to the dip. This step is optional.
• No hawaiian bread? Try serving this dip in a bowl and use bagel chips as a dipper. Yum!