5 Ingredient Cream Cheese Taco Dip Recipe

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This delicious Cream Cheese Taco Dip recipe is an easy and simple way to feed your family or have it on hand for guests. Use it as a dip or make it an entire meal!

This delicious Taco Dip with Cream Cheese recipe is an easy and delicious way to feed your family or have it on hand for guests. Use it as a dip or make it a meal! #tacodip #creamcheese #diprecpe #easy #dinner

Easy Taco Dip Recipe

This Cream Cheese Taco Dip is not only a delicious dip for chips, it can be thinned with an extra half cup of sauce and served over pasta to make an easy and delicious meal. When using it that way, I prefer to refrain from baking it, and instead add it to a large saucepan with cooked macaroni and a half cup or so of the pasta water, then top with the cheddar just before serving. A good dip is a great multitasker as well as a thrifty, quick way to feed unexpected guests.

This is a great taco dip recipe without sour cream, Velveeta, or even greek yogurt which we’ve seen other recipes call for. The recipe below is my version, made with cream cheese. It’s a great dip for chips and vegetables or even for game day and can easily be doubled, tripled, etc.


Taco Dip with Cream Cheese

Ingredients in Cream Cheese Taco Dip Recipe

  • Cream Cheese. This is essential to making a thick, creamy dip. It also gives the dip a little bit of a tang.
  • Tomato Sauce. For an extra flavor boost, you could also use salsa in place of the tomato sauce. You just may want to puree it first to keep the dip as creamy as possible. On second thought, Homemade Taco Sauce would be great here too!
  • Taco Seasoning. You can use taco seasoning from the store, or you can use your own Homemade Taco Seasoning as well.
  • Hot Sauce. This ingredient will be dependent upon your tastes. If you are making this dip for children you might not want to add the hot sauce. You can use store-bought or Homemade Hot Sauce.
  • Cheddar Cheese. The literal icing on the cake for this recipe! A great sharp cheddar will do well here but a Colby jack would work good too.

Cream Cheese Dip

FAQ About Cream Cheese Taco Dip

How long can Taco Dip sit out?

Since it contains cream cheese, don’t leave it out for more than 2 hours. Store any you aren’t consuming right away in the refrigerator.

What is Taco Dip made of?

Taco Dip contains some kind of cream cheese and taco seasoning base. Many variations of the recipe call for complete taco  toppings (shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, ground beef, avocado, guacamole, refried beans, black olives, jalapenos, green onion, red onion, etc) but those would be considered more like a 7 Layer Taco Dip.

How do you thicken taco dip?

This recipe is naturally thick because of the cream cheese and requires no extra thickeners.

How long is Taco Dip good in the refrigerator?

Taco Dip will last for 1 week in the refrigerator.


Tortilla Chips

What to Serve With Creamy Taco Dip

  • Tortilla Chips. Of course, the best thing to serve with a dip like this is regular tortilla chips!
  • Corn Chips. Also good with this recipe. We like Pipcorn Corn Dippers which I can get from Vitacost or Thrive Market.
  • Vegetables. Carrot sticks, celery sticks, and bell pepper slices are particularly good with this dip, however other veggies will work as well. Here’s a list of Frugal Vegetables if you are trying to stay on a budget.
  • Chicken. If you make your own fried chicken tenders or chicken nuggets. This is a fun recipe to dip them into!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Why Make Your Own Homemade Taco Dip?

A similar dip from Tostitoes costs $4.98 for a smaller amount. It contains a variety of ingredients I wouldn’t personally choose to feed my family as well as MSG.

This homemade Cream Cheese Taco Dip costs about $3.26 to make (for a larger amount) with no questionable ingredients and a spiciness level that you can control. It also has the cheese baked on top instead of blended into the dip which gives it an amazing extra depth of flavor!


Cheese Dip

Instructions for How to Make Cream Cheese Taco Dip

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add the tomato sauce, taco seasoning, and hot sauce and beat for two minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. (Of course, this can also be done by hand but it is so much easier with the mixer.)

Spread the mixture into a 9×5 loaf pan (or whichever dish you prefer) and spread the cheddar cheese evenly on top. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheddar is completely melted and bubbly.

Remove the dip from the oven and let cool until warm. Serve with desired dipping vessels.

Print this Simple Cream Cheese Taco Dip to add to your Recipe Binder below:

Cream CHeese Taco Dip
5 from 1 vote
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Cream Cheese Taco Dip Recipe

This creamy dip is so simple to make! Perfect for game day or just as a side dish.

Course Appetizer
Cuisine American
Keyword Cream Cheese Taco Dip
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 6 people
Calories 729 kcal
Creator Merissa

Ingredients

  • 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
  • 1/2 cup tomato sauce
  • 1 teaspoon taco seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add the tomato sauce, taco seasoning, and hot sauce and beat for two minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. (Of course, this can also be done by hand but it is so much easier with the mixer.)
  3. Spread the mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan (or whichever dish you prefer) and spread the cheddar cheese evenly on top of the cream cheese mixture.

  4. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheddar is completely melted and bubbly.
  5. Remove the dip from the oven and let cool until warm. Serve with desired dipping vessels, such as pita chips, sliced vegetables, or crostini.
Nutrition Facts
Cream Cheese Taco Dip Recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 729 Calories from Fat 369
% Daily Value*
Fat 41g63%
Saturated Fat 23g144%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 9g
Cholesterol 140mg47%
Sodium 2923mg127%
Potassium 1082mg31%
Carbohydrates 27g9%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 17g19%
Protein 63g126%
Vitamin A 1792IU36%
Vitamin C 9mg11%
Calcium 1612mg161%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

Even More Homemade Dip Recipes

Have you ever made Cream Cheese Taco Dip? What is your favorite food item to “dip”?

Merissa Bio

This Cream Cheese Taco Dip was originally published on Little House Living in March 2013. It has been updated as of September 2022.

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18 Comments

  1. We make something similar but I put cream cheese into a cake pan and smoosh it all down so the whole bottom is covered. Pour salsa on top to make an even layer to cover the cream cheese. Then you sprinkle with the cheese of your choice and bake in the oven until the cheese is all melted. We then use corn tortilla chips so it makes it a gluten free item as well.

  2. I’m drooling! This looks SO good! Pinning to make later! I found you at Lil’ Luna–thanks for sharing!

    ~Abby =)

  3. This looks wonderful! I’ll be pinning so I can refer back to it next time I need a quick dip idea. Thanks so much!

  4. This is a great dip, Amanda. We will really enjoy this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe with Full Plate Thursday and have a great weekend!
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

  5. Hope you are having a great week and thank you so much for sharing your awesome recipe with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

  6. I was just going to let you know that I clicked on the chicken nugget dip recipe and it redirected me to this page.

  7. My daughter makes a warm dip using the cream cheese & rotel tomatoes and she will add cooked jimmy dean sausage…it is yummy!

  8. This was a good dip – didn’t follow the exact recipe because I wanted to use what I had on hand, lol. Substituted 1/2 cup salsa for the tomato sauce and taco seasoning (I couldn’t justify opening a pint of sauce to use 1/2 cup, but I knew we would consume the leftover salsa fast enough), and used pepper jack because I didn’t have any cheddar on hand. It was great! and fast and easy. Thank you for the recipe!

  9. Hi Amanda! The recipe looks so yummy! Great for serving at holiday parties or anytime! Thanks for sharing the recipes! Blessings from Bama!

  10. Approximately how many pounds of ground beef would the taco seasoning mix season? How much of the seasoning do you use per pound?

  11. 5 stars
    Is the chili powder in the taco seasoning the chili powder blend that usually has garlic powder and cumin or is it just ground chili pepper powder?