Warm & Cheesy 7-Layer Skillet Dip

This dip is the, what? The touchdown?

[Crew laughs] [enthusiastic drum music]

I'm incompetent with sports, quite clearly,

but I promise you I know what I'm talking

when it comes to the dip. [big band music]

This is my version of a seven-layer dip.

The one that you find in the supermarket

is usually really pretty layered,

with very distinct sections of sour cream, beans,

guacamole, or whatever.

This has similar elements

but it comes together in a skillet,

it's warm, and it's cheesy, and it's fresh.

[drum beats]

The biggest flex of this recipe is using American cheese.

I know some of you're gonna be like, eh, that's not cheese.

Stop it.

It's actually miraculous invention,

it has sodium citrate in it,

it melts, and it stays melty and gooey,

and that's what you want in a queso.

I include a slightly sharper cheese,

this one is Monterey Jack,

just to bring a little bit more flavor.

The American cheese can be a little acidic,

so this one balances it out.

I always like to shred my own cheese

because the pre shredded one is tossed in some cellulose

to prevent clumping in the bag, and it doesn't melt as well.

Okay, next, I'm going to prep

the stuff that I need for the refried bean layer.

I'm going to start by dicing up an onion,

slice some garlic.

The Chipotle peppers, I think most of us are familiar with,

they're essentially smoked jalapenos

in this vinegary adobo sauce.

They're quite potent, so I don't want it to be that spicy.

The last thing I need to do is rinse and drain my beans.

Most recipes start with canned refried beans,

for this one, I wanted to start by making my own,

just to control the texture, the spiciness.

[drum beats]

I am going to start by melting my butter.

I use butter instead of oil,

I think it adds like a nice dairy richness

that compliments the beans very well.

Once the butter is melted,

I'm going to go in with all of my onions.

I like to cook it on a lower heat

till it gets a bit translucent,

then crank the heat up, and you can build color that way.

You can see that the onions have picked up

quite a bit of color.

I'm going to go ahead and add my garlic, and also the cumin,

I think it compliments beans really well.

Once that garlic starts smelling fragrant,

I'm going to go in with my chopped chipotles.

It takes a full tablespoon of salt,

which seems a little alarming, but beans are really thirsty

and can suck in a lot of salt.

Add the beans, a cup of water,

and as this is simmering,

I'm just going to go in with my potato masher.

And really at this point, you can control the texture,

you can keep it very coarse and chunky

or you can make it really smooth

and put a bunch of effort into it.

The last thing I'm going to do is turn the heat off,

and I finish it with a little bit of vinegar,

this just wakes up all of the flavors.

I'm going to push them to the back of the stove

and make my queso next. [drum beats]

This is probably

the most fun and interesting part of the recipe to me.

It starts with a bit of water, medium-ish heat,

a little bit of ground cumin,

and also some of that adobo sauce

from the can of chipotles.

Then a pinch of salt, of course.

And once the water comes to a simmer,

I'm going to add

the magic ingredient of American cheese, and you can see it,

it just melts virtually in no time at all.

That sodium citrate is really working hard here

and helps keep everything together so it won't break on you.

What I mean when I say the cheese will break,

if you don't use the right combination of cheeses

it'll separate into this grainy, oily mess,

the cheese will be in clumps at the bottom

and it just never come together,

no matter how much you stir it.

And now I'm going to add my other cheese,

which is Monterey jack,

just to bring a little bit more flavor.

This part I like to do off the heat,

just to minimize any chances of it breaking,

and there should be enough residual heat in the pan.

I'm delighted with how mine looks right now,

it's perfectly smooth and melty and runny.

And here's what I love about using the queso

over just melting cheese on top,

is that it buys you some time, and it still stays fluid

as you are sitting in front of the game and eating it.

Both the warm components of my skillet dip are ready,

so now I'm going to move it over

and we're going to build it in the skillet.

[drum beats]

Okay, I have all my garnishes now, that I'm going to prep,

I'm going to start with my scallions, thinly slice them.

Next thing I'm going to do is the avocado.

Hold the knife fairly stable, and then twist the avocado.

You could spoon out the avocado, but I don't know,

I like to peel the skin off gently and lovingly.

Okay, I'm going to dice these, keeping them fairly large.

Toss them in some lime juice and salt,

otherwise, they're going to be a little too bland.

Okay, here is the warm bean there,

you can see it's thickened up a bit as it's sat.

I'm going to start by dolloping some of this cheese sauce

all over the sour cream.

I prefer to leave things in like dollops

and not really spread them out in an even layer,

because then I feel each bite is more interesting that way.

Next is the salsa.

Eh, let's do avocados next.

Pickled jalapenos, they have this nice acidity

that cuts through all the richness,

a little bit of cilantro on top, tearing it apart,

and then some scallions. [drum beats]

Wow, I think it looks spectacular, I'm really excited,

I love that you can see every component.

It's colorful, it's fresh.

Ooh. You can't laugh.

Okay, I'm going to squeeze lime on this for us.

Yeah, you're good, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, that's it, just dip in, it's a dip.

No need to be polite.

That's so good.

It's super limey, which I love,

but it's really well seasoned,

it's so nice and creamy.

Mm. Better than supermarket seven-layer dip?

Oh, 1000%. [Shilpa laughs]

And I love the pickled jalapenos on top,

that's a nice touch.

[Shilpa] You know, I love me at pickled jalapeno.

[Zaynab] I respect it.

Thanks, Shilpa.

Love a good dip, and this was a good dip,

[Shilpa laughs] touchdown for Shilpa.

[Both laugh] [drum beats]

The beans are kind of grounding the whole dish,

and then there's just enough cheese

where it feels fatty and unctuous.

And then you have all of these toppings

that are adding texture, acidity, heat.

Damn. Very proud of this dip.

[drum ceases] [saxophone chord plays]