Cream Cheese Salsa Dip is a tasty textured dip that takes minutes to make! Smooth and creamy cheese topped with chunky salsa, crispy onion and crunchy bacon pieces flecked with jalapeno pieces delivers stylish taste with minimal effort. This salsa and cream cheese dip pairs exceptionally well with warm toasted corn chips (nom nom!).
Recipes like my Corn Relish Dip, Cream Cheese Onion Dip and Cream Cheese Pepper Jelly bring together combinations of ingredients focused on texture and taste.
My Cream Cheese Jalapeno Dip and Chili Cream Cheese Dip are a little spicy and pair exceptionally well with warm toasted corn chips.
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🤍 Recipe Highlights
Everything that you will come to know and love about this dip has been summarised in the points below:
- Quick and easy!
- Read that again.
- No seriously, this is the quickest, easiest dip you can make!
- 5 minutes: super fast and only taking 5 minutes to bring together, this dip can be made the minute you hear the doorbell.
- Simple ingredients: the ingredients are all simple and easy to get your hands on at the local store. Most have a long shelf life, except the jalapeno which is best used fresh. Some people grow these, so if you have a plant, you can harvest from your garden.
- Taste and texture: the cheese is soft and smooth, the salsa is chunky and thick. The bacon and onion are crispy and delicious. The jalapeno sticks to the Mexican theme and brings a little spice and pops of colour.
Tasty Tip: this dip is best made and served straight away. It won't sit well in the fridge as it can get soggy plus loose the crispy textures if made and refrigerated prior to serving (so make it and serve as the alternative).
🥗 Ingredients
The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the recipe. Please check the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- Salsa: you can use mild, medium or hot salsa. There are budget friendly versions and slightly more expensive popular brand name versions. The main difference I see across these is the colour and some versions are more watery than others. Try a couple out and then stick to your favourite. Truthfully, however, you can't really go wrong with salsa!
- Cream cheese: we need a block of this. Full fat or light is fine. Budget friendly brands or premium is fine too. The main difference across these is that I find some of the more budget friendly options sometimes have 1 corner that sticks in the foil more so you don't get that perfect rectangular shape. That doesn't matter too much as we are covering it with so much yum that you can't really tell. So choose the brand and price that works for you. The range you will see available is 225 - 250 grams (8oz). Each works. These sizes are somewhat same, same, with minimal noticeable visual difference.
- Crispy bacon: salty, crunchy and tasty, this is a great ingredient that can be used in salads, dips, nachos and more. I recommend using store bought crispy bacon that you will see in the same area as where they have the croutons. If you like you can purchase diced bacon and fry then top the relish with this, however, due to the extra effort involved, I think store bought crispy ticks the box of what we want for an effortless recipe.
- Crispy onion: onion is such a great ingredient to use in so many recipes! But it can be tricky to use it for easy recipes where you don't want to cook it but also don't want to be serving raw onion. Hence crispy onion is the solution! It is a product that you can buy which is sometimes sold as an addition for salads or in the Asian foods section. It is cooked and crunchy. This ingredient brings fantastic texture to the dip as well as contrasting the smoothness of the cream cheese.
- Jalapeno: we need only ½ of 1 jalapeno, so it won't break the bank. This delivers a notch of spice and pops of colour! Removing the seeds removes the heat.
Tasty Tip: if you don't want to use a jalapeno, an alternative is chopped capsicum (bell pepper). Green will also tick the colour pop box, but you can also use yellow or red if you wish.
🍳 Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. I recommend plating the cream cheese block on the serving platter as this way you won't have to move it when you have topped it.
- Place cream cheese on serving plate (Photo 1)
- Top with salsa (Photo 2)
- Add crispy onion (Photo 3)
- Sprinkle chopped jalapenos over the top (Photo 4)
👩🍳 How to Make Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
Grab the cream cheese from the fridge, tear off the cardboard and undo the silver foil. Discard the packaging and place the cream cheese in the centre of a serving platter.
Use a spoon to dollop the salsa onto the cheese, flip the spoon over to back and use that to flatten and push the salsa along the surface of the cheese in a thick layer.
Grab the crispy onion and sprinkle over the top of the salsa. Then drop some of the crispy bacon pieces over the top of the onion.
- Sprinkle crispy bacon over the dried onion (Photo 5)
Once the bacon is on top we have 'fully loaded' the cream cheese and now we get to the serving process!
🍽 Serving Suggestions
To serve the dip, I recommend toasting some corn chips and placing them on the side of the dip. Hot and fresh they bring a great crunch factor.
No need for anything fancy like cheese or nacho flavour (although you can if you want to). My favourite is the plain salted corn chips, toasted and then loaded with dip!
- Place crackers on serving board (Photo 6)
It is a good idea to keep the cheese slightly away from the dip as they can get soggy if they sit in the salsa. A small bowl of them to the side of the dip also works well and allows people to get their dunk on!
The dip becomes 'fully loaded' when ready to serve and works best when a cheese knife is provided. Chips easily break off in dips as they are so thin and the dip textures can be thick.
The cheese knife allows people to cut into the dip and then spread it onto their cracker keeping it from cracking mid dunk!
You can also put any leftovers of the topping ingredients in small bowls near the dip as the eaters can then use these to top up their chip as they go!
👍 How To Guide
This is a no bake dip that requires no oven or stove. We simply combine the ingredients by layering them on top of the block of cream cheese.
It is best made and served moments later as the onion and bacon can loose their crispy texture if they are refrigerated.
Leftovers can be kept on a plate, then covered with cling wrap for later that day or the next. I don't recommend keeping the dip for longer than that as it looses its fresh textured effect and softens too much the longer it sits.
If keeping leftovers for later, store the chips separately so that they don't go soggy.
💡 Tasty Tips
Here are my top tips and tricks so that you can master the recipe from the get go:
- A block is recommended over a tub of cream cheese for presentation and the surface area allows a larger space for the dip toppings.
- The crispy bacon and onion loose their texture in the fridge. This is something to be aware of so that you don't make the dip in advance, pull it out of the fridge to serve thinking it will be amazing only to be disappointed by the softness when that 1st bite occurs.
- Toast or bake the chips so that they are warm for serving.
- Provide a small cheese knife or butter knife as the dip is best 'spread' so this allows people to cut into the dip and spread it onto their chip.
- Slightly offset the chips from the dip to avoid them sitting too close and getting wet and soggy.
🤓 Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of dip goes with tortilla chips?
The best types of dips to pair with tortilla chips are ones that are thick but not so thick that the chip will break off mid dunk. Salsa is great as you only need to open the jar and it is good to go.
What is salsa?
Salsa is a condiment that is popular in Mexican cuisine. It is often used on nachos, tacos, enchiladas and more. Sold in a jar or bottle, it comes in mild, medium and hot flavours. Known for its chunkiness, it has great texture and brings flavour to many dishes.
It can also be homemade and is made from a combination of tomatoes, chillis, onion, garlic, lime, coriander (cilantro) and spices.
What can I dip in salsa?
Corn chips, crackers, tortilla chips, pita chips, bagel chips or round corn chips all work perfectly to dip in salsa.
How do you serve chips and salsa at a party?
You can pair chips and salsa on a cheese board to serve at a party. A small bowl of the chips next to a bowl of salsa along with some napkins is a great way to kick start any party.
😍 More Easy Dip Recipes
If you want to get your dip on further here are some more of my recipes to explore that I think will be right up your alley:
- Ham Dip
- Kalamata Olive Dip
- Corn Dip with Cream Cheese
- Blue Cheese Yogurt Dip
- Cream Cheese Spinach Dip
- Black Olive Dip
- Avocado Sweet Chilli Dip
- Green Olive Dip
- Labneh Dip
Or for a party starter that feeds a crowd try my Grazing Platter.
Adrianne XX
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📖 Recipe
Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
Equipment
- 1 Serving platter
- 1 Cheese knife
- 1 Small spoon
Ingredients
- 250 grams / 8oz cream cheese Note 1
- ¼ cup salsa Note 2
- 2 tbs crispy onion Note 3
- 1 tbs crispy bacon Note 4
- ½ jalapeno seeds removed, finely chopped
- corn chips toasted, to serve
Instructions
- Cream cheese: start by grabbing the cream cheese out of the fridge, undoing the cardboard, cutting off the foil (discard packaging) and placing the block in the centre of a serving plate.
- Salsa: use as spoon and dollop the salsa on top of the cheese in a thick layer.
- Crispy onion: sprinkle crispy onion on top of the salsa, spread it out along the top.
- Jalapenos: sprinkle the chopped jalapeno over the crispy onion to form its own layer.
- Crispy bacon: sprinkle the crispy bacon crumb over the top of the jalapenos.
- Serve: provide a small cheese knife for serving and toast some salted corn chips for people to cut into the dip, spread their chip and fully load it! Note 5
Notes
- Note 1 - Cream Cheese: I use and recommend you also use a block of cream cheese for this recipe as a tub of it (round) looks smaller and not as effective presentation wise. It won't matter if you get a 225 gram block or 250 gram (8 oz). Walmart, Tesco, Aldi, Woolworths, Coles, IGA, they will all sell it with a couple of brands being across those sizes. You can also purchase a 2 packet of it, which can be handy in the entertaining season, as you can have this ready to go and whip it up in minutes if someone 'drops in'.
- Note 2 - Salsa: you can use mild, medium or hot salsa to your preference. The main difference across the brands is that some cheaper versions can be a little watery and less bright in their colours. This is miniscule however, so don't loose sleep over the one you choose as it will work!
- Note 3 - Crispy onion: you can use crispy onion or fried shallots, they will have a very similar effect and taste and are both sold packaged, ready to eat in the salad toppings section of the shop or the Asian foods section. This is different to dried onion, a product I do use a lot, but that is soft and needs to be cooked before being eaten. Whereas this product is 'ready to eat'.
- Note 4 - Crispy bacon: similar to the above, this is a ready to eat product. It is also known as bacon crumb or dried bacon bits.
- Note 5 - Serving: if you have additional toppings from when you make the dip, these can go in small bowls alongside the dip. This way as it gets eaten, they are there and people can 'spread' the dip onto their chip and then fully load it with these leftover bits.
Nutrition
Recipe published September 2022, updated October 2022 with more top tips for you 😍!
Linda says
Yum! Cannot wait to make this.
Adrianne says
Thanks Linda, that is great to hear!