3 BBQ's in 3 days- day 3

Happy Fourth of July!  We tried to make it out to a parade this morning but with all of the unknowns with the weather we just couldn't commit to going to one of the big parades.  We didn't want to get there just to have to pack up our stuff and head home if/when it started raining.  So we decided to go over to my parent's house and check out the little neighborhood parade in their subdivision.  I have to say I was a little disappointed.  This parade was much bigger when I was younger.  There weren't half as many participants as there used to be.  Colin still had a good time though and that is what really matters.   Heck we even let him have his first sucker to celebrate the occasion.

The BBQ we went to today was hosted by our good friends Johnny and Lori.  The served some delicious pulled pork sandwiches.  There were plenty of side dishes available to keep everyone very well feed.  I brought along one of my all time favorite appetizers, buffalo chicken dip.  I am sure you have all heard of this before.  I want to share my recipe though because there are a few things that I believe in strongly when it comes to making buffalo dip and I think they make a world of difference in the taste of the dip.

Here is what you will need.

Here is what you need to do:

* Boil and shred 5 chicken breasts into bit size pieces
* Measure 1 cup of buffalo sauce
* Measure 1 cup of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing

Combine all of the above ingredients and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Here is what you will end up with.

I am telling you this dip is absolutely delicious.  The keys to remember are:

1.  Use Hidden Valley Ranch.  This cannot be compromised.  If you go with the generic dressing you will be disappointed.

2.  Boil and shred the chicken yourself.  I know this is kind of a pain.  I know a ton of people make this dish using canned chicken.  I am telling you now, what takes the dish from being ordinary to being extra ordinary is shredding the chicken yourself.  People ask me to make this dish all the time.  I swear it is because of the shredded chicken.  Take the extra time and do this, you won't regret it!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.  Thanks for helping to keep me occupied over the past three days.  We had a lot of fun visiting with friends and family and I hope you will enjoy some of the recipes that I have shared here.