Pepperoni Dip

Cheesy, meaty Pepperoni Dip is an entertainer’s dream! This easy appetizer comes together quickly for a crowd, whether you’re feeding your family, hosting an at-home gameday gathering or even game night! No matter the occasion, this layered cream cheese dip is great for sharing. Makes 8 servings.

It’s one of my favorite days of the quarter! It’s Freaky Friday… and as always, I’m thrilled to be sharing this new dip recipe with y’all, as well as introduce you to the lady who developed it in the first place.

I’ve known Michele from West via Midwest for a few years now. She has taken professional cooking classes and received a Sommelier Certification so she could learn how to pair beer and wine with food for any occasion. (Umm, hi. Could we talk about how amazing this is?)

Also, she and I are both about easy entertaining and providing our readers tips and tricks to make delicious dishes to serve to their people for any kind of gathering. (We also both used to stress out over hosting and entertaining. #themoreyouknow)

Michele says, “I believe getting together over food gives us balance in our lives. You can work hard and still have time to spend together over a delicious meal.” And I wholeheartedly agree.

In true Freaky Friday fashion, I had the hardest time deciding what dish I would cook from Michele’s blog because, umm, I wanted to make everything.

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Should I cook ribeyes on the grill? It is summer, after all, and we’ve been firing up the grill every weekend. Or maybe I should go in a different direction and bake up some Caramelized Onion Roast Beef Sliders? I love those flavors together! Also, I don’t think it would be wrong to make her Watermelon Margarita…

She’s also got a ton of air fryer recipes, which I think are awesome because I’ve yet to really sort out how to use my air fryer.

In the end, I chose her hot Pepperoni Pizza Dip because, well, I’m a sucker for a baked appetizer that we can share, whether we’re together in person or virtually (and making the same dish to feel like we’re physically together.)

More delicious dips for sharing: Black Bean Dip | Shrimp Spinach Artichoke Dip | Caramelized Onion Guacamole | Homemade Loaded Queso | Winston’s Garlic Hummus | Pretzel Cheese Dip / Garlic Herb Cream Cheese Dip

So what is Freaky Friday?

It’s an old-fashioned blog hop.

A blog hop, for those of y’all who haven’t been around the blogosphere for as long as I have, which is to say for-freaking-ever, is a collaboration between bloggers where everyone shares a post on the same day and we link to one another after our posts are live. 🙂

Everyone is secretly assigned another blogger, whose website we make a recipe from. We make the recipe, photograph it like it was our own, write a post about it and share it on the selected Friday in the hopes that we help YOU (yes, you, dear reader!) discover new recipes and new bloggers to follow!

For previous Freaky Friday exchanges, I’ve made Shortbread Brown Butter Cookies, Boozy Bacon Pretzel Peanut Butter Bars, Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese, Cherry Bourbon Slush , Halloween Peanut Butter Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies, a Valentine’s Day Dessert Board and Chicken Pesto Pasta.

Take A Look At All Of Our 2020 Freaky Friday Summer Recipes:

Looking for a decadent breakfast that could also turn into a dessert? Try out Blueberry Banana Bundt Cake or Lemon Cream Cheese Blueberry Kolaches.

Want to fire up the grill or smoker? Check out Smoked Spatchcock Chicken. It might go great with some Alabama White BBQ Sauce.

Looking for an easy party dip to share? This Buffalo Cheese Dip is great for a crowd!

If you’re into Mediterranean flavors, you need to try The Best Ever Chicken Gyros and Healthy Greek Coleslaw.

If you love French onion flavors, you’ll need to sample this French Onion Rissoto.

Need some summery dessert in your life? I cannot wait to try a slice of Old Fashioned Lemon Icebox Pie and Lemon Poke Cake. Cherry Cupcakes with Mint are festive and scrumptious! And a bowl of Coconut Macadamia Nut Ice Cream would be wonderfully refreshing.

What you’ll need to make this recipe:

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• Pie pan or dish
• Hand mixer
• Box grater

Here’s what you need to grab at the grocery store:

• Cream cheese — I like to use full-fat cream cheese, though you could use a lower fat rendition if you’d prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature so it blends more easily.
• Sour cream — this is another important ingredient. It adds a wonderful tanginess to the base of the dip.
• Seasonings — we use a combination of an Italian seasoning blend, as well as dried oregano. You can use fresh herbs, like basil or oregano, if desired, though that will take more time in your prepwork and you will need more of those since dried herbs tend to have a stronger flavor. Add a shake or two of red pepper flakes to add some heat to the mixture.
• Pizza or marinara sauce — you can make your own OR use the store-bought kind. I used the jarred kind to make it easier on myself and because I didn’t have any marinara sauce on hand at the time we were making this recipe.
• Cheeses — I suggest purchasing a block of the cheddar and a ball of the mozzarella and shredding them yourself since those will melt much better than pre-shredded cheese. However, if you have the pre-shredded stuff on hand, you can make it work, too. You could also add a sprinkling of parmesan cheese to the mixture, too.
• Pepperoni slices — use your favorite brand of pepperoni.

What should I use as a dipper for this recipe?

I baked off some pizza crust slices and used those for dippers, but you can do a variety of things.

Slice and bake baguettes for a crispy bread dipper. You could also use pita chips, tortilla chips or your favorite crackers.

How to Make Pepperoni Pizza Dip

Prep your ingredients.

About 30 minutes before putting your dip together, remove the cream cheese from the fridge to soften it. This will make it easier to blend.

Shred the cheeses, and slice your pepperoni. Since this dip is going to be enjoyed by all, I found that chopping the pepperoni into smaller slices made it an easier way to ensure my kids could eat this dip without issue.

Put the dip together

Preheat your oven, and get your 9” pie plate out. You can also use a small Pyrex dish or a casserole if you don’t have a pie plate, though I must say that the pie plate was perfectly sized.

Spray it with nonstick baking spray so your dip doesn’t stick (too much!) to the container.

Use a hand mixer to whip the cream cheese, sour cream, oregano and Italian seasoning together. We want the well combined and creamy because it’s the bottom layer of our dip.

Spread the cream cheese mixture in the bottom of the pie plate, then ladle on the pizza sauce. Spread it evenly over the mixture to create the next layer.

Next, add about half of the pepperoni pieces to create the next layer.

Combine the mozzarella and cheddar cheeses and sprinkle ‘em on top of the pepperoni.

Add the remaining pepperoni pieces on top of the cheeses, and bake.

Serve the dip

When the dip is bubbly and the pepperoni are cooked, remove from the oven.

Serve with bread, chips, veggie slices or breadsticks, and enjoy immediately.

How to store and reheat:

Store in an airtight container OR leave in the pie dish if there’s a lot left. Refrigerate for up to 5 days.

You can reheat the dip in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the dip is bubbly again, if it’s left in the original baking dish. If you transfer it to a smaller container, you can reheat it in the microwave in 30-second bursts until warmed through.

Erin’s Easy Entertaining Tips

Dip always makes me think of entertaining and hosting my people in my home, and for whatever reason, pizza makes me think of gamedays spent at home cheering for our teams.

This Pepperoni Dip would be the ultimate gameday food to serve because it’s incredibly simple and tastes like pizza. Who wouldn’t adore that?

Here are some tips and tricks to making this recipe for hosting:

• Make your dip ahead of time, and stop at the steps to bake it. Simply pop it into the refrigerator covered. Thirty minutes before guests arrive, remove it from the fridge, then bake it as directed.
• Serve it with crackers, sliced bread, your favorite veggies or even bake up some pizza dough (like I did for these photos), and serve those alongside the cheesy dip.
• Make variations on the recipe! While we adore the pepperoni in this pizza dip, you could add (cooked) sausage or simply a mixture of cheeses if you’re feeding vegetarians.

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick tips for making Creamy, Cheesy Pepperoni Dip

• For the easiest entertaining, make the dip ahead of time and store in the fridge. Thirty minutes before you want to bake it, remove from the fridge, then bake as directed.
• If you have leftovers, store the remaining dip in your favorite food-safe storage container in the fridge. It’ll keep for an additional week. While the layers won’t be preserved, you can still reheat it in the microwave and have a delicious dip!
• Not sure what to serve alongside this dip? I highly suggest pairing it with Pepperoni Pizza Rolls (to keep that pizza theme!), as well as a beer cocktail, like a Lemon Shandy or a Spicy Bloody Beer Cocktail.

Here’s how you make this delicious app…