Buffalo Chicken Dip - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup ranch dressing
3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red HotA )
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 bunch celery, cleaned and cut into 4 inch pieces
1 (8 ounce) box chicken-flavored crackers

Preparation

1. Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with celery sticks and crackers.
My Note: I have used Texas Pete Buffalo Style Chicken Wing Sauce, 1/3 less-fat cream cheese (aka Neufchatel), and 1 lb. of fresh chicken that was boiled for 20 minutes (or until done) and then shredded. However, to avoid the strange \"orange sherbert\" color of the dip, I layered the ingredients in a 8\"x11\" baking dish as follows: Mix together the softened cream cheese and ranch dressing and spread evenly in the bottom of the dish. Then mix together the shredded chicken and wing sauce (about 2/3 bottle)and layer on top of the cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle just a small amount of shredded cheese (I used Colby/Jack) over the top. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until dip is heated through and cheese is melted. I just think people tend to shy away from the dip when it's all mixed together because of the strange color. It's more recognizable (retains a brighter red color) when it's layered and gets gobbled up faster! Great dip for football season!
I suggest using more chicken and more hot sauce with this recipe. Also, if you use the chedder cheese, don't use the pre-shredded bags from the grocery store. The cheese in those bags is coated with flour and it seems to make the dip oiler.
I have use bleu cheese dressing instead of ranch because thats what some like to eat with buffalo chicken! I also used 2 boneless chicken breasts instead of canned chicken (I cant stand canned meats) grilled it in a pan, cut it into bite sized pieces, put it back in the pan with the hot sauce. When I mixed the the cream cheese and bleu cheese together I added more hotsauce for more of a kick. Baked in an 8x8 pan, 350 for 20 minutes. Dip was gone in minutes!