Have you heard about the viral Tik Tok recipe for smoked cream cheese? It’s one of the best smoked appetizer ideas you can make with a pellet grill or Traeger smoker. Find out how to smoke cheese and get ready for this brand new jalapeno and cheese flavour experience with this tasty appetizer dip.
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Enjoy this smoked cream cheese recipe with pretzels, chips, crackers, or even veggie crudité dippers. This full-flavoured smoked cream cheese dip is ideal for any occasion.
Why You’ll Love this Cream Cheese Appetizer
Customizable: Use any spice blend that you prefer for your preferred taste.
Versatile: You can use it as a dip, sandwich spread, or even a pasta sauce.
Add on Recipe: If the smoker is on cooking some meat, you can easily make this smoked cream cheese too.
Smoked Cream Cheese Ingredients
In addition to cream cheese block, you’re going to need oil, beer, mustard, sugar, paprika, onion and garlic powders, chilli powder, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Be sure to use a block cream cheese, not the whipped kind that comes in a tub. I also recommend full fat cream cheese as low fat cream cheese or fat-free just won’t be as good.
How to Make Smoked Cream Cheese
The first step for smoking cream cheese is to preheat a pellet grill or Traeger smoker. Meanwhile put the cream cheese in a disposable foil pan or in a cast iron skillet. Mix the oil with some beer then brush this over the cream cheese.
Mix the dry seasonings together. Toss the sliced jalapenos with the rest of the oil and beer and add some of the seasoning mixture. Season the cream cheese all over with the seasonings.
After that, score the cheese with a knife and add the jalapenos. Now all that’s left to do is smoke it for about 2½ hours.
How to Serve Smoked Cream Cheese
Enjoy it warm from the smoker or chilled. This recipe is amazing either way. It’s a super easy appetizer dip and knowing how to smoke cream cheese means you can rustle up this tasty appetizer whenever the craving hits!
Serve it with crackers, slices of French bread, bagel chips, pita chips, puff pastry twists pretzels, tortilla chips, vegetable crudités (raw veggies), or anything else you can think of. You can mix some into a dip that calls for cream cheese or even spread it on toast or over a bagel. There are a lot of ways to enjoy the smoked cream cheese taste. For sure it’s one of the best smoked appetizer recipes I’ve ever tried.
Smoked Cream Cheese Variations
The main ingredients are the cream cheese and some oil but you can vary the seasonings however you wish. Try using a readymade meat or chicken rub instead of the separate seasonings, or how about taco seasoning for a south of the border flavour? The flavour of the smoked cream cheese will vary depending on what type of wood pellets you use, too!
All-purpose BBQ rub would work, as would everything bagel seasoning. If you love everything bagel seasoning by the way, try these bagel beer dogs too! Curry spices would also work. In fact you can combine whichever seasonings you want and come up with your own concoctions. Once you learn how to smoke cheese on a Traeger the possibilities are almost endless!
A word of caution though: don’t use any blended rubs where salt is the #1 ingredient because this can make the end result too salty, especially if paired with salty crackers or pretzels! If in doubt, combine the spices called for in the recipe to make your own blend.
You could even make a sweet version since cream cheese can be paired with fruit and sweet ingredients. It’s also a key ingredient in no-bake cheesecake. Using cinnamon sugar instead of the savoury spices will turn this savoury smoked cheese into a sweet version which would be great served with chopped firm fruits such as apple slices.
Smoked Cream Cheese FAQs
Curious which type of cream cheese makes the best smoked appetizer on a pellet grill or Traeger smoker? Well, I usually use full-fat Philadelphia and it works really well. If you prefer an alternative brand, go ahead and use that. I’m not sure about the reduced-fat options but I think they’d lack the full flavour this appetizer dip recipe deserves!
Keep any leftovers tightly covered or in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This way they will last a week. Unfortunately you can’t freeze smoked cream cheese.
Nope, and that’s the great thing about this viral Tik Tok recipe for the pellet grill or Traeger smoker. The texture does change during smoking. It becomes slightly dryer but is still wet enough to spread on crackers or serve as an appetizer dip. The longer you smoke it the more it will dry out but after a couple of hours it should be perfectly done. Keeping the smoker temperature low and smoking it slow means the cream cheese won’t melt like you might assume. It will stay perfectly spreadable.
Smoked Cream Cheese Recipe
Smoked Cream Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 Ounces cream cheese
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 Ounces beer IPA
- 1 Teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 Teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 Teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 Teaspoon onion powder
- 1 Teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ Teaspoon ancho chili powder
- ½ Teaspoon white pepper
- ½ Teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon cilantro fresh, chopped
- 3 jalapeños
Instructions
- Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees F lid closed for 15 minutes.
- Remove cream cheese from packaging and place into a casserole dish, disposable foil pan, cast iron skillet or onto foil.
- Combine olive oil and beer in a small bowl. Brush all sides of the cream cheese.
- Combine mustard powder, brown sugar, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, ancho chili powder, white pepper, and salt in a small bowl.
- Slice and seed the jalapeños. Place into a small bowl and toss with remaining olive oil/beer. Add ½ tbsp of the seasoning and stir to coat.
- Season all sides of the cream cheese with the seasoning mix.
- Score the cheese using a knife in a crisscross pattern. Next, surround the cheese with the diced jalapenos.
- Place into the smoker. Smoke the cream cheese for 2 ½ hours.
- Once ready to serve, garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.
- Serve on a platter surrounded by pretzel’s, crackers, chips, or bread.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Get ready to tantalize your taste buds with the most delicious and creamy smoker appetizers you’ve ever had! You will love this mouth-watering Traeger smoked cream cheese recipe! It is a delectable blend of tangy cream cheese and smoky wood-fired flavour, perfect for your next BBQ or game day party.
Smoked cream cheese is one of the best smoker recipes I have made lately. Discover how to smoke cheese and you can open up a whole new world of incredible appetizer ideas for the pellet smoker.
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti of xoxoBella is a storyteller, food lover, dog mom and adventure seeker living on the Pacific coast. She shares her passion for recipes, dogs, sustainability, adventures, travel and philanthropy, in hopes of encouraging followers to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places and stand for a cause. Bella lives with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease.
Bella Bucchiotti is a freelance food, travel, and lifestyle writer for MSN and the Associated Press Wire.
I would eat this all by myself. it looks amazing!
I tried this recipe and it’s really good. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to try the recipe.
Excited to try to keep this for the Super Bowl but it’s so good I’m worried there won’t be any left! Delicious recipe thanks !
This recipe was crazy delicious! I am always looking for cool ways to use our traeger and this was definitely one of them.
We all had second helpings of this smoked cream cheese. Top recipe, thank you!
Omgggg this was INCREDIBLE. Made it last night when we had some friends over and everyone was raving about it.
Omg i can see why this went viral! It was so good and disappeared so fast!