Hissy Fit Dip-Hot, Cheesy, Sausage Party Favorite!

Our Hissy Fit Dip is a luscious hot cheesy, sausage dip that’s always a big party favorite! Easy to make, impossible to stop eating! Ready for a new Favorite?

I love the excitement that hits in August each year as football season gets underway, well, at least all the wonderful party food and tailgating the fall brings with those rabid fans. It does make me sad, though, to see so many amazing dishes only grace a table if there’s an impending kick-off.  This recipe is a staple for pre-game get-togethers and conference championship after-parties, but it’s such an amazing recipe that I serve it year-round.

It’s called Hissy Fit Dip, or sometimes “Mississippi Crack Dip,” but whatever you want to call it, it’s a winner! This is one of those bubbling hot, creamy dip masterpieces we’ve all burned our mouths on after giving in to impatient taste buds. It’s a rich, cheesy concoction that begs for frantic dipping and fighting over the crunchy brown bits around the edges.

The jury’s still out on the origin of the phrase “hissy fit,” but trust me. You’ll get it once you’ve tasted it, especially if you find it’s all gone when you come back for seconds! The ingredients here are all easy to find, so get ready to make this often. It’ll become a frequent guest request once you add this to your party repertoire.

You start by crumbling and cooking your favorite pork sausage. (Just don’t use any “sweet” varieties with things like apples or maple syrup.)  I choose bulk breakfast sausage when I make this dip since it has the perfect seasonings – savory herbs, like sage and thyme, and red pepper for a little kick. I also like to get the pieces nice and brown, even a little crispy.

Let’s make this!

Next, you’ll put the cooked sausage into a casserole dish along with sour cream and tons of cheese, including everyone’s party favorite Velveeta. Nothing, I repeat nothing melts like Velveeta, so it’s a requisite when I’m making something like this. In this particular recipe, rather than incorporating it completely, you use little-chopped pieces of Velveeta.

When you reach into the finished product with your chosen dipper, you’ll find little melty pockets that somehow manage to be even creamier than all the other cheese around them. The cream cheese adds body to the dip to ensure great gob-fulls cling to your chip or cracker, rather than dripping off.

The other cheese in this Hissy Fit Dip is Muenster, that soft, creamy cheese that has a mild flavor and a light orange rind. (By the way, the rind gets its distinctive color from annatto, a mild but slightly peppery spice from South America that also gives cheddar and Velveeta their signature orange colors.)

If you’ve ever had a grilled cheese made with Muenster, you’ll understand why it works so well in this dish. It almost melts in your mouth straight out of the fridge, so it makes this dip even more luscious.

The seasonings in my Hissy Fit Dip are few but pack a flavor punch. I use onion powder (which adds a deeper, slightly sweet onion flavor) along with chopped green onions. That fresh herb quality is really hard to beat, plus the green onions lend a subtle onion flavor and sprinkle beautiful flecks of green throughout the dip.

Worcestershire is one of those concentrated flavor bombs you just can’t reproduce without adding over a dozen other ingredients. It provides a warm, peppery, salty, slightly acidic quality that deepens the flavors of just about anything you add it to. There’s just a teaspoon in this recipe, but it’s really a necessity.

Sage is the last ingredient. Yes, sage, that herb that seems to enjoy great popularity around Thanksgiving turkey time but is generally ignored the rest of the year.  Sage is a type of salvia and has a warm, slightly astringent flavor that contrasts nicely with the richness of this dip.

Now you have about an hour to keep yourself busy while this dip gets all warm and bubbly and ready to serve.

You will want to let it cool of a bit before diving in (remember those “burning” consequences for impatience), but I suggest being first in line when the eating commences. Otherwise, you’ll be one of those disappointed guests having a “hissy fit” for having missed out on tasting this delectable dip!

Hissy Fit Dip Recipe Notes

Sausage: I usually choose a mild pork sausage for this dish, just because it’s likely to please diverse palettes at a big party. Feel free to use a spicy pork sausage or any other savory sausage you can remove from the casing and brown. You can even substitute a low-fat turkey sausage.

Slow cooker option: If you don’t want to deal with the oven or want something portable that will stay warm, you can make this Hissy Fit Dip in the slow cooker.  I like to warm my cream cheese in the cooker while I’m browning the sausage since the cream cheese will incorporate better and leave fewer little white lumps if it’s nice and soft first. Once you’ve drained the sausage on your paper towels, throw everything into the cooker, stir, then let it go on high for about an hour. Once it’s all warm and creamy and amazing, you can turn it down to low or warm and keep it there as long as you need to (it won’t last long, I promise!).

Serving suggestions: Anything. Okay, maybe not vanilla wafers, but this stuff is great on tortilla chips, corn chips, pretzels, any and every type of cracker, veggies, breadsticks, and crostini. If there are leftovers, you can mix a tablespoon or two into eggs while you’re scrambling them, or smear some on a toasted English muffin and stick it under the broiler just until it’s bubbling a bit. You can also spoon some warm dip over homemade hash browns, then top it all off with an over-easy egg. Best brunch ever!

Muenster alternative: If you want to experiment with something other than Muenster cheese, try a Gouda or Monterey Jack. Both have a nice mild flavor and still melt like a dream.  Pepper Jack would also work and add some extra heat.