Oh my, this buffalo blue cheese dressing is trouble! It has all the flavors of rich and creamy blue cheese with the spicy and tangy pop of peppery buffalo sauce.

Not only does this dressing have blue cheese and spicy hot sauce, but it also has crispy crumbled bacon. You'll want to make a big batch and keep it all for yourself! But don't do that; instead, spoon the sauce over wedges of crisp and fresh romaine hearts, top with more bacon and finely chopped chives and serve with a fork and knife.

The Ingredients That Matter

Blue Cheese. It wouldn't be a blue cheese dressing without the, ahem, blue cheese! This pungent cheese is made when cheese makers use long needles to inject Penicillium mold into wheels of cheese. Mold then grows in these veins, creating the distinct blue or green coloration. For many new turophiles (cheese lover), blue cheese is a good entry into the world of stinky cheeses! It's pungent, but also rich and creamy. See more about blue cheese below.
Hot Sauce. To give the dressing that buffalo wing sauce flavor, reach for hot sauce. Whatever you fancy will work just fine, but let's face it, the best choice here is Frank's Red Hot Sauce (this post is NOT sponsored by Frank's, we're just quite partial to it for this recipe... and, yes, we put it on just about everything!). Its peppery flavor and spice level (hot, but not too hot) pair perfectly with the creamy, pungent flavor of blue cheese. There's a reason you'll find blue cheese dressing served with a big bowl of buffalo wings! We recommend 1 to 2 tablespoons of the sauce for this dressing recipe, but you can certainly add more if you prefer even more heat.
Bacon. We never said this was a healthy recipe! But it sure is delicious. Reach for thicker cut bacon, preferably with no added sweeteners (here in Vermont, it's common to find maple in our bacon. It's delicious, but not the flavors we're looking for in our dressing). Render out the fat, dry on paper towels, then chop into bite-size pieces before stirring into the sauce.

Which Blue Cheese Should I Use?

Simple: pick your favorite! If you are not sure where to start, here's an overview of common blue cheeses and brands. Ideally, pick a crumbly rather than a soft blue cheese as crumbly cheese will blend into the sauce easier.

Gorgonzola. Named after the Italian town of its origin from the Lombardy region, this blue cheese is crumbly, salty and buttery. It's made from cow's milk and aged about 4 months.
Blue Stilton. This cow's milk blue comes from England. It's typically aged at least 9 weeks. It's semi-soft, crumbly, slightly sweet and creamy.
Roquefort. One of the most well known blues, this sheep's milk cheese comes from southern France. It has a slightly tangy flavor and it's creamy and slightly moist. It's definitely on the stronger side flavor-wise.
American Brands: Maytag. While not fitting into a general style of blue, this brand of American blue cheese is very popular. And with good reason. It is well balanced for its creaminess and moisture, yet still crumbly. It is inspired by Roquefort cheese. Point Reyes. Another well-known American cheese producer, the Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese, is a nice balance between creamy and crumbly and slightly peppery. It's a raw cow's milk cheese aged about 3 months.

Have another blue cheese to recommend? Drop a comment below and let us know your favorite.

About the Technique

Besides the bacon, this is a simple no-cook recipe. Simply stir the ingredients together and the blue cheese dressing is ready to serve. But here are a few tips for success:

Cook the bacon slowly to render out the fat. The goal is crispy bacon. To ensure it's not rubbery, we find cooking over medium heat is ideal as the lower heat ensures the fat melts away compared to higher heat, which tends to seal the fat rather than render it.
Keep the stem end of romaine hearts in tact. When serving a platter of this recipe, be sure to trim just a bit of the stem end off the romaine. Keeping the stem in tact means you'll get wedges that hold together. It's nice for presentation, but it also won't fall apart on the plate.
Stir the sauce together with a spoon. Don't whisk. There's no need to use a whisk here as the ingredients in the sauce are already emulsified. Instead, simply stir it together with a spoon. Crumbled blue cheese or bacon pieces will just get stuck in a whisk.

How to Make Buffalo Blue Cheese Dressing

Step 1. Stir together in a medium bowl mayonnaise, sour cream and lemon juice. Add chives and stir.

Step 2. Add chopped bacon and blue cheese and stir until well combined.

Step 3. Add hot sauce, and more bacon and blue cheese to taste. Stir well.

How Else to Serve the Dressing

You can certainly serve the sauce anywhere else you'd use blue cheese dressing, but given its bacon and buffalo flavors, there's a few places it would really shine. Try serving the sauce in a crispy chicken wrap, slathered on grilled steak, as a base for coleslaw or as a dip for crudité.

Since it's a cream-based dressing without preservatives, the sauce should hold sealed in the refrigerator for about 5 days.

Looking for more salads? Check out the Carrot and Pea Shoot Spring Salad and our Beet and Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese.

Recipe