Cream cheese is a simple and affordable ingredient to add a layer of decadence and luxury to a variety of classic comfort foods. Often landing the moniker ‘million dollar’ or ‘millionaire,’ cream cheese is a deliciously smooth addition to recipes ranging from casseroles and stuffings through to cookies, dips, and desserts.
The 7 Sublime Cream Cheese Recipes below are some of our most popular indulgences that incorporate cream cheese. There’s plenty of opportunity for you to add a little style (and a lot of substance) to some of your favorite dishes! In fact, once you start using cream cheese as an ingredient you’ll find it’s difficult to stop, it’s so smooth and velvety!
1. Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos
Pulled chicken and cream cheese, sour cream, green chiles, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and Monterey Jack cheese combine to make a decadent filling for these Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos. Combining smooth cream and melty cheese does a tremendous job contrasting the warmth of chiles and Mexican spices – yet you can also ramp up the heat!
2. Bacon Cream Cheese Baked Spaghetti
Using cream cheese and my favorite ingredient (bacon) in pasta bakes is the cheat code to make indulgent comfort food that’s unapologetically full of creamy-cheesy flavor. Bacon Cream Cheese Baked Spaghetti is simple, rich, and utterly delicious – this is one of my favorite lazy day recipes! The spaghetti cooks along with the sauce, saving you steps, time, and cleaning up, yet still ensures that the pasta is loaded with yummy flavor.
3. Soft Batch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m not much of a cookie baker but my wife absolutely loves making these Soft Batch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies. I know I love eating them, provided I get there before the kids! These pillow soft cookies have a fantastic soft and tender texture – the sweet chocolate melds perfectly with the velvety smooth but subtly tangy cream cheese.
4. Millionaire Skillet Stuffed Pork Chops
Millionaire Skillet Stuffed Pork Chops are easy, and amazing, combining three cheeses – silky smooth cream cheese, melty mozzarella, and biting parmesan – with a lovely flavor contrast of sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms. By searing the pork chops on the stovetop, and then baking them in the oven while still in the skillet, the stuffed pork chops retain their juices and develop even more cheesy flavor.
5. Caramel Toffee Apple Cream Cheese Spread
This recipe is as easy as 1-2-3 simple ingredients to make an incredible caramel sauce, that you can then add to a big block of cream cheese and make a great spread. Caramel Toffee Apple Cream Cheese Spread is much more exciting (and delicious) than any store bought version, it will quickly become a go to sweet spread that you’ll use for all types of entertaining!
6. Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas
Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas mix golden Mexican cheese, rich cream cheese and hearty chicken that’s further seasoned by warm spices and green chiles. Topped by more melty cheese, red enchilada sauce, and a burst of fresh lime juice, these enchiladas are zesty, rich, and creamy – a perfect balance between spicy and mild!
7. Millionaire Peach Salad
I love using cream cheese to redirect your dessert so that you can call it a salad – it’s a brilliant concept we don’t use much in Australia! Millionaire Peach Salad is my favorite example. Diced sweet peaches and jello form the structure, with the sweetness cut by the tang of cream cheese, and cottage cheese as well. Fluffy marshmallows and crunchy pecans add extra texture layers and deliciousness. The cheesy smoothness really keeps this peach salad from being too sweet (toothache sweet as my mom calls it), instead making it balanced enough for you to want to sneak in a second bowl!
CONCLUSION
Cream cheese is a delightfully simple way to add a bit of smoothness and creamy flavor to recipes and give them a bit more pizzazz. By using cream cheese you don’t really have to stray far away from your central recipe, as it’s a simple, and almost always welcome addition to a variety of comfort food classics!