Lay’s Dip Creations: Review

So my latest Tastemaker opportunity from Foodbuzz was for Lay’s Dip Creations.  I’ve had these for quite a while, but like everything else, when we listed the house for sale, stuff got put out of sight and I can no longer find squat.  So it took me a while to actually use them.  There are three flavors: Country Ranch, Garden Onion, and Guacamole.  I got 2 packets of each to try.  These are dry mixes.  The Country Ranch and Garden Onion are intended to be mixed with sour cream for a lovely dip, and of course the Guac is to be mixed with avocados.  They’re all nice, straight up dip mixes that are gluten and MSG free (thank you Frito Lay).  We tried the guac mix on our End of the World Nachos for dinner on Saturday, and it was lovely.   But this is, of course, a food blog, so I’m not going to just stop with the conventional uses for this product.

The Country Ranch Dip I opted to try for dinner on pork chops and roasted potatoes.  Half a pack got tossed with some olive oil and diced potatoes, roasted at 425 for 35 minutes.  The other half coated a couple of center cut pork chops that huddled at the other end of my baking dish for the same period of time.  The end result?  TASTY!  It was a great one dish meal (awesome when you don’t feel like doing the dishes).

The Garden Onion makes a marvelous pot roast (sorry, no pics of this one).  Just sear your roast, rub it with the dip mix, and chuck it in the crock pot for 8-10 hours on low.  Easy peasy and a nice variation on the classic Onion Soup mix pot roast.

The Guac mix, I confess, I have not used in anything but actual guacamole, though I can imagine it would go well on chicken or in some other Mexican style dish.  I’ve got one packet left to try, so we’ll see what I come up with.

Other uses for these could be mixing with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream for a lovely and lighter dip with a tang.  Great for veggies or chips.  Either the Country Ranch or Garden onion would go quite well in a pasta a salad.  I think the Country Ranch would make an interesting twist on chicken salad.  The Garden Onion might be good in a potato salad.  The sky’s the limit.  Just think outside the box!  Either way, these are some great, pre-mixed flavor packs that can be put to all kinds of uses.