It's not a party without 7 Layer Dip! We make it with hot refried beans and top it with cheddar cheese, chili, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream and chopped black olives. This is an essential Game Day snack.






Refried beans should be served warm .

Well, I already said it. I don't usually think about food preferences, but cold fried beans are just as appealing as cold hamburgers. That's why I make a 7-layer sauce, starting with a layer of hot refried beans.



How to make 7 layer sauce

] The shredded cheese is added directly to the warm beans to allow them to melt from the heat of the beans. Then layers of tomatoes, avocados, olives, chillies and onions (all mostly at room temperature) are added.

The only cold part of the sauce is the sour cream (or Mexicana crema) topping. Served this way, the flavor deliciously mimics tostadas or homemade nachos, but in a simple sauce form.
Ways to adapt this recipe

By the way, depending on what you have on hand, your 7-layer dip could end up with eight, nine, or six layers. The base is refried beans, shredded cheese, avocado (or guacamole), chili pepper (or salsa), sour cream and olives. Improvise with more or less toppings to suit your taste.

You can also add a layer of seasoned ground beef or shredded chicken. Reheat them and add them along with the refried beans and cheese.




What can you do in advance?


While the sauce itself needs to be assembled and served while the beans are hot, there are some components you can make ahead of time to make the final steps easier.If you're making refried beans from scratch, you can make them a day or two ahead and then simply reheat them as directed in the recipe below when you're ready to assemble the sauce.
Grind. cheese a day ahead and store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container until needed
Chop chiles or pickled jalapenos a day ahead and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container until needed
WAIT to cook avocados and tomatoes: Avocados will turn brown if cooked ahead of time, and tomatoes will become mushy and lack flavor if frozen.
How to Serve 7 Layer Sauce

Serve your 7-layer dip with plenty of corn chips for dipping! This is quite a thick and heavy sauce, so buy thick and sturdy chips rather than super thin ones.

Blue corn chips are a fun alternative to regular white or yellow corn chips.
More favorites. Holiday dips

Updated January 9, 2021: We've improved this post to make it shine. No changes to the recipe itself.

7 Layer Bean Sauce Recipe


Ingredients2 cups refried beans from one 15-ounce can or homemade
1 teaspoon (or more) bacon fat (or 1 teaspoon bacon strip, cooked and shredded), optional
1 teaspoon chipotle powder, Tabasco chipotle sauce or adobo sauce, more to taste (or plain chili powder to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup chopped green Anaheim chiles (canned) OR 1 tablespoon chopped pickled jalapeño (to taste)
1 avocado, peeled and chopped
1 warm tomato, halved horizontally, seeds and juice carefully squeezed out and discarded, chopped
1/3 cup sour cream or, if possible, Crema Mexicana (Mexican sour cream)
1 cup chopped ripe black olives from a 15-ounce jar
Corn tortilla chips, for serving

Method



1 Prepare refried beans: Heat refried beans in a medium saucepan or cast iron skillet. Add enough water to create a creamy, easy-to-dip consistency, about 1/4 cup.

The flavor of the refried beans is greatly enhanced by the bacon fat; we'll add a teaspoon to canned beans, or a tablespoon or more to taste if we're making beans from scratch.



If you don't have bacon fat, you can cook a strip of bacon, chop it finely and add it to the beans.

If you're trying to avoid pork, note that most canned refried beans are cooked with added fat, so check the ingredients. You can use olive oil instead to improve the consistency of the beans.

Combine chipotle chili powder (or Tabasco or adobo or regular chili powder) and cumin to taste. Note that the avocado and sour cream will cool down the spiciness of the beans significantly, so you can afford to be a little spicier than you think.



Add salt to taste, depending on how salty your refried beans are to begin with, and depending on how salty the tortilla chips you're serving with the sauce are.

2 Place on a serving plate and top with cheese: When the beans are hot and bubbly, spread them onto the bottom of the heated serving plate. Add the shredded cheese immediately so that the heat from the beans helps melt the cheese.

(The cheese doesn't need to be completely melted, but even a little will help the sauce stay on the chip..)

3 layers on topping: Layer on sliced ​​green chiles, sliced ​​avocado, sliced ​​tomato. Add a spoonful of sour cream (or Crema Mexicana, Crema fresca or even cream fraiche).

Top with chopped green onions and olives.

Serve immediately with tortilla chips.