Smoked Cream Cheese
Published 3/14/2023 • Updated 6/16/2023
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Smoked cream cheese is an easy appetizer to wow your guests. Season a brick of cream cheese with your favorite spices and then smoke it amongst veggies to get the perfect smoked cream cheese recipe.
We Love Smoking Cream Cheese!
Say hello to our new favorite recipe that we’re adding to any day we’ve got the smoker up and running! Smoked cream cheese is so incredibly easy to prep, and makes for a perfect appetizer that everyone will love.
Why you need to smoke cream cheese
Make it your own: Use any spice blend you’d like for a completely customizable flavor profile.
Versatile: Use as a dip, as a pasta sauce, sandwich spread, the options are endless.
Easy add-on recipe: Already have the smoker on for a smoked meat? Why not make this smoked cream cheese as well.
What You Need for Smoked Cream Cheese
Brick-style cream cheese: this smoked cream cheese recipe calls for 1 8-oz. brick of cream cheese, but feel free to smoke as many bricks as you’d like!
Two seasoning options: we’re sharing a Tex-Mex style seasoning as well as a steak seasoning flavor option. Both are oh-so complementary with smoked cream cheese. Here’s what you need for each:
Tex-Mex
- Brick-style cream cheese
- Taco seasoning
- Diced white onion
- Diced red bell pepper
- Olive oil
Steak Seasoning
- Brick-style cream cheese
- Steak seasoning
- Sliced button mushrooms
- Diced white onions
- Olive oil
choosing a smoker
There is a wide range of smokers out on the market now and we suggest using the smoker that you are the most comfortable with.
We used a the Traeger 575 Pellet Grill. A pellet grill uses wood pellets to heat the chamber. We love our Traeger pellet grill because the grill automatically adds pellets to the smoker to keep the heat at the desired temperature.
Other kinds of smokers:
- Offset Smoker
- Vertical Water Smoker
- Drum Smoker
- Smoker Oven
How to Smoke Cream Cheese
Preheat the smoker + Prep cream cheese
Then, preheat the smoker to 220ºF and make a rectangular-sized aluminum boat, and drizzle the boat with olive oil.
Season Cream Cheese
Place the cream cheese brick on the aluminum boat and sprinkle the top with the seasoning. Gently press the spices into the top of the cream cheese.
Sprinkle the vegetables all around the cream cheese block and drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables and cream cheese.
Lastly, wet a chef’s knife with water (this helps the cream cheese from sticking to the knife!) and slice a diagonal checkerboard onto the top of the cream cheese.
Smoke Cream Cheese
Carefully place the tin foil boat onto the smoker and cover. Smoke the cream cheese for 2 hours at 220ºF.
Serve & Enjoy
Remove the cream cheese from the smoker and serve with crackers, chips, vegetables, or crostini. ENJOY!
Serve it hot or cold? Both are delicious!
More
Cream Cheese Recipes
If you love cooking or baking with cream cheese, check out all of our cream cheese recipes!
How to Serve Smoked Cream Cheese
We love eating smoked cream cheese as a dip and you can really use any vessel you like!
- Crostini
- Cheese bread
- Tortilla chips
- Sliced cucumber
- Homemade crackers
- Sliced carrots
- Celery
Quick tip: if you have leftover smoked cream cheese, save it for the morning and top your bagel with it!
More Smoker Recipes
Our sister site, Fit Foodie Finds, has so many tasty smoker recipes. Here are a few of our faves:
- Smoked Chicken Legs
- Smoked Baked Potatoes
- Smoked Chicken Thighs
- Easy Smoked Salmon (& Smoked Salmon Dip!)
Storage
Store this smoked cream cheese in an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Smoked Cream Cheese
Ingredients
Tex-Mex
- 8 oz. brick cream cheese, cold
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- ½ white onion, diced
- 1 large red bell pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Steak Seasoning
- 8 oz. brick cream cheese, cold
- 1 tablespoon steak seasoning
- 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
- ½ white onions, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- First, decide which flavor you wish to smoke. Then, preheat the smoker to 220ºF and make 1 small rectangular sized aluminum boat. Drizzle the boat with olive oil and set aside.
- Place the cream cheese brick on the aluminum boat and sprinkle the top with the desired seasoning. Gently press the spices into the top of the cream cheese.
- Sprinkle the vegetables all around the cream cheese block and drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables and cream cheese.
- Lastly, wet a chef’s knife with water (this helps the cream cheese from sticking to the knife) and slice a diagonal checkerboard onto the top of the cream cheese.
- Carefully place the tin foil boat onto the smoker and cover. Smoke the cream cheese for 2 hours at 220ºF.
- Remove the cream cheese from the smoker and serve with crackers, chips, vegetables, or crostini.
Tips & Notes
- We used Traeger’s signature pellets for this recipe.
- This cream cheese recipe is meant to be served as a dip. We would serve tortilla chips with the Tex-mex version and crackers with the steak seasoning version.
- Nutrition information is for the Tex Mex version of smoked cream cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Don’t forget to tag your posts on social media with the hashtag #cheeseknees, we’d love to see what you’re up to!
I tried this recipe and it’s really good. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to try the recipe.