This delicious smoked cream cheese with smoked salmon will take your breakfast to the next level. You’ve probably heard of smoked salmon, but have you ever tried smoked cream cheese? This spread combines the salty and smoky flavors of smoked salmon into irresistible creamy goodness. Treat your guests to a delicious smoky spread during brunch! It’s the perfect thing to spread on bagels or crackers!
Table of Contents
- What is Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Spread?
- Why You’ll Love this Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Spread
- Smoked Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon Ingredients
- How to Make Smoked Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon
- Smoke the cream cheese:
- Reheating/Leftovers
- FAQs
- MORE DELICIOUS SALMON RECIPES
- Smoked Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon Recipe
There are a slew of new food trends popping up on social media, like my Traeger Smoked Queso. And some of them are amazing, like this easy smoked cream cheese. It can be dressed up as savory or sweet version with your favorite seasoning and takes a little work and an hour to make.
What is Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Spread?
You probably guessed it, but it’s a delicious spreadable dip consisting of cream cheese and smoked salmon. What’s unique about this recipe is that we use a Traeger grill to smoke the cream cheese, which results in a mild smoked flavor and light fluffy cream cheese!
Plus, a delicious blend of spices you can only find at Girl Carnivore! But, I’m biased. The bagel blend is a must for this; combined with the smoked salmon, it’s the perfect brunch dip or addition to your epic charcuterie board or when you want to know what to serve with lox and bagels.
Why You’ll Love this Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Spread
This smoked cream cheese recipe is very easy to make and the perfect addition to your bagel bar. It will quickly become one of your go-to brunch recipes! The light smoke flavor of the cream cheese and salmon is unmatched.
And, you can easily whip up a large batch to serve a large gathering of friends and family. This spread will knock any cream cheese you could find at your local grocery store out of the park!
It makes for a pretty impressive appetizer recipe.
Normally, we advocate for a rich smokey flavor from traditional wood or charcoal smokers, but because of the lightness of this appetizer, we think the pellet smoker is the perfect grill for this recipe. It’s the perfect balance of smoked flavor without being overpowering, acidic, or burnt.
Smoked Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon Ingredients
This is a combo of the trending smoked cream cheese on a Traeger smoker (or pellet grill) and a smoked salmon dip! Rethink bagels and lox, this great recipe is perfect for brunch or an easy appetizer! To get started, you’ll need:
For the smoked cream cheese:
- Cream cheese – We recommend Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand and the full-fat cream cheese! Don’t try to skimp here – it won’t do you any favors. Neufchatel or low fat won’t hold up and get the light airy texture from the grill.
- Olive Oil or neutral cooking oil. You don’t want an overpowering flavor here, just enough to help the spices stick.
- Kosher Salt
- Girl Carnivore Over Easy seasoning blend – or your favorite all-purpose herb forward blend.
- Everything bagel blend – which has all the flavor of, you guessed it, an everything bagel. Garlic, onion, poppy, and sesame seeds!
For serving:
- Smoked Salmon
- Capers
- Parsley
- Crackers, pita chips, bagel chips, or even bagels!
How to Make Smoked Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon
Prep the smoker:
Start by turning the smoker on at about 250 degrees F.
Prep the cream cheese:
While the smoker is prepping you can start on the cream cheese mixture:
First, score the block of cream cheese diagonally about ¼” into the surface with a sharp knife, creating a crosshatch pattern.
Then, rub the oil over the entire block of cream cheese.
Next, you can sprinkle the salt and GirlCarnivore Over Easy spice blend on top of the cream cheese.
Then of course, sprinkle a thick coating of the everything bagel seasoning and press into the cream cheese.
After that, you’ll add the cream cheese in a cast iron skillet or another heat-safe cooking dish. If you want to save a dish, this can be the same dish you use to serve.
Smoke the cream cheese:
The smoking process is relatively simple.
Now put the cream cheese in the smoker! This is where it gets that light airy texture that makes it perfect for spreading over bagels and crackers.
Next, carefully remove the skillet from the smoker and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.
Serve:
Once it’s cooled, fold thin slivers of smoked salmon over the smoked cream cheese. You can garnish with capers and freshly minced parsley. Or keep it a traditional smoked cream cheese and let people put their own toppings on!
There you have it! The perfect appetizer or brunch offering!
Reheating/Leftovers
We recommend serving your smoked cream cheese spread fresh, but if you must, you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To enjoy the leftovers, allow the cream cheese to warm to room temperature for 30 minutes before serving again to make it easily spreadable.
We don’t recommend freezing this recipe.
FAQs
While lox and smoked salmon are often confused, they are not the same. Yes, they are both often served on bagels; but they have two different flavors that stem from their unique preparation.
Lox is cured with salt, giving it a salty flavor. Lox often uses the belly of the salmon. While smoked salmon is cured with salt and then further exposed to smoke giving it a complex smoky flavor. While lox usually uses the belly of the salmon, smoked salmon can be any part of the fish.
You can learn more about the differences between lox and smoked salmon here.
Instead of being cooked, smoked salmon is cured using smoke. It is safe to eat. And according to the USDA, like other forms of raw salmon, it is safe to eat as long as it is refrigerated and kept in a vacuum-sealed container.
There are a ton of smoked cream cheese variations! You can use your favorite bbq rub, Tex-Mex, herb, or even a hot chili crunch coating! We love this bagel and lox-inspired smoked salmon Treger recipe, but feel free to get wild and crazy with it!
MORE DELICIOUS SALMON RECIPES
Seafood
Pan Seared Salmon
Seafood
Cast-Ironed Blackened Salmon
Seafood
Homemade Salmon Dumplings
Seafood
How to Grill Salmon
This easy recipe is the perfect thing to make ahead of time and enjoy the next day if you have guests over to entertain. That way, you can pull it out and serve it with brunch or as an app later in the day. I hope you enjoy this smoked cream cheese recipe! I’d love to hear how it turned out for you— Please rate the recipe and leave a comment below!
Smoked Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon
Ingredients
For the smoked cream cheese:
- 8 oz cream cheese 1 block
- 1 tsp oil
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Girl Carnivore Over Easy Spice blend
- 1 tbsp Everything bagel blend
To Serve:
- 4 oz Smoked Salmon
- 1 tsp Capers drained
- ½ tsp Parsley minced
- Crackers
- Bagel chips or even bagels!
Instructions
Prep the smoker:
- Prep the smoker for 250 degrees F.
Prep the cream cheese:
- Meanwhile, prep the cream cheese:
- Score the cream cheese diagonally about ¼” into the surface
- Rub the oil over the surface of the cream cheese.
- Sprinkle th salt and GirlCarnivore Over Easy spice blend on top and rub in.
- Sprinkle a thick coating of the everything bagel seasoning and press into the cream cheese.
- Place the cream cheese in a cast iron skillet, or other heat safe cooking dish. To minimize mess, this is the same dish I serve it in.
Smoke the cream cheese:
- Place the cream cheese on the smoker and close the lid. Smoke it for 1 hour to 1 ½ hour. The cream cheese will expand, splitting open at the scoring to absorb smoke flavor.
- It gets a light airy texture from being smoked, which makes it perfect for spreading over crackers or on bagels.
- Carefully remove the skillet from the smoker and allow to cool 5 minutes.
Serve:
- Once cooled, fold thin slivers of smoked salmon over the smoked cream cheese. Garnish with capers and freshly minced parsley.
- Serve the smoked cream cheese with bagels or crackers on a platter with a knife to spread it.
Notes
Smoked cream cheese is best enjoyed fresh. However, leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
Nutrition
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what if you dont have a smoker?
You could also smoke this on a traditional gas grill, charcoal grill, or even the new Ninja woodfire grill. Simply add a smoker box filled with smoking wood chips to your grill or in the case of the Ninka, use pellets as instructed.
If you have no grill at all, we can recommend a few for any level of cook / budget / space. If you want to make this, but don’t have any grilling option, you could bake it. However, the ‘smoked’ cream cheese won’t get the same flavor at all in an oven. It would still be yummy, just different. Hope this helps, Scott. Happy holidays!
I tried this and it was awesome 🙂