A colorful Mexican seven layer dip in a clear glass dish with layers of refried beans, seasoned sour cream, guacamole, salsa, shredded cheddar cheese, crisp lettuce, diced tomatoes, and sliced black olives, served with tortilla chips.

If there’s one appetizer that always disappears almost as quickly as you can set it on the table, it’s a classic Mexican 7-Layer Dip. Every single scoop is packed with bold, yet comforting Southwestern flavors, making it a welcome addition to party tables for game day, family barbecues, potlucks, and a solid recipe choice for laid-back weekend snacking at home.

Lately, this lovely little dish has also been one of my go-to “I just don’t feel like cooking supper” suppers. Sometimes we’ll make this recipe as a starter or appetizer, but honestly it’s really filling on its own. All we need to go with it are some ice-cold beverages and maybe a simple side salad (key word here is maybe). We think it’s a perfect, satisfying, no-fuss summer meal.

Although the variations of this old-school layered dip are endless from kitchen to kitchen, this no-fuss recipe most often combines layers of seasoned refried beans, seasoned sour cream, fresh guacamole, spicy salsa, shredded cheese, fresh tomatoes, earthy black olives and zesty bits of diced onion into one colorful, crowd-pleasing, and irresistibly good-looking dish.

Not only is this Tex-Mex layer dip delicious, it’s also almost shamelessly simple to prepare. There’s no cooking required to make it, and it’s ready in minutes using a mix of inexpensive pantry staples and fresh ingredients. It can also be made shortly ahead of serving and chilled in the refrigerator allowing time for other prep work to get done before events get started.

I’ll always be a big fan of make-ahead recipes for entertaining. They’re just the best!

Y’all, that pretty little 7-layer dip will be sitting in the fridge, minding its own business and getting tastier by the minute while a ~~wildly overstimulated~~ party host has a few extra minutes to sweep up crumbs by the kitchen island ~~or to assertively remind everyone else in the house to quit opening the refrigerator every dang 5 minutes!~~

The colorful layers of a classic 7-layer dip are finished with a generous blanket of shredded cheddar cheese, juicy diced tomatoes, sliced black olives, and finely diced red onion creating a beautiful contrast of colors and textures.

The prepared salsa layer in this recipe is a must at my house because we enjoy it, but many other recipes for this appetizer leave it out. The wet layer of salsa does shorten the lifespan of the dish, as the cheese layer will get soggy more quickly with it included. But, around here, this Mexican-style layer dip disappears faster than deviled eggs at a family reunion, so we don’t worry much about that kind of culinary crisis when it comes down to it.

However, if you need to prep this to store overnight or you anticipate having leftover seven-layer dip to last more than a day or two, I would consider leaving the salsa layer out of the layering process and serving it on the side instead.

This is one 90’s-style party dip that I associate with my childhood as some version of this dip was almost always served during the holiday season at my parent’s house. It’s an oldie, but definitely a goodie and there’s no way it will ever go out of style!

Happy dipping, friends!

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Classic 7-Layer Dip

Recipe by Marcelle at A Little Fish in the Kitchen

0.0 from 0 votes

Classic 7-Layer Dip is always a colorful crowd-pleaser! With layers of irresistible Tex-Mex flavors, it’s a hearty, delicious, vegetarian dip that’s perfect for any occasion. Everyone will grab a tortilla chip and dig in!

Course: Appetizers, Brunch, MainCuisine: Southern, MexicanDifficulty: Easy

Servings: 10

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

16 ounces 16 (1 can) refried beans, brand of preference or 16 oz homemade refried beans
3 teaspoons 3 prepared taco seasoning
8 ounces 8 (1 cup) sour cream or Greek yogurt (I most often use non-fat yogurt)
2 2 small avocados, mashed
2 tablespoons 2 chopped fresh cilantro, optional
2 teaspoons 2 lime juice
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup 1 prepared salsa, brand/heat of preference
1 cup 1 shredded cheddar cheese or cheddar cheese blend
1/2 1/2 large tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup 1/4 sliced black olives
1/4 cup 1/4 finely diced red onion or sliced green onions, your preference

Directions

Transfer canned beans to a medium-size mixing bowl, mix in 1-1/2 teaspoons of taco seasoning and stir well. Set bowl aside. In smaller bowl, combine sour cream (or yogurt) with 1-1/4 teaspoons taco seasoning.
Place the avocados in another medium-size bowl and mash with a fork until smooth. Season with pinches of salt and pepper to taste (see notes below). Fold in the lime juice and chopped cilantro.
Evenly spread the seasoned beans into a clear glass dish (see notes below) as the first/bottom layer.Next, gently spread the mashed avocados over the beans, taking a moment to spread the avocado layer all the way to the sides of the dish. Gently spread the sour cream/yogurt mixture over the top of the avocado layer, again taking the time to spread the ingredients all the way to the side of the dish to make distinctive layers.
Use a spoon to dollop the prepared salsa over the sour cream layer and then very gently use the back of the spoon to spread the salsa all the way to the sides. Finally, evenly evenly sprinkle the shredded cheese, diced fresh tomatoes, olives, and diced onions over the wet layers.
Enjoy this delicious 7-layer dip immediately, or cover and chill until ready to serve. After it’s prepared, this dip will hold up well in the fridge for about 48 hours.
Enjoy with tortilla chips, crackers or crisp fresh veggies. (video to be published soon!)

Notes

If you used a storebought packet of taco seasoning, you may have about 1/4 teaspoon of seasoning remaining (most prepared packets contain 3 tablespoons of product). You can use that small portion to season up the mashed avocados, plus pinches of salt and pepper to suit your taste.
Prepare this dip in a deep dish pie plate, an 11×7 rectangular dish, or a 1.3 quart oval dish like I use in the video. Clear glass dishes are the best to display the colorful layers in this Seven Layer Dip!
Recipe as published on A Little Fish in the Kitchen at www.alittlefishinthekitchen.com. All content is owned by Marcelle G. Bolton. Please contact the author for permission to republish.