Cut the head of lettuce in half and hollow it out to make a bowl, leaving the sides about 1 inch thick.
Chop the lettuce you took out of the "bowl" finely and set aside.
Cook the bacon until crisp. Crumble.
Mix the mayo, sour cream, crumbled bacon, drained Ro*tel, and 1 cup of the chopped lettuce.
Taste and then add salt and several grinds of cracked black pepper as needed.
Spoon into the lettuce bowl and refrigerate until serving.
Serve with baguette slices, crudites, chips, or a spoon!
Notes
Storage:Scoop leftovers into an airtight container and refrigerate promptly. The lettuce starts to get soggy the longer it sits, but if that doesn't bother you, the dip will keep for three or four days.Do not freeze!Tips
Use full fat sour cream. Lowfat or fat free won't work. You can use full fat unflavored Greek yogurt but it's not as good.
A pound of bacon (average-sized cuts) is generally around 16-20 slices. Feel free to add more to taste.
After coming home from the grocery store, wrap the head of lettuce in a paper towel (or dish towel) to absorb excess moisture. This will keep it crisp while it's stored in the fridge.
BLT dip should stay chilled since it is made with dairy. If you're serving it at a party where it'll sit out longer, place the bowl in some ice.
Feel free to set aside extra bacon and lettuce to sprinkle on top of the dip just before serving. It'll give a pretty presentation and show guests what's inside the creamy goodness.
Don't forget to load up on dippers! We love serving BLT dip with tortilla chips, pita chips, toasted baguette slices, corn chips, bell peppers, cucumber slices, radishes, crackers, flat pretzel "chips," and so on. You can even get cute and toast little triangles of white bread to fit the BLT sandwich theme.
You may substitute plain diced tomatoes or diced fresh tomatoes.
Adding a little of the bacon grease to the mayonnaise gives it more flavor. Just make sure it is not super hot when you add it to the mayo.