This Quick and Easy 5 Minute Queso Dip is silky smooth and incredibly delicious. It’s also a great gluten free option if you’re looking for a cheese sauce recipe that doesn’t rely on flour or other thickeners as a stabilizer. Cream, butter, pepper jack cheese and cheddar cheese with an optional pinch of black pepper are the only ingredients in this delicious dip.
This queso recipe is perfect on its own, or you can serve it topped with warm chorizo, fresh diced tomatoes and jalapeños if you’re looking for an appetizer with a little something extra. And its luscious texture makes it a topping for grilled vegetables, potatoes or whatever else your heart and taste buds crave.
Check out this quick video to see how easy it is to make this cheese sauce and then come back to get the recipe.
Jump to RecipeEasy party dip recipes for any occasion
I love a good dip, especially if they are quick and easy! The best ones provide an instant lift to what I like to refer to as “stretch-goal” dishes. In my kitchen lexicon, stretch goal dishes are easy and inexpensive dishes that round out a menu. Dips are easy to make, can often be prepared ahead of time and are so much better than most prepackaged dips you might find in the store.
For example, my recipe for Easy Yogurt and Goat Cheese Dip pairs perfectly with a tray of fresh and freely arranged veggies. No fussy cutting and arranging, except for the hallowed out bell pepper that serves as as a serving bowl in this image. And no weird preservatives I can’t pronounce.
If you’re more of a potato chips and dip person, my Super Simple 15 Minute Onion Dip recipe is so quick and easy to make, you may never buy onion dip from the store again. In this recipe, caramelized shallots, green onions and chives provide layers of flavor in every bite. Garlic powder, dill and sweet paprika round out the spice profile, while a touch of fresh lemon juice gives this dip a bright, little lift. It’s one of my personal favorites for parties and game-day spreads.
As for this recipe for Quick and Easy 5 Minute Queso Dip, we use four simple ingredients to achieve a perfectly silky warm cheese sauce; cream, butter, and equal parts shredded sharp cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. A pinch of black pepper can be used to adjust the heat, but I’m not counting that as an ingredient since it’s purely optional.
To shred, or not to shred. That is the question.
Shred, shred, shred! I know it’s faster and easier to reach for that bag of shredded cheese at the store whenever a recipe calls for shredded cheese as an ingredient, but you may be surprised to know that it’s better to shred your own cheese at home.
Besides being more economical (who isn’t trying to save a dime or two these days), there’s a very practical reason for shredding your own cheese. Have you every noticed how grated cheese never clumps together in the bag? That’s because grated cheese contains preservatives and other anti-clumping ingredients that keep them looking pretty in the bag. However, these additives also prevent the cheese from melting as well as freshly grated cheese.
Dishes unintentionally prepared with pre-shredded cheese may turn out clumpy or grainy because the additives prevent the cheese from melting and incorporating into the recipe properly. If all you have on-hand is pre-shredded cheese, you can use it in this recipe; however, just be aware it may not turn out as smooth and creamy as a batch made with cheese you shred yourself.
I know it’s tempting to reach for a bag of the shredded stuff for convenience, but for optimal results when making this queso cheese dip recipe – or any recipe that calls for melting shredded cheese for that matter – grab a small block of cheese and grate it at home. The texture of the dip will be much smoother and creamier.
What makes this queso cheese dip so smooth and silky?
We’ve discussed the benefits of shredding your own cheese for this recipe, but the other ingredients – or perhaps more accurately, the lack of other ingredients – contribute to the smooth texture of this dip as well.
I’m not going to tell you this queso recipe is low fat. It’s not. I dabbled with trying to make it lighter, but I just couldn’t find a way achieve the texture I wanted. My inspiration and benchmark for texture was that of the cheese sauce that adorns a perfectly executed fettuccine alfredo. It’s smooth, creamy and flavorful, and because it tastes so good, you don’t give a fig that it’s loaded with calories. It’s not something you eat every day, and that’s what makes it special.
The same holds true for this cheese sauce. There are a lot of queso recipes out there that call for making a roux out of flour and butter as a sauce stabilizer. However, once these sauces cool, they quickly become grainy. If you’re looking for a gluten free option, you can use cornstarch as an alternative stabilizer, but again, the texture suffers, becoming slightly chalky on the tongue.
This recipe for Quick and Easy 5 Minute Queso Dip borrows from the tradition of making a good fettuccine alfredo sauce. The base for this sauce is made by combining heavy cream and butter in a saucepan and bringing it to a simmer. Once the butter and cream are combined, we remove the liquid from the heat, and gradually whisk in the pepper jack cheese until incorporated. Add the sharp cheddar along with a pinch of black pepper, whisk until melted into the sauce and you are done.
You may be wondering why I call for removing the cream mixture from the heat before adding the cheese. If the cream is too hot, it can cause the cheese to curdle and the sauce to become grainy or separate. For this reason, the liquid only needs to be hot enough to melt the cheese. By removing the cream from the heat before adding the cheese, we ensure that the sauce will not break. This technique results in a luscious cheese sauce fit for dipping and topping just about anything and everything. Once the sauce is finished, you can gently heat it back up and it will hold its consistency.
On a separate note, if you want to make a more mild version of this queso cheese dip, you can use either Monterrey jack cheese or another 1/2 cup of cheddar in place of the pepper jack cheese called for in this recipe.
Quick and Easy 5 Minute Queso Dip
Course: StartersCuisine: Mexican-AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings2
minutes3
minutesThis silky smooth queso cheese dip recipe yields 1 1/2 cups.
Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted American-style butter
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
ground black pepper to taste
Optional – cooked Mexican-style chorizo, diced, fresh tomatoes, fresh jalapeño slices.
Directions
- In a small saucepan, combine the butter cream and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Whisk together the butter and cream until the butter is completely melted.
- Remove the cream mixture from the heat and add the pepper jack cheese. Whisk until combined.
- Add the sharp cheddar and whisk until combined.
- Season with black pepper to taste and enjoy.
- Optional – top with chorizo, fresh tomatoes and jalapeños if desired.
Notes
- Tip for reheating. If you have leftover sauce that’s been refrigerated, you can gently heat it back up in the microwave. Start by heating the sauce in 5 second intervals. Stir the sauce and return it to the microwave for another 5 seconds. Repeat this process until the sauce has come back to a dippable temperature and is liquid again. This is a very delicate sauce that needs to be heated and stirred slowly. I tell you this because I have walked away from the microwave for just 15 seconds, only to come back to a buttery, separated mess. If you take your time it will heat up beautifully.
I really enjoy your writing and recipes.