Last year for Cinco De Mayo I happened to be on a fishing trip with my work and it didn’t even occur to me to make my office famous taquitos and queso blanco. So I made them on Sunday, brought them in on Monday, and called it Cinco de Monday. The queso is surprisingly easy to make, easy to tweak, and easier to eat.
I don’t crave anything as much as I crave Mexican food. And no… not the authentic Mexican food. The Americanized version of Mexican food. Taquitos and queso. That’s what I crave. Lucky for me, Cinco de Mayo just passed and that is the one and only time of year that I can make this ridiculously unhealthy recipe without any kind of justification. I will try and post the taquito recipe soon as well!
There are literally no excuses in my opinion for not making homemade queso blanco at least once. Everyone loves it (except my husband’s friend Frank) and it is the easiest thing in the world to make. Maybe you don’t like Cinco De Mayo but I am sure you like the Superbowl. And if you happen to not like either of those two things…number 1 you should see a therapist and number 2 hopefully you attend some kind of social event where you are expected to bring food and this recipe is a perfect for that event. It is also a perfect last-minute dish that you can throw together in a half hour.
Real Queso Requires Real Cheese.
Let’s just get this one out of the way now. No Velveeta. I am pretty sure that Velveeta falls under the same category as McDonald’s when it comes to percentage of real food ingredients. I made Queso with Velveeta once and although it was not terrible, it also wasn’t that great. Also you should know it remained intact in the work refrigerator for 3 months. That is not normal. That shouldn’t even be considered food. Just use real cheese.
Do we even need to talk about all of the things that can be eaten with queso? Everything. Everything can be eaten with queso. Try me.
Keep the Queso warm by placing it in a small crock pot. We have used these small crockpots and they are so handy and do not take up alot of room in your cabinet.
Easy 30-minute star-of-the-show Queso
This is a party-sized portion and it was more than enough for my entire office. I usually use about half of everything if it is just for a few people. Even halved, this is still a lot of queso!
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small white onion
- 1 small tomato and 1 small chile pepper
(or I use Rotel diced tomatoes and chiles and it is a delicious option) - 8oz white cheddar- cubed
- 8oz cream cheese-cubed
- 8oz monteray jack cheddar- cubed
- 1 tsp of each: Chilli powder, Coriander, Paprika, Cumin, and Red pepper flakes
- 1 cup Milk
Instructions
- In a large saucepan melt ½ tablespoon butter
- Add garlic and cook until fragrant then add onion and cook slowly until onion is translucent but not browned
- Stir in tomato (including juices) and cook for 2 minutes
- Slowly add all the cheeses and stir until everything has liquefied
- Dump the rest of the dry ingredients in
- Stir in milk
- Remove from heat and enjoy.
- Store in the refrigerator. Reheat in the microwave
