Chile Con Queso
This Chile Con Queso recipe is everything you want in a dip recipe. It is spicy, silky, creamy, cheesy perfection served with chips, and loaded with spicy sausage and tomatoes, to make for a perfect tail gating recipe.
This chile con queso has it all–heft, silky melty cheese, creamy deliciousness, and is perfect with tortilla chips. So good you won’t even want to go out for queso ever again because it is better at home.
Serve this chile con queso with baked chicken wings, jalapeño poppers, and garlic bread twists for a totally perfect game day spread.
What Is Chile Con Queso
Cheese dip. Creamy, delicious cheese dip loaded with peppers.
I mean are there any two more perfect words than cheese dip? This chile con queso is just that–perfect! This queso is a silky, creamy, fantastic cheese dip, a popular Tex-Mex recipe, made popular by restaurants in the southern USA.
Usually chile con queso is served with tortilla chips, but it is also great over baked potatoes, shrimp fajitas, pork tacos, enchiladas, and so much more. Basically it is a dreamy, sausage laden cheese sauce you will want to eat on top of everything.
Or with a spoon!
What Ingredients Are In Chile Con Queso
For this recipe you will need:
- Hot breakfast sausage
- Chili powder
- Onion
- Cumin
- Green chilies
- Jalapeno
- Fire roasted tomatoes
- Velveeta – YES, Velveeta! Why? Because if you truly want a silky queso, that melts beautifully without any clumps or lumps, then Velveeta is the way to go. However, feel free to use any shredded cheese you prefer such as Monterey Jack, Cheddar, etc, anything that is a great melting cheese. Just be sure to heat it on a low heat! (Details below)
- Cilantro – or parsley if you don’t like cilantro.
How to Make Chile Con Queso
You are going to absolutely love how easy it is to make this chile con queso.
- It is made stove top.
- One pot is all you need.
- It is done in just a few minutes!
Ok, so what are the steps and tips for making this tasty cheese dip perfection?
- Brown Sausage: You start with a skillet and you brown your sausage and onions.
- Add Cheese and Chilies: Then you add in the cheese and your chilies. You can use whatever canned and diced chilies you want. I love hatch’s chilies. If you do not want to use a canned version, you can use fresh. However, in this recipe for chile con queso we use a little bit of both, canned diced chilies, and fresh jalapeños. Of course, make sure to seed and mince those jalapeños, so your dip doesn’t get too spicy.
- Melt that Cheese: Then you let that silky cheese melt! And oh how delicious it is. Taste it, adjust the flavor. Then serve with amazing tortilla chips.
- Hint: Cilantro is optional, but delicious as a garnish.
Can You Make Chile Con Queso Without Velveeta?
The answer is yes. But I recommend the Velveeta.
I made this recipe both ways, several times, to get it right. And no matter which tricks I used, the queso with velveeta was silkier, creamier, and more consistent.
Velveeta is great for making a super creamy smooth dip.
However, I know not everyone is a fan of Velveeta, and that’s totally okay. You can actually make this fantastic cheese dip without the processed cheese.
You can sub 1 – 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese.
The reason I give a range for how much cheese to use is you will want to increase or decrease based on the thickness you want to achieve.
The more cheddar cheese you use the thicker the dip will be.
There are a few really important tips you have to follow is you want to make your easy chile con queso with real cheese.
- Turn the heat down. One of the most important things to understand about melting real cheese is that if you heat the proteins in cheese too high, they will essentially curl, and force the fats out. Which means, you get curdled, lumpy cheese, and a greasy dip instead of a creamy, silky dip. So the best tip I can give you is use low heat.
- Be patient. Because you have to use a nice low heat to melt cheese and get creamy, silky, cheese instead of lumpy and curdled, be patient. Give it some time. Stir and be patient, the end results will be perfect.
- Add liquid when you reheat. When you use real cheese you will likely want to eat it all in one go. However, if you have leftovers and you want to reheat it, the cheese will end up a lot thicker. So add some chicken stock to thin it out some.
So you can definitely use real cheese, but if you want a creamy, super smooth dip, just do yourself a favor and go with Velveeta.
What Can I Serve With Chile Con Queso
Chips! My most favorite ever dipper for chile con queso is tortilla chips. IMO the thinner the better, and warm!
But the beautiful thing about queso like this is thick, thin, white corn, yellow corn, or blue corn, it doesn’t matter, whatever chip you want to use, it will likely be amazing.
Honestly, most of the time when I make this insane dip it is so addictively delicious I don’t want to wait for fresh tortilla chips, so I just dig in with whatever bag I have on hand.
I particularly love the blue corn chips, as this dip is rich and hearty, and can support this heavier, more flavorful chip!
Healthier Options
However, if you want a healthier option than tortilla chips here are a few suggestions:
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Carrot Sticks
- Jicama Sticks
- Spoons! 😜
Other Delicious Dips
Chile Con Queso
Ingredients
- 1 pound hot breakfast sausage
- ½ cup onion diced
- 16 ounce Velveeta Original
- ¼ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- 5 ounces diced tomatoes and green chiles canned
- 4 ounces chopped green chiles
- 1/2 jalapeno diced, seeds removed (optional, adjust to heat preference)
- Chips for serving
Instructions
- In a non-stick skillet, brown the sausage and onion over medium heat.
- Break up the sausage up as you go. Once browned, add cumin and chili powder, stir together, drain off the fat.
- Chop the Velveeta into cubes and add to the skillet along with the diced tomatoes and green chiles, and chopped green chiles.
- Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until Velveeta is melted, and everything is combined.
- Stir in the diced jalapeno, tasting as you go to achieve desired spiciness.
- Serve with chips.
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Suzy says
This dip never disappoints! Love the spiciness to it! Definitely will try it again soon!
April says
Soooooo easy and delicious! Perfect for game day!