Equipment
- 8-quart Sauce Pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound American cheese
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon diced jalapenos (I usually do about two tablespoons, but use what you like)
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (heaping)
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder (not quite full)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not quite full)
Prep
- Dice the jalapenos
- Measure the 2/3 cup milk
- Measure out the 1/2 tsp chili powder (heaping), 1/2 tsp onion powder (not quite full), and 1/2 tsp garlic powder (not quite full)
Instructions
- Add milk, butter, and cheese to the saucepan over low heat (4 on our electric stove, which goes up to 10).
- Using a firm spatula, cut up the cheese slices in the milk to help them melt faster.
- Stir almost constantly until cheese is completely melted. This will take a little while, but you need to keep stirring it. Don’t walk away, it will all of a sudden melt faster than you thought it would and you’ll mess it up.
- Once the sauce is smooth with no more than a few thicker spots that are almost melted, stir in the spice mix then the jalapenoes.
To make this even better, also add 1/2 pound beef taco meat. Stir this in with the jalapenos and powders. If the taco meat is leftover (cold), keep stirring the queso for an extra minute or so to get it all heated thoroughly.
Notes
- American Cheese – American cheese is the best melter. It also has a very mild flavor. In this dish, there is so much flavor coming from the spices and other ingredients that using a more flavorful cheese typically thought of for Mexican food, such as pepper jack, simply would not come through.
- When all the cheese is melted, it will look way too thin and you will think you didn’t do it right or this isn’t the same as the one you’ve had before, but it’s thicker than it looks at first and gets MUCH thicker when refrigerated and reheated the next day.
- I store the leftovers in a round glass container so it can microwave in the container and heats evenly. Microwave on high for one minute at a time, stirring after each minute to mix (as best as you can, which will only be the edges at first) and to check for doneness. You don’t have to melt the whole thing, sometimes just eating around the middle is enough.