In the canon of party dips, few are as savory, as gooey, as utterly delicious as queso. Not only is it good covering the tip of a chip and adding just the right amount of salt and spice, but you can use the dip in any number of other ways. A queso-slathered cheeseburger, for example, or as the sauce in a spicy pizza. There’s nothing wrong, either, with having a straight spoonful of it — think of it as getting one of your daily servings of dairy. (Just, maybe, wait until everyone else has had their fill … or no one is looking).
The thing about queso, though, is that so many store-bought versions just plain suck. There’s not enough cheese flavor or there’s not enough spice or there’s enough sodium and sugar in them to necessitate that checkup you’ve been putting off. It’s a cheese product, after all, and for a cheese to be shelf stable, well, we don’t have to tell you about all of the ingredients that “cheese” has in it to make it so.
This is why we think being able to make your own queso is a necessary skill for men. You don’t want your March Madness party, or any other party, to suffer because you bought the jar that sits on the rack in front of the tortilla chips.
Once you learn to make queso, there’s only one more thing you’ll need to do to really shine in the eyes of your partygoers: add meat! In this case, by meat, we mean the spicy delight known as chorizo. The two together are as iconic as peanut butter and jelly.
The recipe below comes to us from Porter Road, which is more than happy to fulfill all of your chorizo needs. If you don’t want a meat-filled queso, you could ignore the chorizo, but what fun would that be?
Finally, we recommend having some hot sauce on hand. You never know who is looking to spice up their night.
Chorizo Queso Dip Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 lb loose chorizo
- 1 lb cheddar, grated
- 1 tbsp grapeseed oil, or other neutral high-heat oil
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- Scallion, chopped
- Optional: lime, lime zest, fresh or pickled jalapeño, chilis, cilantro
Method:
- Heat oil in a large cast iron pan, then add chorizo and cook until dark brown. Remove sausage from pan, leaving oil.
- Melt butter in the pan. Add flour and stir continuously until brown. About 5 minutes.
- Slowly whisk in milk. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring regularly and scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking. It should thicken and reduce.
- Remove from heat, then add cheese and whisk. Once the cheese is fully melted, mix in your browned chorizo.
- Incorporate additional milk, or a splash of beer, as needed to reach your desired thickness.
- Top with chopped scallion and serve with tortilla chips.
