Tex Mex Chile Con Queso Food

I've come across various recipes for chile con queso in my time, and aside from the tried and true method which entails a pound of Velveeta, a can of extra hot Rotel, and a can of black beans heated until the orange stuff melts (for which I must confess a weekness), this one works about the best. Fans of French cooking will recognize immediately that it's simply a jazzed up rendition of a bechamel sauce and they'd be right, except that this stuff is so much more than the sum of its parts. Before we get started, a few notes: The whole idea is to produce a cheese dip/sauce that's both smoky and spicy, so I personally recommend using chipotles that have been dried and bagged as opposed to the ones canned in adobo sauce (which are fine, but what you'll really be doing is adding adobo flavor to your queso, which will markedly change its character). Before you add them to the queso, you should do one of the following to your chipotles if using dried ones: A) Stem them and either whack them in a blender or food processor until they're basically powder or grind them to a pulp with a mortar and pestle (of course, you can seed and de-vein them if a mild dip is what you're after). B) Bring some water (the volume of water isn't critical as long as you have enough to cover the chipotles) to a boil and remove from heat. Drop in your chiles, using a plate or some other improvised kitchen implement to keep them submerged, and let soak for around 15 minutes before stemming, seeding and de-veining (if desired) and chopping. This will soften them up so they're easier to work with, and also has the benefit of muting some of the heat. Unfortunately, it does the same to the smokey flavor as well. If you're using jalapeños, I'd recommend roasting them either in a broiler or on your range top until the skin is blackened. Remove the skin, stem, seeds and vein (again, for a milder dip), chop, and use as indicated. Finally, I recommend going with either asadero or an extra sharp white cheddar. Monterrey jack works great because it melts really well, but it's so mild in flavor that it takes a back seat to the other ingredients. What we want is first and foremost a cheese dip, so a more piquant cheese like the ones mentioned above is probably best.

Provided by Nevin L.

Categories     Cheese

Time 40m

Yield 4 cups, 6 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 11

• Ingredients

A great basic chili!!! Easy and delicious. We use the leftovers to make chili cheese omelettes on the weekends! Also great served over Fritos for frito pie!

Provided by Charmie777

Categories     Beans

Time 45m

Yield 6 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 15

• Ingredients

Nutrition Facts : Calories 401, Fat 10.8, SaturatedFat 3.6, Cholesterol 49.1, Sodium 688.6, Carbohydrate 46.8, Fiber 8.7, Sugar 8.7, Protein 27.6

Queso, a popular Tex-Mex dip made with processed American cheese and canned tomatoes, was inspired by chile con queso, a Mexican dip of melted cheese and chiles that made its way to the United States in the 1930s and '40s. As the two-ingredient Americanized adaptation gained popularity, supermarkets began placing Ro-tel canned tomatoes near shelf-stable Velveeta cheese, and queso became mainstream. Purists will argue that any ingredient beyond American cheese and spicy diced tomatoes is unnecessary, but you can customize this recipe by adding any combination of black beans, scallions, cilantro, garlic, cumin, red-pepper flakes, oregano, lime zest or juice.

Provided by Alexa Weibel

Categories     snack, dips and spreads, appetizer

Time 20m

Yield 6 cups

Number Of Ingredients 13

• Ingredients

As much as we like chili, we see no point in making a dip that doesn't include queso, too! This cheesy pleaser serves two dozen.

Provided by My Food and Family

Categories     Home

Time 35m

Yield 24 servings

Number Of Ingredients 6

• Ingredients

Nutrition Facts : Calories 230, Fat 14 g, SaturatedFat 5 g, TransFat 0 g, Cholesterol 20 mg, Sodium 540 mg, Carbohydrate 19 g, Fiber 2 g, Sugar 2 g, Protein 7 g