Elevate your Taco Tuesday’s with this homemade nacho cheese recipe. With simple ingredients and only 10 minutes of hands on work, this is one your family will love. We love this on our taco’s, burritos, and as a dip for tortillas chips.
You’ll Need
- Cheddar Cheese – sharp cheddar is preferable but any kind that you have will be great here. Also, buy your cheese in a block and shred it yourself for the creamiest finished product.
- Heavy cream – you can omit this and use whole milk instead, totally up to you.
- Milk – we use whole milk, but 2% is good too. I don’t recommend skim milk for this recipe, the fat is really what gives us the thick saucy dip we are going for.
- Cream cheese – yeah… cream is kinda a theme here 🙂
- Hot sauce – we love Franks Original hot sauce, and don’t worry for those of you with kids or spice aversions. This nacho cheese recipe is not spicy! (Add more hot sauce and some cayenne powder if you want a kick, or some diced up hot peppers thrown in if you’re feeling fancy.)
- Butter – grass fed is the most nourishing
- Flour – organic, all purpose flour
How to make nacho cheese
If you’ve ever made homemade mac and cheese (the fancy kind, not the boxed ones), then you’ll be familiar with the process to make this nacho cheese recipe.
First, we are going to make a roux by combining equal parts butter and flour and cooking that for a minute or two before adding in our liquids and cheese. This is the best way to make a creamy cheese sauce.
Once the butter has fully melted and is a bit bubbly, add the flour and whisk to combine. Let it cook for a couple minutes, stirring every so often until golden brown. Add the milk, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring in between each addition until it’s fully incorporated. With the milk all added, next add the heavy cream and hot sauce and again, whisk to combine.
This sauce is going to be thicker than the kind you’d make for a mac and cheese. Trust the process the end result will be thick and creamy, perfect for dipping or topping your taco’s.
With all the liquids added, it’s now time to add in the cheeses. Whisk continuously until the cream cheese and cheddar are fully melted and incorporated.
Keep the nacho cheese warm, (the lowest setting on your stove or in the crock pot) until you are ready to serve it. Stir again right before serving in case a skin has formed over the top of the sauce. This will go away completely after stirring, so don’t worry that if it looks a little wrinkly on top after sitting for a while.
Store leftovers in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. When the nacho cheese cools it will thicken considerably. When chilled it will have the texture of a block of cream cheese. Never fear though, it will melt beautifully when heated.
And that’s all there is to it. If you give this recipe a try, please let me know how you like it in the comments below. I hope you love it all as much as we do!
Happy cooking 😊
Nacho Cheese
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- In a small/medium sized pot, melt butter over medium high heat until bubbly.
- Add flour and stir to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until lightly golden. Stir frequently to prevent burning.
- Reduce heat to medium, slowly add in milk, one half at a time. Mix completely before adding the next half. Stir constantly.
- Once all the milk is incorporated, add heavy cream and hot sauce. Stir to combine.
- Mix in freshly grated cheddar cheese and cream cheese. Stir until fully melted and the cheese mixture is smooth.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
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