If you have been anywhere around any Facebook groups related to grilling or smoking chances are you have seen recipes from smoked queso. MeatChurch was probably the one that got this started but dozens of people have posted their recipes. But most of those recipes use Velveeta and I regularly see people asking if “real” cheese will work. Nothing against Velveeta and I usually love the stuff but I wanted to see if it was possible to make smoked queso with real cheese.
A while back I found a queso recipe that called for sodium citrate to help the cheese melt and emulsify. When many cheeses like cheddar melt they end up clumpy and greasy but sodium citrate helps the protein structure of the cheese to break down differently resulting in a smooth, melty queso even with cheese like queso.
I took that standard recipe (cheese, water, and sodium citrate) and modified it to be closer to the smoked queso recipes I have seen.
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The ingredients for smoked queso with real cheese are very simple. Cheese, meat, Rotel, water, and sodium citrate is all you need.
Are you familiar with baker’s percentages? In basic terms when you use baker’s percentages when making bread you base everything off the percentage of the ingredient compared to flour. So if you had 100 grams of flour and 60 grams of water it would be a 60% dough. This allows you to easily scale any recipe accurately.
Instead of a “baker’s percentage” let’s use a queso percentage for this recipe. If cheese is the 100% you will want water to be about 50% and sodium citrate to be 4%. So for 1000 grams of cheese you would use 500 grams of water and 40 grams of sodium citrate. Then add however much other stuff you want.
For this particular batch I had 720 grams of cheese so I used 350 grams of water (a bit less than 50% but there is liquid in the can of Rotel) and 29 grams of sodium citrate. I had about 700 grams of meat and then the can of Rotel. I also sprinkled some Meat Church Holy Voodoo rub in the mix as well. If you are more into actual measurements than percentages I put the ingredients below based on 1000 grams of cheese.
You can use whatever cheese you want for this but I like half sharp cheddar and half pepper jack. Gouda (even smoked gouda) would be a good addition too.
Most smoked queso recipes I have seen call for either sausage or ground beef. I had some left over carne asada skirt steak from taco night on Tuesday so I chopped that up and used it. Chorizo would be great in here as well.
Mix everything in a cast iron dutch oven (you can use anything, even a disposable aluminum pan) and throw it in the smoker at 350 for about an hour. Give it a stir about half way through and that’s it.
I cooked this on my new SNS Kettle but you can use whatever smoker you have. Pellet smokers work great for this, a barrel cooker would be good, and even a simple electric smoker will get the job done. I wanted a fairly heavy smoke so I used some oak wood chunks. Hickory or mesquite would be good as well.
After about 30 minutes I gave the queso a stir and it looked pretty horrible at this point. I was concerned that it wouldn’t come together at all. But 30 minutes later I checked it and it was great. The cheese was all melted, everything was smooth, and it looked just like the smoked queso with real cheese I had dreamed of.
Then I tasted it. And tasted it again. And again. This smoked queso was so delicious! It had a fairly strong smoke flavor which is what I was shooting for. The meat added some great flavor and texture, and the Rotel brought some vegetables to the party. Basically I consider this health food because of that.
My wife said she preferred my normal queso to this but this smoked queso will definitely stay in the rotation. I want to try it sometime with Velveeta and compare but this batch of smoked queso with real cheese was a winner.
If you are more of a visual person here is a video of this recipe
Smoked Queso with Real Cheese
Equipment
- Grill or Smoker
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven (or any sort of pan)
Ingredients
- 1000 grams Cheese Pepper jack and sharp cheddar is what I used. Feel free to change that up. Smoked gouda would be great in here. You can use plain jack cheese and add a can of jalapenos too.
- 500 grams Water
- 40 grams Sodium Citrate
- 1000 grams Meat I used carne asada skirt steak but any good ground sausage would work. Chorizo would be excellent in here.
- 1 can Rotel I used mild Rotel but use whatever type you want. If you don't like much spice at all a can of fire roasted tomatoes would be a good option
- 2 tbsp BBQ Rub Any good BBQ rub will work here. I would lean more towards a spicy rub than a sweet rub
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients in a cast iron dutch oven (you can even use a disposable aluminum pan) and smoke on your smoker at 350 degrees for about an hour stirring half way through. Use whatever wood you want but I would suggest a stronger smoke like oak or hickory.
