Smoked Queso with Real Cheese
Most smoked queso recipes out there use Velveeta but I wanted to try it with real cheese. This recipe uses some Tillamook pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese and some sodium citrate to help the cheese melt in to a smooth, rich queso.
The ingredient list below will include weights but if you want to easily scale this using baker's percentages go with 100% cheese, 50% water, 4% sodium citrate, whatever meat you want to use, a can of Rotel, and any bbq rub you want.
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.