Nacho Cheese Sauce
Nacho Cheese Sauce
A silky smooth Nachos cheese dip that doesn’t harden or congeal as it cools. It is just as good served warm, at room temperature or cold. When warm, it can be used as a cheese sauce to pour over nachos, chips or whatever else takes your fancy. It takes just over 5 minutes to make and is great to make ahead as it reheats well.
Ready in: 10 minutes
Serves: 6
Complexity: Very easy
kcal: 209
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Ingredients
2½ cups/225g grated cheese (Cheddar, Colby, etc), shred your own (Important - read Note 1)
1 tbsp cornflour
1 can evaporated milk (375 g)
1 tbsp finely chopped jalapeño peppers (fresh or canned)
2 tsp Kaitaia Fire (adjust to your taste)
½ tsp onion powder (optional - adds extra flavour)
½ tsp garlic powder (optional - adds extra flavour)
1 tsp SIDS SALT & PEPPER
Directions
Toss the cheese and cornflour together in a saucepan.
Add all other ingredients, cook over medium heat, whisking often until the cheese is melted and smooth.
Adjust to your taste if required - with extra hot sauce and salt.
While hot, it will have a sauce like consistency - perfect for pouring over nachos.
As it cools, it will thicken and become a dip-like consistency. Whisk occasionally to mix in the skin that forms on the top.
Stir in additional evaporated (or even normal) milk to achieve the desired consistency if you want to use it as a pourable sauce. Note that when you reheat it, it loosens up.
Recipe Notes:
1. Pre shredded cheese contains additives to avoid clumping. As a result, sometimes they do not melt as well as you'd hope into liquid form, like this dip (melting on toast, on casseroles etc is ok). The end result can be a bit grainy which is not very nice.
Consequently, it's safest to use freshly grated cheese.
Use any melting cheese you want. My favourite combination is cheddar and/or Colby.
2. This will keep in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days and reheats well. It's a perfect make-ahead cheese sauce / dip!
3. This needs to be made with evaporated milk. You can't use long life, powder milk or ordinary milk.
**Update: Further to a reader question, I tested freezing it and discovered that this freezes very well. I wasn't sure it would because plain evaporated milk should not be frozen but the addition of cheese must change the physical properties because this freezes perfectly. You would never know this was frozen once thawed.**
3. Pre shredded cheese contains additives to avoid clumping. As a result, sometimes they do not melt as well as you'd hope into liquid form, like this dip (melting on toast, on casseroles etc is ok). The end result can be a bit grainy which is not very nice.
Consequently, it's safest to use freshly grated cheese.
Use any melting cheese you want.