Homemade Nacho Cheese Sauce
Nacho Cheese is easy to make yourself from scratch, and is the perfect melty sauce to pour over tortilla chips. This Nacho Cheese Sauce is made with only five all-natural ingredients, and takes 10 minutes to make.
My very first experience with nacho cheese sauce was of the Velveeta variety. I was about 8 years old and had no concept of what processed food meant.
It was always the default snack at my friend Angelina’s house: a box of Velveeta popped into the microwave, then mixed with a can of rotel. It was good at the time, but now I generally stay away from things called “cheese product.”
It’s perfectly possible to make smooth, creamy nacho cheese with natural ingredients, which is what we work with here. All you need is butter, flour, milk, cheddar, and a little cayenne.
And of course, you can keep it simple, or you can jazz it up however you want. You can add tomatoes, jalapeños, scallions, ground beef, and whatever else strikes your fancy.
Serve it alongside some Chicken Wings, Buffalo Chicken Dip, and Soft Pretzels and you have a full spread perfect for watching sports and having friends over.
This method takes less than 10 minutes, and riffs on how you’d make a roux and a béchamel sauce for mac and cheese.
Because the ingredients are natural and chemical-free, know that the nacho cheese firms slightly as it cools. It has a luscious, smooth and melty texture as long as it’s warm, but if you let it cool, you’ll need to reheat it to get that flowy texture again. It does reheat just fine though and I’ll include instructions for that after the step-by-step.
You can also keep it warm in a crockpot, fondue pot, or other warming dish if you’re serving this at a party.
How to Make Nacho Cheese:
Start by melting some butter in a skillet:
Whisk in an equal amount of flour until combined:
This is called a roux, and it will thicken our sauce.
Next whisk in some milk, and season with salt and cayenne pepper:
I like the heat that the cayenne gives, but you could also add paprika if you prefer.
Once the milk heats through, the mixture should be thick and bubbly.
Now turn off the heat and add freshly grated cheddar cheese:
The freshly grated cheese is important, because pre-shredded cheeses in bags usually have things like powdered cellulose that are there to prevent caking. Those will make your sauce grainy, so make sure you actually buy a block of cheddar and grate it yourself. It only takes a few minutes.
Whisk gently until it melts and smooths out into a creamy, wonderful sauce:
It should have a flowy texture that runs and drips off the spoon in an even ribbon:
If at any point the nacho cheese gets too thick and doesn’t “run” off the spoon, just add more water or milk, and whisk to combine. It will smooth out again beautifully.
Basically what happens is when you cook the mixture on the stovetop, you run the risk of cooking too much moisture off, so you just have to add more. No big deal!
(Since I’ve been asked so many times, this is the mini-cast iron skillet picture above).
Pour over chips and devour.
For more game day food, try these incredible baked Chicken Wings, Buffalo Garlic Knots, Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Dip, or Garlic Parmesan Wings.
What to Use Nacho Cheese For:
This Nacho Sauce is perfect poured on tortilla chips, fries, or for dipping with pretzels.
How to Reheat Nacho Cheese:
Heat the leftover nacho cheese in a skillet over medium low heat until melted and warm. Add 2 tbsp of water and whisk until the cheese looks smooth and creamy again (adding moisture should restore that creamy smooth texture). If the sauce is still too thick and doesn’t “flow” well, add more liquid and whisk again. Do not reheat nacho cheese in the microwave.
Can you Freeze Nacho Cheese:
Yes, but it will definitely separate, so you’ll need to reheat and whisk again to smooth it out, and probably add moisture. Follow the instructions above.
How to Keep Nacho Cheese Warm:
I recommend a crockpot, a fondue pot, or a saucepan over a warming plate.
Nacho Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 8 oz block sharp cheddar cheese* grated
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium size skillet over medium heat.
- Once the butter is melted add the flour.
- Whisk until it combines into a smooth blond paste and starts to bubble around the edges.
- Add the milk to the skillet and continue whisking.
- Once the milk is incorporated, raise the heat to high and bring to a boil.
- Once the milk has reached a boil, quickly lower the heat and reduce to a simmer. Allow the sauce to thicken slightly.
- Add the cayenne pepper and salt and whisk to combine.
- Turn off the heat, and remove the skillet from the stove**. Add the cheese and gently stir, allowing the cheese to melt.
- When the cheese is completely melted and the mixture smooth in consistency, the nacho cheese sauce is ready to serve. Enjoy immediately, as the sauce will get firm as it sits.
Notes
Nutrition
Products used in this recipe:
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Can you use any type of milk? Like almond or soy?
Hi Daff, I recommend cow’s milk here. I thought maybe you’re trying to go dairy-free, but then there’s the cheese, so not sure why you’d like to substitute? Let me know.
Can you double this recipe?
Hi Laurie, yes, feel free!
Can we use mild or medium?
Yes, go for it.
As like you, I grew up with my mom’s classic Velveeta and Rotel tomatoes in a can. It was fine, but now I would prefer real cheese. I think the way you describe it here is better than trying to do it in the French, double boiler way.
I used to order the queso dip at Chili’s Grill & Bar back in the 80s, so I don’t know if it is even still on their menu. They made it with cheese, and their own chili, so it was a nice meaty/cheesy dish!
I am thinking of going with the Rotel, your cheese recipe and perhaps a can of no-bean chili, or just the Rotel and cheese recipe, haven’t decided.
Would this still work with gluten free baking flour? ?
Unfortunately I don’t have experience working with gluten free flour so I can’t say one way or another. Sorry!
It will work just fine with rice flour.
Thank you!
I substitute cornstarch for an type of sauce recipe that uses wheat flour. I find cornstarch makes sauces much smoother. You,Melissa however, should half the amount of cornstarch used when making this substitution.
If you can have corn starch that works well. If you cannot have corn like some cannot, Sweet Potato Starch is the bomb. The stuff is beautiful and I use it a lot for thickening purposes. I have tried Rice flours, sorghum, Potato Starch, buckwheat, arrowroot Starch, tapioca Starch, etc.. Something undesirable happened with all of those. The Sweet Potato Starch however worked like a dream. I get mine super cheaply from our Asian market in town
Good recipe! I made it on a whim with mind cheese and skim milk, simply because it was what I had at home. It was tasty, but it would have been so much better the way there recipe suggested. Thanks!
This recipe turned out so GREAT, but I’d suggest mild cheddar chesse. Sharp cheese has such a pungent taste that overpowers anything else.
Hi Res, glad to hear it, and thanks for your thoughts.
Very good nacho cheese sauce recipe. It is a good, basic base to start from. If you add more milk and some fine diced veggies it can be a creamy soup. To oomph up this nacho sauce recipe, I made a purée of red bell pepper with a food processor and added it after the milk bubbled. Also added smoked paprika and powdered taco seasoning. I made my own home made chips by taking tortillas and cutting them into chip wedges, use a brush to coat the tortilla chips with lemon juice, sprinkle a tiny bit of taco seasoning powder on the tortilla chips. Bake at 250 for 5 minutes and keep an eye on the chips while baking to prevent burning. They crisp up quick!! Prepare the nachos with a base layer of your baked tortilla chips, layer guacamole, fine chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, mince scallions, add salsa and then pour the nacho sauce over everything. It is a healthy balanced meal. A lot less calories and sodium than using fried tortilla chips from the bag storebought. I used organic corn tortillas non-gmo. Yummy and healthy. Add a layer of retried pinto beans if you want for variety
Thank you! Nasty blocks of melted “American” cheese and cans of mystery “nacho cheese sauce” are far behind me. I try to eat “healthy” as often as possible, this includes making all of my own “junk” food from scratch. This recipe is perfect “as is” and is now in my “junk food” recipe collection. Thanks for helping out those of us who don’t dine out and try to do the right thing when it comes to what we put into these marvelous machines we call bodies. If we put nothing but garbage and processed foods in… well, need I say more?
Highest percentage of people on prescription drugs, highest percentage of people getting “shots” in the world… right here in America. I refuse to be one of their statistics and people like you are helping me to do just that. Thanks again.
So, I double the batch and used 1 block of cheddar and 1 block of pepper jack. Had to add some extra’s to give it enough flavor for us. Added some jalapenos, diced, and some fresh pico. Also added more cayenne to give it a little more flavor. With it spiced up a bit, it was really good. Too bland for us for nacho’s with basic recipe. Reminded me of mac and cheese sauce vs nacho sauce. But, love that this is not made with processed cheese. Thanks for a base to a great nacho cheese dip!
This is just the recipe I needed! I have been looking for ideas for quite awhile but never could find something that was smooth like I pictured in my mind. THIS IS IT! Thanks so much for sharing. It is cold and rainy here in California and this is SUCH a great snack!
Great taste and easy to make! Thanks!!
I tried it. It tasted good. I added some American cheese to smooth it out a bit and make it more “creamy”. If you want jalapeño cheese sauce you can simply add the liquid from jalapeños or the jalapeño and less milk. It’s basically making cheese sauce for Mac n cheese and adding spice I have some soft pretzels so I looked up a recipe. My son is usually the nacho cheese maker. It’s his “thing” I cook every meal we eat and I usually do not feel like cooking anything until today. I was surprised to see the recipe is so simple. I would not typically use the butter and flour either.
1 cup – Milk
8 Oz – Cheddar cheese but any hard cheese that’s shredded will be fine
3 or 4 slices – white American cheese
Cayenne is pepper
Or
Jalapeño/jalapeño liquid
Heat and almost continuously stir ….
This is what I was gonna make and ended up making. The butter and flour rue really do nothing for me but it may for you.
If I want to kick this up a notch (or two), can I add a can of Rotel (Hot) tomatoes, liquid included?
That should work fine.
Can I use coconut milk instead of whole milk or coconut cream?