Nacho Cheese Sauce
Homemade Nacho Cheese Sauce is easy to make yourself from scratch, and is the perfect melty sauce to pour over crispy tortilla chips or Homemade French Fries. This 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 “processed american cheese product.” It’s perfectly possible to make smooth, creamy nacho cheese with natural ingredients, which is what we work with here.
The 5 Ingredients You’ll Need:
- Butter
- Flour
- Milk
- Cheddar Cheese
- Ground Cayenne pepper
In my recipe testing, I have found no benefit to adding extra ingredients like heavy cream, cream cheese, sour cream, or evaporated milk. So long as you’re not using a reduced fat cheese, the amount of richness from the cheese should be perfect.
While this creamy nacho cheese sauce is a very simple recipe, you can certainly jazz it up with your favorite toppings. 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 game day and having friends over. No need to go to the movie theaters for this delicious snack!
This recipe 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 sauce 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.
Tips for Best Results
Grate the cheese yourself – Nearly all pre-shredded cheese has cellulose or anti-caking agents added to them in order to keep the shreds from sticking together. These are a disaster for your sauce. You must grate a real block of cheddar yourself for a smooth consistency.
Don’t overcook the cheese – Just like when you make mac and cheese, if you overheat the cheese, it will get grainy and have a horrid texture. Add the cheese off the heat and let it melt with the residual heat.
Serve immediately or keep it warm – Because this is made with all-natural ingredients, as the nacho cheese sauce cools, it will lose its melty texture. If you’re not eating it right away, I recommend keeping it warm in a crockpot, a fondue pot, or a saucepan over a warming plate, especially if you’re serving this at a party.
Step by Step Overview:
Start by melting some butter in a skillet over medium heat, either salted or unsalted:
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 ground cayenne pepper. The cayenne is subtle and gives a little spice to the cheese, but you can add as much or as little as you prefer.
Also, I recommend using whole milk here, as that milk fat will give more richness than skim.
Once the milk heats through, the mixture should be thick and bubbly.
Now turn off the heat and add freshly grated cheddar. Remember I told you above that freshly grated 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.
Not All Cheddar Is the Same!
Cheddar cheeses vary HUGELY in taste and melt-quality depending on brand.
My absolute favorite cheddar is made by Cracker Barrel, and it’s what I used here. Any cheddar made by them, whether White or Yellow Sharp, Extra Sharp, Vermont Sharp, or Marbled Sharp, is excellent. Tillamook and Cabot are also decent.
Cheddars I find that don’t work as well texture-wise are Kraft, Organic Valley, Target’s brand, and TJ’s brand. Also don’t use really high-end artisanal cheddars, because they usually don’t melt well.
Other Cheeses to Try
Stick with only melty cheeses for your nacho cheese dip, but know that you can change it up from just cheddar.
The typical 3-cheese Mexican shredded cheese usually has Monterey Jack Cheese, Sharp Cheddar, and Colby. Feel free to substitute the Monterey Jack or Colby Jack for part of the cheddar. Pepper Jack cheese is another great addition.
Whisk gently until the cheese melts and smooths out into a creamy, wonderful, pourable 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.
This happens naturally as the sauce cools down toward room temperature. Just add liquid, see if it smooths out again, and if it doesn’t, heat it gently over a low flame for a minute or two until you get a smooth sauce again.
When you cook the warm cheese dip on the stovetop, you run the risk of cooking too much moisture off, so you just have to add more if that happens. No big deal!
(Since I’ve been asked so many times, this is the mini-cast iron skillet picture above).
How to Serve It:
This Nacho Sauce is perfect poured on tortilla chips, fries, tater tots, or for dipping with soft pretzels. You can even drizzle it over hot dogs or grilled sausages.
The creamy cheese sauce also pairs really nicely with Baked Chicken Wings, Buffalo Garlic Knots, Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Dip, or Garlic Parmesan Wings.
Ideas for Flavor Enhancements
If you’re using a really good quality, flavorful cheddar, the nacho cheese sauce should be very flavorful even with these few ingredients. However, if you wish to add other ingredients, here are my suggestions.
- Stir in a large spoonful of Jalapeño Tomato Salsa
- Top with spiced Ground Beef from Ground Beef Tacos
- Add 2 tsp Taco Seasoning or Fajita Seasoning, or even just a good quality chili powder
- Add 1 tbsp of your favorite hot sauce
- Saute 1 tbsp minced jalapeno and 2 tbsp minced onion at the beginning with the butter
- Stir in a can of diced green chiles.
Tips and FAQ
Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, in an airtight container.
Heat the leftover nacho cheese in a skillet over low heat until melted and warm. Add 2 tbsp of water or milk 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.
Yes, for up to 2 months, 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.
Keep on low heat on the stove, adding more liquid as needed to keep a smooth texture. Or use a crockpot, a fondue pot, or a saucepan over a warming plate.
Did you enjoy the recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. Or, follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest!
Nacho Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter (salted or unsalted)
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
- 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, about 30 seconds.
- 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
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
189 Comments on “Nacho Cheese Sauce”
I made a small batch of this and tried a little bit of it. It was so good, can’t wait to try it with some chips! I totally recommend, it’s so easy and simple b
I would give this recipe more than five stars.
I had the biggest craving for nachos and cheese, made this, poured it over my chips, added some giardiniera, mmm…
And for those that said it’s too thick, my teenage daughter that doesn’t cook said ” just add more liquid, it’s common sense”…
i only have half and half on hand would that work if i replace the whole milk?
What type of container would you recommend using to freeze? How long does it store for in the freezer?
I tried this and like the other comment it didnt pour. It was too thick. and unfortunately I went for the full recipe instead of trying just the half to see if I like. I wont be doing this again but if you try I reco going with half the recipe for your first attempt.
Umm…did you try to add more water or milk?
This recipe is awesome!!! I’ve made it more than a few times now and I usually half the recipe when it’s just for me. I end up using half what I made and saving the other half. Not sure if it’s because I halved it but I found that I don’t need to wait for the milk to boil to thicken. As soon as it’s starting to look thicker than when I poured it in, I pull it off the heat and add the cheese. It comes out perfect and creamy. I also like to mix in some chopped jalapeños. This cheese is so creamy, delicious and addicting!
I wish in tried this in advance because I literally made it for my daughters 18th birthday nacho table right before we she was going to pour it over the nachos but there is no pouring this. It was thick and unappetizing. Would not oour just a glob so i dumped it and had to go to the store in the middle of her party but the party still turned out great, not this cheese sauce
This would be because when it cools down it becomes very thick. If you were to heat it up before you poured it, it would work!
The recipe is a little off. When it comes to the thick blob stage just add more milk, whisk, more milk, whisk, more milk until it comes to your desired thickness it will come to a lovely silky pourable stage after a while. Whilst doing this you’ll need to add more cheese and seasoning as the flavours of this recipe are a little bland. But it’s a sauce so you can add whatever you like
thankyou so much ihad only mozzerellella in fridge dont want to line up at store outside so i used it instead taste fantastic on my birthday i wll use cannabutter lol resulrs were real cheesy better than chees directly melted in microwave imin love with this man!
it tastes like cheese.
Why do people have such a hard time with bagged cheese? That’s what I almost always use, as it’s cheaper, and I never have any issues with it not melting or being smooth.
I have an electric stone and mine came out thick too but just added some more milk and water and it was a good creamy texture. Not grainy or anything. I added A LOT more salt and little salsa and it was tasty!
Thanks so much for this recipe, it’s perfect. I used exact measurements with the only change being that I used 1 cup of almond milk instead of cow’s milk. I added salt, pepper and a little cayenne for flavor. Not sure why the others turned out bad but make sure the heat is low and constantly stir the mixture while slowly adding the milk and cheese. Perfect flavor and texture. This will be great for the superbowl later today!
My granddaughter is a picky eater though she loves chips and cheese so I decided to try this on her . It taste good but so hard to make towards the end when adding cheese it was getting cold and to thick so I had to add some warm milk . Has anyone else had this problem and if so wat did you do cause id like to keep making this for my granddaughter.
We made this one night to try to satisfy a craving. It was simple but excellent, and even my picky kids loved it and asked me to keep making it. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfect. Next time I want to try adding jalapeños for some heat, but otherwise, it’s perfect as it is for a basic spicy cheese sauce.
Recipe worked with minor modifications. Added black pepper and once the sauce formed I added more hot liquid (less than 1/4 cup) until it became a pourable consistency. Perfect!
Worked great, even with bagged shredded cheese. Had to add a bit of extra milk.