Nacho Cheese Sauce
This nacho cheese sauce is the easiest cheese dip recipe! It is creamy, cheesy, and smooth and it’s made with real ingredients (no processed cheese) in under 10 minutes.
❤️ You’ll Love This Nacho Cheese Sauce
Taste & Texture:
- Incredibly cheesy.
- Super creamy and rich.
- Hot, melty with drizzle consistency.
Quick to make: You’ll need just 10 minutes to make this super delicious cheese dipping sauce. 5 minutes of prep time + 5 minutes of cook time.
Cheese dip made with real ingredients: That’s right, no processed or artificial cheese (like Velveeta), no emulsifier, and no food color are used.
If you buy a store-bought jar of nacho cheese or you had it at a movie theatre or ball game then you know those are not made with real cheese as real cheese dip has a very short shelf-life. So why not make it at home with real cheese?
A crowd-pleaser dip: It’s a versatile dish that can be enjoyed for a variety of occasions like game day, parties, Cinco de Mayo, and Taco nights.
🧾 Ingredient Notes
You’ll need 7 ingredients total.
- Milk: Full-fat whole milk is recommended to get a rich, creamy texture.
- Heavy cream: A little amount need to make it rich.
- Corn starch: It is used as a thickening agent. It absorbs the excess liquid (moisture) and makes the sauce thick.
- Cayenne and Paprika: Both are added for some flavor.
- Hot sauce: A teeny tiny amount is needed. The sour flavor of hot sauce will cut down the creaminess and makes it palatable.
- Cheddar cheese: Cheddar cheese gives the best flavor and it melts nicely. You can use mild, medium, or sharp. Mild or medium cheddar will give a slightly sweeter taste while sharp cheddar gives an intense cheese taste.
- Other cheese options are Monterey Jack for a buttery taste and Pepper Jack for a hint of spice.
- Always buy a block of cheese and grate it using a box grater right before making it. You can use a food processor to grate the cheese.
👩🍳 How To Make Nacho Cheese Sauce? (Stepwise)
1) Take milk and heavy cream in a saucepan and mix. Add cornstarch to a cold milk-cream mixture.
2) Whisk everything well and make it lump-free.
3) Turn on the heat to medium-low and keep stirring until the mixture comes to a boil. Within a minute after getting hot, it starts to thicken (thick like Alfredo sauce).
4) Add grated cheese, cayenne pepper, paprika, and hot sauce.
5) Mix and keep stirring constantly until the cheese is melted. In the beginning, it looks lumpy and grainy.
6, 7) But don’t worry, as it melts the cheese sauce becomes smooth and shiny with a drizzle consistency.
Turn off the stove and serve. Do not overcook otherwise cheese starts to separate and becomes grainy.
💭 Tips For BEST Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe
- To keep the nacho cheese sauce warm, serve in a small crock pot or fondue pot.
- Never buy a pre-shredded cheese packet as it has an anti-caking agent (powder) coated to it and it doesn’t melt nicely. Plus, you feel that powder texture while eating this dip. So always buy a block of cheese and grate yourself.
- Don’t overcook or burn this cheese sauce otherwise it looks curdled and grainy. So stay there, keep stirring, and go slow on low heat.
Variations:
- Add a tablespoon of chopped pickled jalapeno to make it spicy. If so skip the hot sauce. The sourness from pickled jalapeno is enough and you don’t need hot sauce.
- Add some sauteed finely chopped onion and peppers.
- You can add canned chopped tomatoes (fresh doesn’t work here) to make it a rotel kinda dip.
🥣 Storage & Reheating Nacho Cheese Sauce
- This sauce stays melted for around 30 minutes and then it starts to thicken up and becomes lumpy.
- It solidifies after storing in the refrigerator.
- In the refrigerator, it stays good for 3-4 days.
- You can reheat this cheese dip once only.
- Reheat in a saucepan until it becomes hot, keep whisking to break the lumps. As it is getting hot, it will become smooth and runny again (thanks to corn starch). If all purpose flour is used instead of cornstarch then it becomes super lumpy and doesn’t reheat to smooth texture.
- Never reheat in the microwave otherwise it will curdle and separate.
🍽 Serving Ideas
- It is best served warm with tortilla cheese.
- You can dip your potato wedges, air fryer tater tots, soft pretzels, fries, etc in this cheese dip.
- Drizzle over your nachos with more toppings and make loaded nachos.
- Drizzle over tater tots to make tater tot nachos (Totchos).
Check Out Other Dip Recipes
Did you try this nacho cheese sauce recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.
Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe
US measuring cups are used (1 cup = 240 ml)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Milk, full-fat whole milk
- ¼ cup Heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon Corn flour (corn starch)
- 8 oz Cheddar cheese, grated. *see notes
- 1 teaspoon Hot sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon Cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika
Instructions
- Take milk and heavy cream in a saucepan and mix. Add cornstarch to a cold milk-cream mixture.
- Whisk everything well and make it lump-free.
- Turn on the heat to medium-low and keep stirring until the mixture comes to a boil. Within a minute after getting hot, it starts to thicken (thick like Alfredo sauce).
- Add grated cheese, cayenne pepper, paprika, and hot sauce. Mix and keep stirring constantly until the cheese is melted. In the beginning, it looks lumpy and grainy. But don’t worry, as it melts the cheese sauce becomes smooth and shiny with a drizzle consistency.
- Turn off the stove and serve. Do not overcook otherwise cheese starts to separate and becomes grainy.
Notes
- To keep the it warm, serve in a small crock pot or fondue pot.
- Never buy a pre-shredded cheese packet as it has an anti-caking agent (powder) coated to it and it doesn’t melt nicely. Plus, you feel that powder texture while eating this dip. So always buy a block of cheese and grate yourself.
- Don’t overcook or burn this cheese sauce otherwise it looks curdled and grainy. So stay there, keep stirring, and go slow on low heat.
- I highly recommend using cheddar cheese (mild or medium cheddar gives a sweeter taste while sharp cheddar gives an intense, slightly bitter cheese taste).
- Other options are Monterey jack, Pepper jack, Colby-jack, or Colby.
