Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe

Tortilla chip dipped into 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.

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 5

Total Time 10

Servings

Calories 212kcal

Author Kanan

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.

What Cheese Is Best For Nacho Cheese Sauce?

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.

Nutrition