Choriqueso

Choriqueso is a Mexican cheese dip topped with cooked chorizo sausage and a sprinkling of cilantro that is served with chips or warm tortillas. Makes a swell appetizer or even a meal unto itself.

A cast-iron skilled filled with choriqueso, a cheese dip topped with queso

This choriqueso is not the classic chile con queso that Texans like to serve, made with spicy canned tomatoes and a brick of processed cheese. While it may sound a little scary, it’s actually very good. All that said, this is not a recipe for that type of queso, delicious though it may be. Choriqueso is a combination of chorizo, a spicy, loose Mexican sausage, and queso, which is simply the Spanish word for cheese. It’s a skillet dish that can be served either with crisp tortilla chips for dipping or with soft, warm tortillas for wrapping. I like to serve it when I have taco night, as it makes for a fine starter, though it’s equally welcome on Fridays before the big game or even as a simple weeknight dinner with a salad on the side.–Lisa Fain

LC Fondue-Ish Note

So classic queso dip—with or without the chorizo—has a sorta fondue-ish thing going for it. That said, you won’t find any need for those dainty little forks with this choriqueso, we can assure you of that. Still, it’s quite handy for entertaining, seeing as the dip not only garners requests for recipes but takes mere minutes to toss together and can go to the table in the same skillet you heated on the stove. You’re welcome.

☞ Contents

Choriqueso

A cast-iron skilled filled with choriqueso, a cheese dip topped with queso
Choriqueso is a Mexican cheese dip topped with cooked chorizo sausage and a sprinkling of cilantro that is served with chips or warm tortillas. Makes a swell appetizer or even a meal unto itself.

Prep 10 mins
Total 10 mins
Appetizers
Mexican
6 to 8 servings
281 kcal
5 / 7 votes
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Ingredients 

  • 1 to 1 1/3 cups best quality Mexican chorizo removed from its casing and crumbled
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups tightly packed shredded Monterey Jack cheese
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • Lightly salted tortilla chips, corn tortillas, or flour tortillas warmed for serving

Directions
 

  • In a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat, brown the chorizo until cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the chorizo from the skillet and place it in a colander lined with paper towels to drain. Using more paper towels, pat the chorizo dry and wipe the skillet clean.
  • Return the skillet to the stove. With the heat on low, pour the heavy cream into the skillet and then immediately stir in the Monterey Jack. Continue to stir until the cheese completely melts, 2 to 5 minutes.
  • Turn off the heat and gently stir in the cooked, drained chorizo. Top with the cilantro and bring the skillet directly to the table. Serve warm with tortilla chips or warm. [Editor's Note: Seriously, serve it warm. It tends to get gloppy at room temperature. If you need it to hold for a while, transfer it to a wee slow cooker.]
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Show Nutrition

Serving: 1portionCalories: 281kcal (14%)Carbohydrates: 1gProtein: 14g (28%)Fat: 25g (38%)Saturated Fat: 14g (88%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 76mg (25%)Sodium: 510mg (22%)Potassium: 46mg (1%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 1g (1%)Vitamin A: 680IU (14%)Vitamin C: 1mg (1%)Calcium: 294mg (29%)Iron: 1mg (6%)

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Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Chroizo, cheese, and chips to dip…sign me up! It’s hard to find Mexican chorizo where I live so I used the Cheater’s Chorizo recipe and added 1/4 cup cider vinegar to make the mix as wet as it should be for that type of meat. Timewise, from making the chorizo to serving, the dip took a total of 25 minutes, start to finish. The meat never really gets browned, but you can tell it’s cooked when it’s no longer pink. Cooking the meat took about 5 minutes to reach the “browned ” stage. It took a further 5 minutes to make the cheese sauce and add the cooked meat back in. Stir, garnish, and serve. It was tasty and surprisingly filling. After having this as an appetizer, we all decided to have only a salad for supper as we were so full. It wasn’t too spicy and was surprisingly creamy. I think that the only change I’d make is to add more cream or milk, as I found it a little thick for dipping. However, as a filling for a tortilla, it’s a perfect consistency. I might even add a little hot sauce or ground chili for a little more kick.

This is a wonderful, quick appetizer. I added the cheese immediately after pouring the cream into the skillet, and it took 2 minutes over the low heat to blend together. I chose to drain my chorizo on paper towels while I warmed the cream and cheese together. It was a beautiful presentation served directly out of the skillet. It was delicious. This dip would serve four or five people as an appetizer or two to three people as its own unique nacho dinner.

I love this dish for its versatility. It can easily be a starter, weeknight supper, or part of a many-course meal. And of course, what’s not to love about sausage and cheese. This dish came together in a total time of 30 minutes. I served the choriqueso with soft tacos, spicy guacamole, and pickled jalepenos, and pico de gallo.

Cheese, cream, and sausage…how bad could it be, really? As it turns out, not bad at all. In fact, this is one of the easiest and tastiest dang party treats I’ve made in some time. Hardly more difficult than making a ranch dip by dumping some dried salad dressing herbs into a vat of sour cream, this dip comes together quickly and offers a restaurant-quality appetizer. To say it’s addictive would be a gross understatement. It satisfies in a way that few things other than melted cheese and fatty pork products can. It proved the perfect game-watching nosh as the boys and I cheered our Bruins to victory. I was glad I made double the batch. If you can’t find Mexican chorizo, don’t panic. I made mine with finely diced Portuguese chorizo and it was awesome. I suspect that any spicy pork—andouille, tasso ham, hot Italian sausage—would work just fine here. Each would be YUM! The recipe doesn’t call for it, but for my taste the dip needed just a quick seasoning of salt and pepper before serving. If you’re using really salty tortilla chips, you might be able to do without the salt, but do check before serving. I have a funny feeling that the boys may require that this dip become part of a winning team superstition around here, so I may find myself making another batch tomorrow night. Shave your head or grow out a beard for the playoffs if you will, I’m eating this choriqueso dip!

This recipe easy to put together and the flavor was great.The flavor–spice and all—comes from the queso without having to add any other flavors. If I were to make this again, I might put it in a small slow cooker to see whether it stays more fluid for a bit longer. I tried these with tortilla chips and with corn tortillas and really like it with the regular tortillas. The chips need to be less salted to be good with the queso, but are great because they hold up even after the queso has become quite difficult. There’s a huge advantage to using non-processed cheeses in the sense that you can adjust the flavors by choice of chorizo and cheeses. I made this a second time with a different chorizo and a mix of Monterey Jack and other Mexican cheeses available at the grocery store. Both times it was the flavor that made this recipe worthwhile. The only problem is that it doesn’t stay fluid and becomes quite gloppy and hard to serve after a little while. This is the advantage of processed cheeses–something in the processing allows the dip to stay fluid at room temperature for much longer.

This choriqueso is spectacular and couldn’t be easier to prepare. It takes about 10 minutes to brown the chorizo and another 8 to 10 minutes to melt the queso. This recipe will serve 8 people as an appetizer or 3 to 4 for an entree. I’m currently enjoying a month with the famous low-carb diet, so I simply ate this as I would chili and did not use tortillas.

I appreciate that this recipe avoids the use of processed cheese yet isn’t too highbrow. The resulting cheese dip is delicious without being stuck up. This recipe works well when you use a flavorful Mexican chorizo and use corn tortillas instead of chips. It also helps to not get hung up on expecting a perfectly silky smooth dip. I took a shortcut and used already shredded cheese. If you use this as an appetizer, it could serve 8. Here are some tips that I’ll incorporate the next time I make this dip: With the chorizo that I used, 8 ounces ended up being more like a 1 1/3 cups. Use a really flavorful chorizo since that is the biggest flavor element in this dip! Some chorizo is one note so make sure you really like the chorizo before using it for this recipe. Draining the excess fat from the chorizo takes a little patience. Using a slotted spoon works but you end up with a lot of excess fat in the pan and then you have to drain the excess fat. Next time, I may pour all of the chorizo and the fat into a sieve as a shortcut. This recipe has the potential to be a salt bomb depending on how salty the cheese or chorizo is. With the chorizo that I used, corn tortillas were a significantly better option than salted corn tortilla chips. The queso does get a bit curdy as it gets cold. My testers didn’t mind it because it has less of a processed food feel.

After questioning whether my chorizo was the right kind, I made this recipe always and it was super. I used Cacique pork chorizo, which is in all the grocery stores around Baton Rouge. I don’t know how many it would serve–depends on what you are doing with it. We tested it with tortilla chips as well as wrapped in warm flour tortillas—great both ways. And then the next morning it was just as good as a sauce over poached eggs on grits. I can imagine a lot of ways this would be good. For Cinco de Mayo, I used it as a sauce for some chicken roasted with my made-up blend of Mexican spices and magic. All around good stuff!

This recipe took literally 20 minutes from beginning to end. I first browned the chorizo—I used Mexican chorizo that came in a plastic tube. I would advice using 2 to 3 paper towels and place the cooked chorizo in a bowl to help remove some of the grease and fat. Then I followed the rest of the directions. I had bought a block of Monterey Jack cheese and shredded it myself. To simplify your life, try to buy already shredded cheese, or then make sure your block of cheese is very, very cold—perhaps even place it in the freezer for an hour—prior to shredding it as it becomes pasty very quickly and is hard to shred. It took approximately 5 minutes to melt. The end result was sublime. The choriqueso had an amazing taste and is a fun appetizer—it would be enough to fill more than 8 people. It has a nice little kick to it and if children will be present, I’d suggest using just 1/2 cup Mexican chorizo–enough to give a taste of it yet still easy on a child’s palate.

I served this choriqueso recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo—in memory of Mexico fending off the would-be French invasion of the US in 1862. It was delicious—the choriqueso, that is, not the invasion.The combination of chorizo, cream, and cheese was savory and the cilantro added a fresh note. This is a recipe that I’ll use as a filling in other dishes.

This is a quick and easy way to make a spicy queso for dipping. It took 18 minutes to make, about 10 of which was hands-on. For most of the chorizo cooking time, it didn’t require much attention, just an occasional stir. Making the cheese sauce took 3 minutes. The chorizo did not give off much fat at all.There wasn’t even enough to pour off. Because I needed to make this at least an hour before serving, I broke out my Crockpot Little Dipper, which I think holds 16 ounces. That worked well to hold the dip—minus the cilantro garnish—until serving time. It was just the right size. I added the cilantro when I served the dip. Two of us almost polished this off with chips as a prelude to a meal. Depending on what else is served. This was great with tortilla chips made by a local restaurant.

This is an easy and quick recipe. The hardest part may be finding quality Mexican chorizo that doesn’t turn into a puddle in the pan. Luckily we have some locally made stuff that’s top quality. After browning the chorizo, I wiped the little amount of fat out of the pan. It may have been a good idea to let the pan cool a little first, as when I added the cream it immediately started to boil. I quickly added the cheese and it was all melted in under a minute. loved the added cilantro on top—it gave a nice freshness to an otherwise rich dish. My only complaint is that I would have liked more heat in the dish. Next time I’ll add a minced chili pepper—maybe a jalapeño—or some dried red pepper or cayenne pepper. Also, if you’re serving it as a dip, having a preheated bowl would be a good idea as the choriqueso starts to cool and seize fairly quickly.

So there I was, standing at the kitchen counter, dunking and scooping away at this choriqueso, which is another one of those recipes that never makes it to the table because it’s sooo freakin’ good. Pausing, I remind myself this dip could probably serve 6 to 8 people as an appetizer, so I roll up the bag of tortilla chips and pout. Defeated, I ponder other uses for this creamy cheese fondue. It occurred to me that the choriqueso could be quite delicious as a sandwich spread. The next day I went to work after having slathered the dip on a ciabatta roll and pairing it with a grilled chicken breast, a little thinly sliced red onion, and a slice of tomato. Yep, I was right—delicious. That being said, let me add as an alternative serving suggestion: “BFF to all meat sandwiches, big and small.”

Spicy fatty greasy salty—what’s not to like here? I first enjoyed the plain cheese version of this dip with friends from New Mexico, and subsequently as bar food in a Mexican restaurant in Chicago, so I think this crosses some cultural lines: Texas, New Mexico, Mexico. Despite the regions’ cultural and culinary differences, here’s a dish they can all agree on. Plus, there’s the magic of 5 ingredients, minimal prep time, a serve-in-the-skillet presentation, and barely any dishes! I started by baking my own tortilla chips, which added a few minutes to the total time but is always worth the little bit of extra effort. My personal preference leaned strongly toward the dipping of a crisp chip verse the wrapping with a soft tortilla. I prefer the crunchy change of texture here, as with most dips and their vehicle, whether chip or vegetable. I browned the chorizo for the full 7 minutes. However, my cheese melted completely in less than 2 minutes, so my total time was right at 10 minutes. I made the dip in a cast-iron skilled so the presentation was all set. I admit that this was served nowhere near to 8. Serves 2, I would say. This dip alone would make a very satisfying meal most any time of year. With the addition of a salad and a side, the number of servings could perhaps increase, although I’m not strongly advocating that idea. One additional thought would be to use Cheddar or a combination of Cheddar and the Monterey Jack. A bit of sharp Cheddar flavor could nicely balance the richness.

Originally published April 29, 2019

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Comments

    1. Alex, you could probably get away with substituting half and half here, although we haven’t tried it this way so we can’t say for sure.

  1. Actually, caribou (completely fat free) shot with beef suet and spices and then smoked is a reasonable sub. I put my ground mix in tin foil meatloaf pans with holes in their sides and bottoms and then smoke with alder. Juicy, Lucy! Each square is a pound block.

    1. Butter clams with chorizo? OOOOh. I’ve had that on solstice on Polly Creek beach under the midnight sun. Memorable, to be sure!

      1. Lovely. That’s the stuff memories—and life—are made of, yes? Moments such as that. (And I have a hunch there’s much more to that story, Andi, although I’m not prying.)

      2. 5 stars
        Your chorizo recipe is fantastic! Kitty like. I am going to retrieve my grinder and meat processing stuff and making YOUR recipe! OMG! I cannot wait and I will report. Couple hundred miles to get to my stuff. I LOVE this recipe and actually have quality spices!

        1. Andi, so pleased you’ll be trying this! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. And thanks for putting things in perspective. A couple hundred mile drive makes me feel fortunate for all that I take for granted.

  2. Fundido! My favorite Mexican restaurant makes this for me whenever I ask. It’s not on the menu for some reason and I’ve never asked. His homemade chorizo is sooo good! He won’t give me the recipe! The Fundido is a cauldron of boiling hot cheeses with roasted poblanos and onions with black olives. Served with soft, warm flour tortillas. Yum, I might go there today! They also make killer margaritas any way you like. Man, my mouth is watering!

    As an aside, I scored some Spanish chorizo and have been snacking on that for a week! Can you tell I love chorizo? Johnsonville chorizo is also in my fridge! Yikes! Lunch calls. Thank you for this recipe!

    1. Laughs. I love everything about this, Andi. Chorizo tends to have that effect on some of us, yes? I was beachside in Mexico a year ago and the most memorable meal was clams with chorizo. When you get a hankering next time and you’re out of your stash, perhaps you try to make your own? Our recipe for homemade chorizo draws on the best aspects of both Mexican and Spanish chorizo. Well, or so we think. I wonder how moose meat would work in this…

    1. Ann, setting aside the fact that cast-iron skillets are often used in Tex-Mex cuisine (as well as contribute to one hell of a good picture!), cast iron offers incredibly even heating while cooking and significant heat retention.

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