I’ve shared several times before about my love for Mexican food. Queso has always ranked among my top favorites within this category, but when smoked queso hit the scene this spring, it admittedly bumped up my queso game.
The funny thing is, we’ve been making this recipe for years. The only difference is that we always fixed it in our crockpot and never even thought to try it in the smoker.
Duh!
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Nearly 20 years ago, my wife Melissa brought this recipe home from a work pot luck where her friend Kris had prepared it for the school staff where she taught.
Over the years we’ve fixed this both exactly as written and also with modifications. But each and every time we made it, we used the crock pot.
I’ve come to realize that there are probably a lot of the old standard recipes that we’ve been making a certain way for so long that could be adapted for the smoker if I would only think outside the box occasionally!
It was cool to taste the difference between the way we’ve been preparing this for years and the smoked version. We all loved the extra layer of flavor that came with preparing this on the grill.
How to Make Smoked Queso
Step 1:
Cook the sausage and fresh vegetables (onion and bell pepper) on the stove and drain the grease. Dump the cooked meat and veggie combo into a disposable aluminum foil pan along with a block of Velveeta (cubed), cream cheese (cubed), can of cream of mushroom soup (trust me), a can of Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies and the seasoning.
Step 2:
Place the pan of ingredients on the smoker or grill over indirect heat at about 350 degrees.
Step 3:
Stir the ingredients every 15 minutes or so. By 45 minutes all the cheese should be sufficiently melted and bubbly.
Smoked Queso Modifications
There are so many ways you can adapt this recipe to your own liking. The sky is truly the limit.
This particular version that we’ve shared today is kid-friendly because we wanted our children to actually eat their dinner. So I had to add my spicy ingredients to the plate rather than the dish.
But here are some of the options we’ve tried or thought of ourselves:
- fresh jalapeno
- pickled jalapeno
- ground beef
- chorizo
- leftover smoked brisket
- canned green chilies
- there are quite a few different varieties of Rotel that you could play with
- non-processed cheese, cubed or shredded (pepper jack, monterey jack, sharp cheddar, etc.)
- black beans (drained)
- spicy chili beans
- poblano peppers
- chipotles in adobo sauce
- cayenne pepper
- fresh cilantro (after cooking)
The possibilities are endless. Drop us a comment below to let us know how you’ve customized your own smoked queso recipe!
Smoked Queso
Equipment
- Smoker
Ingredients
- 1 lb velveeta cubed
- 8 oz cream cheese cubed
- 10 oz Rotel
- 10 oz cream of mushroom soup
- 1 lb sausage browned and drained
- 1 onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp adobo seasoning
Instructions
- Brown the sausage, onion, and red bell pepper in a saute pan on the stove. Drain grease if necessary.
- Cube the block of Velveeta and cream cheese and place them in the aluminum foil pan.
- Add the cooked sausage and vegetable blend and all remaining ingredients into the pan. You don't even need to stir.
- Place on the smoker running around 350° for about 15 minutes.
- Stir the queso up and leave for another 15 minutes.
- Stir one more time and leave for an additional 10-15 minutes. The heat may be reduced to 275° if necessary to avoid burning cheese on the bottom of the pan.
- Stir the queso up and confirm that all the cheese is in fact melted. Then enjoy!
Keith
November 1, 2020 1:51 pmTry subbing half cream cheese for half of the velveeta. I think you’ll like! Great recipe
David Gafford
November 1, 2020 4:41 pmI’m a firm believer that cream cheese can make anything better. My daughter may disagree, but I can’t force her to be right, right?