Prepare yourselves. Beef Queso Dip (The Greatest Queso EVER, well that and may Queso Fundido) is happening and I am 100% not kidding when I tell you, you've been warned.
I've been on a salsa kick for the better part of my 30 years, but recently it's been kicked into high gear because hello, I now have my own line of salsas!!! A chipotle salsa. A tomatillo salsa. And a guacamole starter to be exact. And I've been eating them daily. No joke. I have 2 dozen of each in the pantry and I can't get enough.
Obviously you can use them all as salsas, or throw them all with 3-4 avocados and mash it together for guacamole. OR you can start cooking with them like me. That's the beauty of these, they are so multi-use it's crazy. Plus no weird ingredients and they taste homemade #justsayin. Mostly recently I tossed some into this beef queso and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that the queso had to be physically removed from in front of me. TWICE. Once at home, and once at the studio when we were shooting this beauty. I've never seen 4 people descend on a bowl of bubbly hot queso like this before. We were basically vultures and it looked as though we hadn't eaten in weeks. But there's an easy explanation for that and here's why....
This isn't just any queso. It's a mixture of cheeses, tons of savory salsa and the most epic seasoned ground beef known to man. When you combine all of that together and serve it with tortilla chips, there's really nothing quite like it. I PINKIE PROMISE that you'll be just as obsessed.
Beef Queso Dip
Ingredients
For the Beef
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ pound ground beef
- ½ yellow onion small dice
- 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper
- 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
For the Queso
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ medium onion small dice
- 1 poblano pepper small dice
- 3 jalapeños finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- ½ cup Gaby's tomatillo salsa links above if you want to order
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups milk plus more as needed
- ½ pound Monterey Jack cheese grated
- ½ pound Pepper Jack cheese grated
- Pico de Gallo Guacamole, sour cream, chopped chives, chopped cilantro, and chips
Instructions
For the Beef
- Heat oil in a large skillet over high. Add the beef and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until browned on all sides for about 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, cook for 6–8 minutes, the last minute, add the garlic and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, cumin and chili powder and cook for 1 minute to toast the spices. Add the chicken stock and add beef back into the skillet. Bring to a simmer and cook until stock has completely evaporated, roughly 10 minutes. Remove from heat, taste and season with salt and pepper, leave it in the skillet and set aside.
For the Queso
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion, poblano, jalapeños, and garlic, for 8–10 minutes until soft. Add the salsa and stir to combine. Stir in flour and cook until incorporated, about 1 minute. Whisk in milk and continue to cook until mixture comes to a boil and thickens, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, and add all the cheeses, stirring constantly, until cheese is completely melted and queso is smooth. If it seems too thick or gloopy, stir in a tablespoon of milk at a time until smooth.
- Pour the hot queso over the skillet with the meat. Sprinkle with chives and cilantro and chopped tomatoes. Serve immediately with chips.
Hi Gaby!
I'm making this dip for a BBQ I'm going to today and didn't realize I needed to serve immediately. Will it be okay to make it now, 8am and serve at 1? I guess I was just way too excited to make it and didn't read all the directions
the cheese will harden up while it sits out, so you can just re-bake it to warm it and re-melt the cheese!
I made this last night and it was incredible! I made a lot more of the meat and my kids used it as taco filling, it was so delicious I don't think I'll ever go back to using packaged taco seasoning! The queso was really easy to make and so flavorful, we loved it. I'll definitely be making this again!
Yay!! LOVE hearing that Sarah! xo
Helllooooooo Cinco De Mayo! You're looking as delicious as ever 🙂 Totally in love with this dip!
Quick question - you cook the beef and set aside in a bowl, then cook the onion as directed in step 2 and set aside in the skillet. And then after the queso is done you pour it over the beef. Sine the beef is never mentioned again should I just assume that the it goes back into the onion skillet before pouring queso?
Hi Becca, In step 2 the meat is set aside and in step 4 the cheese mixture is poured back of the meat. Hope that helps
Looks sooo good!!! What could you replace your tomatillo starter with? (I'm in Canada so I can't get my hands on them 🙁 )
it's carried at Williams-Sonoma in Canada!! But a tomatillo salsa would work
Why isn't there a drooling emoji?? My mouth is literally watering (granted I haven't eaten breakfast yet today) and this looks amazing! I have to try it!
lovely presentation!
Looking forward to meeting you in San Diego in a few weeks and getting some of your new salsas!
yayyyy can't wait!
My boys love anything they can dip a chip in 🙂
I need this ASAP!
Oh my goodness, Gaby!! I love pretty much anything to do with cheese, especially dip, and this looks amazing. I definitely need to give it a try.
Looks so good! I was also wondering, what brand of chips to you use? They look awesome! Thanks!!
I made these ones from scratch!
That was my exact guess in the chips! Homemade is ALWAYS better!!
I so want this queso in my life!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE - I can totally see why everyone gathered around this like vultures.
This looks amazing! I want to eat the whole bowl all by myself!