3 Cheese Sauces That Are Much Better Than What Chipotle Does
Chipotle is currently serving queso, and according to Twitter , nobody was impressed. I could probably take their word for it, but damn it, I’m a “journalist”, so I went to the (very recently installed) Chipotle next to me and ordered a cup of sauce.
As promised, it didn’t work out very well. I don’t know if I can say that it was worse than an E. coli infection , but I didn’t really like it. It was runny, oddly sour and grainy on the tongue. I would not order this again. (Not because I won’t eat Chipotle anymore; I love their shitty tacos when I’m hungover, especially with a lot of corn salsa and sour cream.)
Anyway. This experience left me with a craving for edible kesos, and this craving could not be denied. Fortunately, there are three different paths we can take to get there. Let’s start with the simplest.
Route 1: overcome yourself and grab Velveeta
Watch. I know that many of you are not fans of processed cheese, but there is a reason why Velveeta and other similar cheeses melt so smoothly and evenly, and that reason is the melting of the salts . As someone who has tried both, I can say with great authority that eating Velveeta-based cheese sauce is a much more satisfying experience than eating Chipotle’s gritty offering.
Plus, it could be argued that combining one pound of Velveeta with one 10oz Rotel can is less of a hassle than a visit to Chipotle. You can dice the cheese and toss it into a saucepan of undrained tomato and chili mixture, heating and stirring on medium-low until everything is nice and smooth, or you can toss it all into a microwave-safe bowl and stir about five minutes, stirring halfway. Both options are good and both will give you a cheese sauce that’s better than Chipotle.
Path 2: Get Molecular
Speaking of melting salts, did you know that you can buy them and that once you buy them, you can use them to turn just about any cheese into a sauce? As I mentioned earlier , hard cheeses like cheddar tend to turn into a viscous, fatty mass when heated. Sodium citrate prevents this by acting as an emulsifier, lowering the acidity of the cheese (raising the pH) and making the proteins more soluble. This, along with the addition of a little water, allows the hard chunk of cheese to melt into a creamy sauce that doesn’t flake or break.
I used melting salts to make cheese sauce using a submersible circulation pump, but you can cook it on the stove as well. To make a creamy sauce with real cheese that still has a velvety texture, you will need:
- 8 ounces of any cheese, grated or thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon sodium citrate
- 1/2 cup water (beer, sherry, or wine can also be used)
Add sodium citrate to a saucepan and pour in the liquid of your choice. Bring liquid to a boil, add cheese, stir until melted. Dip something in it.
Route 3: follow Route Route
Perhaps the cheese sauce you crave is not always smooth and smooth. Perhaps you want the sauce to be nice and creamy, but with a little thread. To do this, you will need at least two things: cheese (yes) and a dressing .
Despite its quirky French name, roux is just a slightly cooked mixture of fat and flour. The fat coats the starch granules, separating them and preventing clumping when you introduce a liquid, in this case milk. However, unlike the gravy dressing, we first cook some vegetables in fat (butter), then add the flour, covering the vegetables so that they are all evenly distributed throughout the sauce. To make a ru-based queso sauce you will need:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 1 fresh jalapeno, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 / 3-1 / 2 cans of diced tomatoes, whichever you prefer
- 1 small can of chopped green chili
- 10 ounces chopped cheddar
- 10 ounces grated pepper
- Salt to taste
- Minute pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Melt butter in a large stainless steel skillet over medium heat and add onions and jalapenos. Cook the vegetables until the onions are soft and translucent, then add the garlic and cook until the aroma appears for about 30 more seconds. Add flour, stir to coat vegetables, and cook for another 30 seconds. Pour in milk gradually, stirring continuously, and let cook until you get a nice thick sauce (about four minutes). Add tomatoes and chili peppers and stir to combine.
Reduce heat and add handfuls of cheese, stirring each addition until completely melted. Continue until all the cheese is there. Season with salt to taste and add a tiny pinch of cinnamon. (Or not. It’s just a weird thing I love to do that adds a nice roundness.) Stir it all over again.
Pour the cheese into a bowl (or a tiny slow cooker to keep warm) and serve with the usual items you like to dip cheese into.
Dip a chip in there and sit down with the smugness that comes from defeating Chipotle in their own game.
Repeat this entire process until you have quenched your cravings for cheese sauce. (For me, this is an endless process.)