Smoked Queso

This smoky cheesy dip is simple to make and is easy to get creative with. It is a great way to kick off any bbq.

This recipe seems to be the new craze of the summer for bbqs. I never really saw a recipe for queso pop up before a couple months ago and now I can’t go into a bbq group, channel, or blog without seeing someones version of this dip. Because of the popularity, and my love of queso, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I think the appeal to this recipe, besides how good it tastes, is that it is very easy to make and also to put your own spin on. I am going to share the recipe I used but in a section at the end I will list off a few of the altenatives I have seen being used so you can decide just how you would like to create this for yourself.

Cooking Basics

This is a pretty straight forward recipe. You will want to cook your ground beef ahead of time. Once that is done you simply mix all the ingredients into a pan and throw it on the smoker. One of the things that I love about this recipe is that it can cook with most anything else you happen to have on the smoker. I cooked this at 350 degrees in the recipe but really you can cook this at any temperature below as well and as soon as all the cheesy goodness has melted you are ready to eat.

Final Thoughts

• Alternatives - As I mentioned above there are so many slightly different ways I have seen this done I wanted to share few in case you were feeling adventurous.

• Meat - I used ground beef when I made this but I have seen recipes use pork sausage, chorizo, and breakfast sausage as altenatives.
• Vegetables - I minimized the ingredients when I made it but I have seen people add in a chopped up bell pepper, onion, and jalepeno peppers to the mix.
• Soup alternative - I used a can of cream of mushroom soup. This was for flavor as well as to help make the dip a little creamier. If you don’t like Cream of Mushroom soup I have also seem people use a little milk, half and half, or some other variety of cream of soup instead.
• Seasoning alternatives - I used Pit Boss Sweet Rib Rub when I made this recipe but feel free to try your favorite rub.

If any of you decide to get creative please leave a comment with what you tried and how it turned out. I would love to hear about it. Next time I make this I think I will try pork sausage and mix in some taco seasoning to give it a little more flavor.

• Lighten It Up - I always try to lighten up recipes if I can do it without negatively affecting the flavor. One of the things we did was to use the 2% velveeta instead of regular. The other thing you can do to lighten up this recipe is either get leaner ground beef or use turkey burger. I know the idea of using turkey might sound sacrilegious to some pit masters but with this recipe you dont really get much flavor from the meat so it really doesnt affect the outcome of this recipe too much.

Recipe