White Velveeta Queso Dip is made with sausage, soft velveeta cheese, pepper jack, diced green chiles, cream cheese, and milk to make it ultra cheesy!
This is a super easy white queso dip made especially for tortilla chips, and it makes the makes the BEST white cheese sauce for loaded nachos with Instant Pot Black Beans on top. It's one of my favorite appetizer dip recipes, along with Caramelized Onion Dip.
This white cheese sauce is a flourless appetizer, it's grain free and gluten free meaning there is no thickening agents or "rouxs" using flour or cornstarch which many other cheese sauces have.
This recipe uses flavorful cheeses like pepper jack and white Velveeta, which makes this white cheese dip THE BEST. Adding sausage and a thinner like milk is definitely necessary and delicious.
This recipe was tested SEVERAL times without Velveeta using other high-quality cheeses, but it simply has to have the emulsifiers in the Velveeta in order to have that gooey cheese dip texture. Otherwise, it turns grainy and clumps due to the separation of fats and milk proteins.
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What To Expect
- Ease: This is a beginner recipe, with a few expert tips to help make sure it turns out amazing!
- Taste: It's a creamy white cheese dip with a little garlic and green chile and pepperjack to add some spice, and sausage to add delicious flavor. It's not a very spicy dip, but you can easily make it more spicy if you like.
- Time: Crock pot white queso takes about 2 hours since we heat it slower at a lower heat.
🛒 Ingredients
- Pepperjack Cheese - NOT pre-shredded! It has additives that cause caking.
- White Velveta Cheese - again, no pre-shredded cheese. Using this soft cheese ensures a nice smooth texture that doesn't curdle.
- Cream Cheese - adds both flavor and lovely creaminess to the white queso dip.
- Ground Sausage - Make sure to get regular and not Italian seasoned. The flavors will clash and taste different.
- Milk - whole milk is best because of the higher fat content.
- Canned Diced Green Chiles - mild, medium, or hot depending on your desired spice level.
- Garlic Powder - adds depth of flavor to the dip, but can be left out if preferred.
See the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and quantities.
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
- Want spicy? Add a diced jalapeno or hot canned green chiles instead of medium heat to make it a spicy white queso dip.
- Garnish with your favorite salsa or diced Rotel tomatoes for a bit of a twist. Careful about stirring it in, though, it will turn your white queso pink!
- Add shredded rotisserie chicken instead of cooked sausage for a white chicken queso dip!
- Add a few Tablespoons of your favorite salsa verde for even more flavor!
🧑🍳 Instructions
Make sure you use a slow cooker or crock pot for this white queso recipe. You could also use an Instant Pot on the slow cooker setting. Heating this on the stove may cause the cheese to melt at too high of a temperature causing separation.
Step 1. Cook the sausage over medium heat in a frying pan, stirring and breaking sausage into small pieces as it cooks, about 5 minutes until no pink is left and cooked through.
Step 2. Combine pepper jack, white velveeta, and cream cheese in the slow cooker, crock pot, or instant pot using the slow cooker setting on LOW heat.
Stir in the diced green chiles and garlic powder as well.
Step 3. Pour in the milk and lightly mix together. It won't be smooth at all because nothing is melted yet, this is fine.
Step 4. Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours, occasionally stirring as the cheese melts.
Step 5. Garnish with cilantro, salsa, or diced tomatoes. Be aware that stirring in red salsa in will turn your white queso dip pink!
🍽️ What Do I Serve With White Queso Dip?
You can serve this white queso recipe as an appetizer, a topping for nachos, or as a side dish to any Mexican food! Here are a few ideas of what to dip in the white queso.
- Chips - white, yellow, or black corn tortilla chips are all my first choice!
- Homemade Soft Pretzels - an EXCELLENT vehicle for this amazing dip.
- Vegetables - you can even dip veggies in it! My favorites are fresh baby carrots, cut celery, sliced bell peppers, or snap peas.
- French fries or tater tots - Another cheesy appetizer with sausage and fries we love is Irish Poutine with Bacon and it's DIVINE.
📌 Top Tips For Success
- Stick to using a ratio of mostly soft cheeses (Velveeta or American) and less hard cheese (Cheddar or Pepperjack).
Melt the cheese in milk (with cream cheese for flavor!) to help it keep that creamy texture. - Don't turn heat too high! Heating at too high of a temperature could curdle the white cheese queso dip. Low and slow is best.
- Cut the cheese up or shred it before melting! Big blocks of cheese can heat unevenly and can mess up the texture.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
• High heat (above 160 F) or heating too quickly can cause the cheese to separate. You do not want your dip to boil. Heat low and slow!
• Using whole milk or cream also helps keep the texture nice and creamy.
• Avoid using pre-shredded cheeses, many have anti-caking additives that can turn gritty when melted.
Yes! You can use it in place of the pepper jack cheese. Make sure to use a softer mild white cheddar, as it has a better melting point than a harder sharp cheese.
The sauce will be more runny in the crock pot, but thickens as it cools.
• Don't turn heat too high!
• Keep the right ratio of soft cheese (white velveeta or white American) to harder cheese (pepperjack)
• Cut the cheese up or shred it before melting! Big chunks can heat unevenly and can mess up the texture.
This recipe is gluten-free, SO. How do you thicken a cheese sauce without flour?
Luckily, cheese thickens naturally as it cools, so there isn't really a need for any thickening agents here. Usually, the difficulty is making sure the cheese sauce stays smooth and creamy!
Once completely cooled, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Do not freeze. This will change the texture of the dip and make the sauce grainy when thawed due to the cheese.
More Easy & Delicious Appetizer Recipes
📝 Printable Recipe
White Queso Dip (With Sausage)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 oz ground sausage, mild (not italian variety)
- 16 oz white Velveeta cheese
- 8 oz pepper jack cheese
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup whole milk
- 7 oz can of diced green chiles
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- cilantro, optional
- salsa or diced tomatoes, optional
Instructions
- In a frying pan over medium/high heat, cook ground sausage about 5 minutes and break into small pieces, until cooked through and no longer pink. Transfer to slow cooker.
- Prepare ingredients by shredding or dicing cheeses (including cream cheese) into smaller pieces for quicker melting.
- Combine pepperjack, white Velveeta, and cream cheeses along with milk, green chiles, and garlic powder in the slow cooker with the cooked sausage.
- Cook on low heat 2-3 hours until cheese is completely melted, stirring occasionally.
- Garnish with cilantro and/or salsa and serve warm.
Annie B. says
I'm gonna be using this to make piles of restaurant-style nachos in my oven, THANK YOU!