Salsa Con Queso is a delicious and easy Mexican cheese dip you’ll love! Our homemade recipe is better than Tostitos queso dip from the store. Great for game day, get togethers, watch parties, and taco nights!

 

Whenever we’re throwing a party or want to watch a couple movies, we love fixing up some chips and dip to go with it. We’ve made all sorts of tasty Mexican flavored dips before- everything from Homemade Salsa and Easy Pico De Gallo to our 2 Ingredient Mexican Salsa Dip. But, this Salsa Con Queso is our new favorite.

We’re no strangers to cheesy dip recipes on this site: take a peek at our White Queso Dip and Copycat Chili’s Queso Dip. Both of those dips are pretty mild in flavor. This Salsa Con Queso has a bit more kick, which we like.

Salsa Con Queso, meaning just “sauce with cheese,” is pretty much a blend of homemade Mexican salsa and melty queso dip. The result? A warm, creamy Mexican cheese dip laced with bright salsa flavors and a touch of heat from some chiles and peppers. So tasty and a must-make for your next game day party or taco Tuesday dinner night!

Why you’ll love this Homemade Salsa Con Queso Recipe

• Making a homemade Salsa Con Queso is going to be way better than anything you can buy from the store. We’d call this a Copycat Tostitos Salsa Con Queso but ours turned out way better! Why pick up Taco Bell Salsa Con Queso or On The Border Salsa Con Queso when you can just make it better from scratch?
• This Salsa and Cheese Dip is a nice change of pace from either a salsa or queso dip. You get that warm melty cheese and fresh, chunky salsa flavor in every bite! Instead of picking one or the other, go with this salsa and queso blend and have a bit of both.
• Above all, this is such an easy Salsa Con Queso recipe. Make a quick cheese sauce, add in your tomatoes and jalapenos, and let everything stew together for a bit. It’s just a bit more effort than going with store-bought queso but the effort is so worth it!

Salsa Con Queso Ingredients

You shouldn’t have too much trouble getting the ingredients around for this Easy Salsa Con Queso recipe. Here’s all you’re going to need:

• Butter
• Flour – Just use an all-purpose flour here.
• Milk – We’ll add some of this to our butter and flour to make a bechamel. This makes this recipe a sort of “Salsa Bechamel Con Queso.”
• Cheese – Freshly shredded cheese, preferably. We went with some mild cheddar cheese and Pepperjack cheese.
• Rotel Tomatoes – These canned tomatoes and green chiles are a great kitchen hack for adding some heat and Mexican flavor to tons of recipes.
• Jarred Jalapeños – Note that these are not pickled jalapenos. Look around your grocery store and you’ll probably find these pre-sliced jalapeños in a jar with some water. Try to dice them up a bit before using them.

Of course, you’ll also want some tortilla chips to serve up along with your Salsa Con Queso!

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Salsa Con Queso

In all, this is a pretty simple and easy Mexican cheese dip recipe- it shouldn’t be any trouble at all to make! To make the best Salsa Con Queso, here’s all you have to do:

• We’ll start by making a roux for some bechamel sauce. To make a roux, start by melting butter over low heat in a saucepot. Once that melted butter bubbles up a little bit, add some flour.

• Mix those together until all the flour has soaked up the butter and come together into a roux. You’ll want to cook this for another few minutes until it turns a nice golden-brown color and it has a nice nutty smell to it.

• Now you need to add milk to the roux to make it into a bechamel. Normally, you’d add the milk slowly but, since we’re only adding a couple tablespoons, you can add it all at once. Use something like a whisk to help blend the roux and milk together.

• Once our bechamel comes together, we can start adding in our other ingredients. Start by adding the shredded cheeses and giving everything a quick stir.

• Once the cheeses start to melt, you can add the drained Rotel tomatoes and the diced-up jarred jalapenos. Give another stir to combine and continue cooking over low/medium-low heat until everything is melted and heated through. Serve warm with your favorite tortilla chips!

Substitutions

With such a short list of ingredients, you might be surprised to here that a good few of them can be substituted and swapped out if you need. In case you have to swap some ingredients around, here’s a few you can use:

• Roux and Bechamel – Maybe you’re out of flour or your lactose intolerant and need some sort of non-dairy bechamel? Don’t worry, since there’s quite a few substitutes you can use for the butter, flour, and milk! For the butter, feel free to use any sort of neutral fat; for the flour, cornstarch is a pretty popular flour substitute for roux; finally for the milk, feel free to use any sort of dairy or non-dairy milk products or even some stock.
• Cheese – Cheddar and Pepperjack cheese are far from the only options when it comes to cheese for queso dips. One popular blend uses white American cheese and queso fresco cheese while another involves white Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese. You can even check the variations below for how to make salsa con queso with Velvetta cheese if you’d prefer!
• Jarred Jalapenos – We usually find and buy these at Sam’s Club but understand if you do no have any on hand just get some fresh jalapeños and slice and dice them by hand. You can also sub in any hotter or milder peppers if you prefer.

Variations

We tried to keep our recipe for Salsa Con Queso pretty simple and approachable so anyone could make it easily. That also means there’s plenty of room to experiment and change the recipe up! Here’s just a couple ideas you can try out next time:

• Spicy Salsa Con Queso – If this Queso Dip isn’t hot and spicy enough for your tastes, there’s plenty of ways to amp up the heat. Start by doubling up on the diced jalapenos and, if that’s not enough, consider swapping the normal Rotel tomatoes out for the Rotel tomatoes with habaneros. All else fails, you could always add in a few healthy glugs of hot sauce too!
• Velveeta Salsa Con Queso – If you don’t care too much about the cheese or being able to pick what flavors of cheese you want, you can make this super-easy with some Velveeta. Drop the butter, flour and shredded cheeses from this recipe and just melt some Velveeta cheese and milk together to make a Velveeta Queso Dip. Add the Rotel tomatoes and jarred diced jalapenos, mix, and let warm through before serving.

Storage / Freezing

Storage: Our Salsa Con Queso will hold up really well in the fridge once you’ve cooked it and let it cool! Store in an airtight container or wrap tightly with plastic wrap before keeping in the fridge for 3-4 days. To reheat, transfer to a microwave safe bowl, and microwave in 30-second intervals while stirring in between until heated through.

Freezing: Freezing queso dip like this can be a bit of a tricky task since cheese and cream sauces don’t really freeze and thaw so easily. Transfer the cooked and cooled dip to a freezer-safe container and leave plenty of room for it to expand in the freezer. Expect this to last 4-6 months and, for best results, try reheating low-and-slow on the stovetop instead of the microwave.

Other Dip Recipes

Looking for other dip recipe ideas? Try these:

• Rotel Dip
• 7 Layer Dip
• White Queso Dip
• 2 Ingredient Salsa Dip

Other Warm Appetizer Recipes

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Franks Red Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip

Beef

Slow Cooker Party Meatballs

Other

Air Fryer Chicken Wings

Other

Easy Cheesy Pizza Dip