Well, I guess now I *have* to have a party because I’ve got a big vat of Spicy Chorizo Cheese Dip and I definitely can’t be left alone in a room with it. I can’t be trusted with this much cheesy goodness. 😳 But if you are going to have a party, like say for football, Halloween, or any other event, this Spicy Chorizo Cheese Dip is totally the way to go! You only need 5 ingredients and there is no American cheese, Velveeta, or “cheese product” involved. 👏
P.S. It’s not intentional that half the pictures of this recipe are of me scooping it up with a chip. I literally couldn’t stop.
It’s all about the Chorizo…
The chorizo is the magic ingredient in this cheese dip, so DON’T leave it out. Chorizo is packed with spices, which will automatically season the entire batch of cheese dip. Make sure you buy Mexican chorizo, which is a fresh ground sausage, not Spanish chorizo, which is a hard cured sausage.
I prefer Johnsonville brand chorizo because it’s not as fatty or greasy as some other brands, and you can find it in most major grocery stores. It does come in both links and loose ground meat, so if you get links just slice the casing open and empty the ground meat into your skillet.
Keep your Cheese Dip Warm
You’ll probably want to keep your Spicy Chorizo Cheese Dip warm so that it stays creamy for your party guests, so I did a little testing. My slow cooker was a bit too large for this batch size, so I tested it in my 2 qt rice cooker on the “warm” setting. It kept the cheese dip creamy and warm for a whole hour, stirring only occasionally, and the dip never clumped up or broke down. It probably would have lasted longer, but I had things to do, places to go, people to see, and I had to end the experiment.
Reheating the Cheese Dip
I also tested reheating the Spicy Chorizo Cheese Dip and it performed well! I spooned about a half cup into a small bowl and microwaved on high for 30 seconds, then stirred, microwaved for about 15 seconds more, and then it was melty, cheesy perfection. No clumping, no separating, just creamy goodness!
Goes great with: Fire Roasted Salsa, Best Ever Avocado Dip, Homemade Baked Tortilla Chips
Spicy Chorizo Cheese Dip
Servings 6 1/2 cup eachIngredients
- 1/2 lb. Mexican chorizo ($2.00)
- 1 10oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles (like Rotel) ($0.49)
- 1 12oz. can evaporated milk ($0.65)
- 12 oz. Monterey jack cheese*, shredded ($3.00)
- 3 green onions (garnish) ($0.25)
Instructions
- Brown the chorizo in a skillet over medium heat until it is slightly crispy on the edges. If your chorizo is very fatty, drain some of it off before the next step (leave a couple of tablespoons of fat in the skillet).
- Drain the diced tomatoes with green chiles, then add it to the skillet with the chorizo, and continue to stir and cook until most of the moisture from the canned tomatoes has evaporated away.
- Pour the evaporated milk into the skillet. Stir and cook until heated through.
- Turn the heat under the skillet down to low. Begin adding the cheese, one handful at a time, stirring until it is fully melted in before adding the next handful.
- Once all the cheese has melted into the dip, turn the heat off. Garnish with sliced green onion and serve!
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chorizo Cheese Dip – Step by Step Photos
If you’re unfamiliar with Mexican chorizo, it’s a heavily spiced ground pork product. Super yummy. I like this brand because it’s a lot less greasy than some others I’ve tried. It comes in both links and loose ground meat, like this. If you get links, just cut open the casing and scoop the meat into your skillet.
Brown 1/2 lb. of the chorizo in a skillet over medium heat until it’s a bit crispy on the edges (you can freeze the rest of the chorizo). If your chorizo is super fatty, you may want to drain some of it off before moving to the next step.
If you’re familiar with Rotel, you can use that, or use a generic version of diced tomatoes with green chiles, like I did. Drain the excess liquid from the can before adding them to the skillet.
Continue to stir and cook the Rotel and chorizo until most of the moisture from the tomatoes has evaporated (another 3-5 minutes).
Add one 12oz. can of evaporated milk to the skillet and allow it to heat through.
Once the liquid is hot, turn the heat under the skillet down to low. Begin adding the 12 oz. of shredded Monterey jack, one handful at a time, stirring until it is fully melted in before adding more. (The liquid looks really orange because the fat from the chorizo is floating on top and it’s orange from all the spices).
Once all the cheese has been melted into the sauce, it will be thick and delicious! Turn the heat off.
Garnish the Spicy Chorizo Cheese Dip with green onions, and serve! (I also reserved a tablespoon or so of the crispy chorizo and used that as garnish.)
As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to make! I used beef chorizo and HOT/habenro rotel and it was FANTABULOUS!!! My husband and I very much enjoyed this…thanks for sharing!
Hi Beth,
I think this is the first time I’ve watched one of your recipe videos. It is so well presented. The idea of a single burner sitting on the table with the dark backdrop. Fabulous. Combined with the onions and chips. #AwesomeSauce
Already know the recipe will be great. BudgetBytes is my first, and usually only, stop when doing my weekly meal planning.
Thank you, Matt!
Beth from scratch chorizo should be your next BB project, it’s just ground pork/cumin/ground chipotle/ground adobo. I’m sure you can find those spices in big groceries now :).
extra love from me if you can figure out the ratios to keep the spice mix in the pantry for chorizo type emergencies
Great recipe Beth. Love that you didn’t use Velveeta. (Too many recipes do) Here is another thing you didn’t use – The Microwave. How many cheese dip recipes call for the microwave? (Again, too many) You use the perfect pan – a cast iron fry pan. Thank you for posting a “real ingredient” recipe.
This was SO good. Easy to make and my husband and I enjoyed all through our football watching. We love your recipes and I’m usually cooking one up every week. I never get any complaints if it’s a BudgetBytes meal. I have the Chicken and Dumplings in the slow cooker right now!
Beth. The Chorizo Cheese Dip is on point. It was so good that my sister and I ate the whole pan. It was delicious. Thanks, Beth for the amazing recipe. 😍😍
Just finished making this and it’s great!
As soon as I saw the recipe, I knew I had to give it a go but since I’m dairy free, I changed a few things.
For the cheese:
I used df(All ‘Go Veggie’ brand) cheddar and mozzarella cheese shreds and cheddar slices (next time I’ll only use the cheddar slices as they melted down better)
For the evaporated milk:
I reduced about 24oz. plain almond milk down for 30 mins until it was evap. milk consistency and it reduced down to 8 oz. … after the cheese was added at the end I added more almond milk to thin it out (but next time I think I’ll try cashew milk as it’s a bit creamier)
-Also added a few shakes of salt
I found that with using the df cheese, you have to keep it heated because as soon as it cools down it starts to get a bit rubbery but when it’s reheated it’s fine.
As a previous commenter suggested, I would brown the chorizo just a tad more to get it extra crispy and have that texture contrast.
I also added a 1/2 tsp of white miso with the cheese
I made this tonight and it was excellent – I made it as listed except I used Trader Joe’s soyrizo, since that’s what I had to hand and I didn’t feel like going back out.
The only think I’d do different is give the soyrizo a little more time to crisp on the edges – it did, but I think it would have given a greater texture contrast with more. Otherwise, excellent and I’ll make it again.
Do you think Trader Joe’s soy chorizo would work for this recipe?
Yes, I think that would work great. :)
I made this with the Trader Joe’s soy chorizo as the party host is a vegetarian. It worked fine (and I had it in the crockpot on ‘keep warm’ for ~5 hours and it didn’t break or anything). I used ~3/4 of the package and froze the rest to make tacos with later
Can you make this with ground beef instead of pork? What are the spices in chorizo that makes it specifically tasty?
You’re on the right track with the fact that you’d need to add the spices back in to make up for the chorizo. I don’t know off hand what spices are used in chorizo, but you could try Googling “chorizo spices” or “chorizo recipe” to see if there are some basic chorizo recipes out there that list the spices.
Oh.My.Lord. That is all.
Chorizo is the Kroger Friday freebie this week so I will definitely try this recipe!
That’s what made me want to try this recipe too!
I’m curious if you know how well it preserves. I’ve made your enchilada sauce recipe in large quantities and sealed it in jam jars (but kept it in the fridge). This seems like a candidate for that, too.
[Edited for URL typo correction]
It will probably last about four days in the fridge, but I’m not sure about canning because unfortunately I don’t have any experience with that.
I looked into this. Signs point to no.
Bummer! But thanks for following up with what you found. :)
Two supermarkets and one bodega in my local small town community make their own chorizo, all of which are leaner than Johnsonville and vary in flavor and heat. Still, I always drain it on paper towels after cooking and before adding to any recipe–I usually cook up a bunch and keep leftovers in the freezer. I think that it is worth looking at local sources where ever you happen to be and picking the version you like best. It’s nice to have a reliable national brand, but you may be able to do even better with locally ground and seasoned meat. This is a recent thing in my area–for years I froze bulk chorizo to carry home to NC from Texas–and still do that for roasted Hatch chilis. I adore that old Texas fave–melted Velveeta and Rotel, although I always did add diced onion to mine. My DDIL, from Dallas, prefers her queso with sausage and I passed this version to her–after a prolonged and much enjoyed taste test (there’s always chorizo in my freezer just in case a recipe pops up).
Sadly in my province I can’t get mexican Chorizo anywhere. Spanish Chorizo, sure, but not the ground stuff.
However I recently noticed this product on the shelves: http://www.johnsonville.ca/products/TexMex-Ground-Pork.html
I’m not sure if that’s just the same sausage as Johnsonville’s Chorizo, just rebranded for Canada, but it tastes similar enough to Chorizo I’ve had elsewhere that I’m fairly sure it is. And even if it’s not identical it hits all the same notes so I feel pretty confident in using it as a substitute. So take this as a heads up to any rural Canucks reading this, if you can’t get Chorizo at your local grocery keep an eye out for this instead.
Yes, I bet that would work great in this recipe! Thanks for sharing that. I’ve not seen it in stores. :)