I want to share with you my all-time most favoritest cheese sauce recipe.
Why cheese sauce? Because cheese sauce makes absolutely every THING into cheesy goodness.
Cheesy Cauliflower
You can pour cheese sauce on veggies like cauliflower and broccoli.
Cheesy Macaroni
You can pour cheese sauce over noodles for a cheesy baked pasta.
More Cheesy Sauce Ideas
You can stir salsa into cheese sauce and serve with chips for dipping.
Cheese sauce adorns your baked potato, stars when poured on your nachos and dresses up a toasty tuna melt.
What’s an enchilada without cheese sauce? Can a Philly Cheesesteak exist without cheese sauce? Is it a sloppy joe without a dousing of cheese sauce?
Cheese Sauce Ideas
Don’t forget to try different ingredients for new cheese sauce flavors!
- Stir in bleu cheese for a super steak topper. Add grated Gruyere for a fondue dipper.
- Add some brie cheese and you have a cheese sauce to pour over apples and fig crudité.
The combinations are endless.
And it all starts with a basic white sauce that you then bend to your wishes.
White Sauce (Béchamel) Recipe
Makes about 2 cups
Time To Prepare
15 minutes ’til it’s ready
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter, ½ stick
- ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated, about ½ cup
Directions
Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat.
Once the butter melts and starts to bubble, whisk in the flour. Cook the flour in the butter, whisking it around on the bottom of the pot to produce a smooth paste (a roux), about 1 to 2 minutes.
Slowly pour the milk into the paste, whisking until combined.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking and whisking until the sauce begins to thicken. You will know the sauce is thick enough by dipping a spoon into it. Take your finger and run it through the sauce coating the back of the spoon. If you can see a line from your finger, the sauce is ready.
This will take about 5 minutes.
Stir in the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir in the cheese.
Thing to Note:
If you set your milk out, bringing it to room temperature before you start the sauce, it will cook faster.
Another Thing to Note:
If you don’t have white pepper, don’t sweat it. Regular black pepper will be just fine. There will just be a couple of specks in your sauce. These add distinction!
Homemade Cheese Sauce Recipe
Makes about 2 ½ cups
Time To Prepare
30 minutes ’til it’s ready
Ingredients
- 2 cups White Sauce for Mac and cheese
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese, grated, about 1 cup
- 4 ounces Monterrey Jack cheese, grated, about 1 cup
Directions
Prepare the white sauce. Once it has thickened, turn off the heat.
Whisk in the cheddar cheese. When the cheddar has completely melted, whisk in the Monterrey Jack.
Boom! You’ve got this!
Thing to Note:
Use any cheese you want. You can add more or less based on your personal cheese quotient.
Another Thing to Note:
Notice that I used grated cheese in the directions for this sauce. Grated cheese will melt faster and easier in the hot sauce than cubes or chunks, although those will still work, you will just need to stir them for a bit longer than directed above.
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