Queso Fundido With Chorizo

Queso fundido with chorizo is a skillet of melted cheese, browned chorizo and roasted poblano pepper, baked until it bubbles and eaten straight from the pan with warm tortillas or chips. Brown the chorizo, leave most of its fat behind, layer it with Oaxaca and Monterey Jack cheese, and bake at 425 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

Fundido means melted. Unlike a smooth queso dip, which is loosened with milk, queso fundido is simply cheese, so it is thick and stretchy and best eaten hot, before it sets. The chorizo seasons the whole skillet with chile, garlic and spice.

At a glance: serves 8 as an appetizer. Prep 15 minutes, cook about 35 minutes.

Asked about ketchup and mustard, Gray Shipley, who runs the farm, said:

“I, the more I learn about food, the more important to me, clean label and food that's made of food.”

Gray Shipley

He was talking about condiments, not chorizo, and this page makes no promise about any label. Where the idea does fit is the dish itself, which is short: cheese, chorizo, a roasted pepper and an onion. Buy the cheese in a block and shred it yourself. Bagged shredded cheese is tossed with starch so the shreds do not stick together, and that starch keeps them from melting into a smooth, stretchy pool.

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh ground pork chorizo (raw, Mexican-style)
• 2 poblano peppers
• 1/2 white onion, finely diced
• 12 ounces Oaxaca cheese, pulled into thin strands or coarsely shredded
• 12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded from a block
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• Warm corn or flour tortillas, or tortilla chips, to serve
• Lime wedges and pickled jalapeños, to serve (optional)

Instructions

1. Roast the poblanos directly over a gas flame or under a hot broiler, turning them with tongs, for 8 to 10 minutes, until blackened all over. Put them in a bowl, cover it with a plate, and let them steam for 10 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 425 degrees with a rack in the middle.
3. Rub the charred skin off the poblanos with your fingers or a paper towel; do not rinse them. Pull out the stems and seeds and cut the flesh into thin strips.
4. Put the chorizo in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Cook it for 5 minutes, breaking it into small crumbles, then add the onion and cook for 4 to 6 minutes more, until the onion is soft and the chorizo is cooked through and crisp at the edges. Chorizo is red from its chiles, so color is no guide: push an instant-read thermometer into a small pile of crumbles and look for 160 degrees F.
5. Spoon the chorizo and onion into a bowl, leaving the fat behind, and stir in the poblano strips. Pour off all but about 1 teaspoon of fat from the skillet.
6. Toss the two cheeses together. Scatter half the cheese in the skillet, top it with half the chorizo mixture, then add the rest of the cheese and finish with the rest of the chorizo mixture.
7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese is completely melted and bubbling at the edges. For browned spots on top, broil for 1 to 2 minutes, watching closely.
8. Scatter the cilantro over the top and set the skillet on a trivet; the handle will be very hot. Serve right away with warm tortillas or chips, lime and jalapeños, stirring as you scoop.

Add 1 lb ground pork chorizo to cart

The best cheese for queso fundido

Oaxaca cheese gives the stretch. It is a mild, string-cheese-like cheese sold wound into a ball, and it melts into long, glossy pulls. Monterey Jack gives the smoothness, and it browns nicely on top. Asadero and Chihuahua cheese are good too, if you can find them. Without Oaxaca, low-moisture mozzarella gives a similar stretch. Avoid using dry, crumbly cheeses such as cotija on their own, since they do not melt into a pool, though a little crumbled over the top is good.

Mexican chorizo, not Spanish

This recipe needs fresh, raw Mexican-style chorizo, ground and seasoned with chile and spices, which crumbles and browns in the pan. Spanish chorizo is a cured, firm sausage that is sliced rather than crumbled. You can dice it and crisp it for a version of this dish, but it has a different, smokier flavor and gives off far less fat.

Keeping it melted

Queso fundido is at its best in the first 10 minutes, while it is still molten. Cast iron helps, because it holds heat at the table. If it starts to firm up, slide the skillet back into the oven for 3 to 5 minutes. For a smaller group, bake half the cheese and chorizo in a 10-inch skillet, refrigerate the rest, and bake it the next day.

Warming the tortillas

Warm the tortillas while the cheese bakes. Heat a dry skillet over medium-high heat and warm corn tortillas one at a time for about 30 seconds per side, until soft and lightly spotted, then stack them in a clean kitchen towel so they stay warm and pliable. Flour tortillas need only 15 to 20 seconds per side. To serve, spoon some of the cheese and chorizo onto a tortilla, fold it, and eat it right away.

Food safety

Chorizo is ground meat, and USDA FSIS lists 160 degrees F as the safe minimum internal temperature for ground meats. Cook it fully before it goes into the cheese, since the short bake will not finish raw chorizo. Wash your hands and tools after handling it raw, refrigerate leftovers promptly, and reheat them to 165 degrees F. See the FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart.