Tex-Mex queso
Photo: Missvain · CC BY 4.0

History

Chile con queso, the white-cheese-and-green-chilli original, runs back to early-20th-century San Antonio. The Houston yellow-Velveeta-and-Rotel version emerged after Rotel canned diced tomatoes hit shelves in 1943. Through the 1970s the Original Ninfa's and Felix Mexican Restaurant standardised the Houston restaurant queso: an orange-yellow pool, bubbling, with a side of taco meat or chorizo to fold in. Today every Tex-Mex room has a queso, and elevated rooms (Hugo's, Cuchara) build white versions with poblano or chorizo verde. The bubbling skillet, queso on the table before the menu hits, is canonical.

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Common allergens: Dairy

Make it at home

Yield 6Hands-on 15 minTotal 20 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 450g American cheese or Velveeta, cubed
  • 1 x 280g tin Rotel diced tomatoes with green chillies, drained
  • 120ml whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/2 small onion, diced fine
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 jalapeño, deseeded and diced
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 200g cooked Mexican chorizo, optional
  • Warm flour tortillas or tortilla chips, to serve

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a wide saucepan. Sweat the onion, garlic and jalapeño 4 minutes until soft.
  2. Add the cubed cheese and milk. Stir over low heat, constant motion, until the cheese melts into a smooth pool, 6 to 8 minutes.
  3. Stir in the drained Rotel, cumin and paprika. Simmer 2 minutes more.
  4. Transfer to a small cast-iron skillet over a tea light or hot stone. Top with the cooked chorizo, if using. Serve immediately with warm tortillas; the queso firms up fast off the heat.

Tip from the editors. Real Tex-Mex queso uses American cheese (or Velveeta) for the melt. Aged cheddar or Monterey Jack will separate. Don't fight the orange.

Where to eat tex-mex queso

Tex-Mex queso in Houston

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation ★ 4.7

$$ Tex-mexEast End

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation in Houston is Ninfa Laurenzo's 1973 Tex-Mex room, the birthplace of the restaurant fajita, still serving skirt steak tacos.

OrderFajitas (tacos al carbon) for two, a Ninfarita on the rocks, queso and chips.

TipBack patio under the strings of lights beats the front room. The bar opens 90 minutes before the dining room.

Directions Book

Hugo's ★ 4.8

$$ $55 per personBrunchMexican buffet brunch

Hugo's Sunday brunch in Houston is Hugo Ortega's Mexican buffet on Westheimer Road, with chilaquiles, three moles, sopes, churros and the regional Mexican.

OrderThe buffet itself: chilaquiles, mole, sopes, churros

Tip12pm seating sells out two weeks ahead; 10am seating is easier. Tableside hot chocolate is the closing course.

Directions Book

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