Category: Cooking

Back in the 1990s, I lived and worked in Boston’s Back Bay area. One of my favorite things to do after work was to stop into Chili’s at Copley Place and get my favorite thing on their menu. It wasn’t their burgers or their margaritas (although I loved both of them). My favorite thing to get was their chips and Chili con Queso. I’ve been known to get a second order of chips and queso because I loved eating it so much.

Chili’s left Copley Place in around 2009, and a few years later, they also closed their location in Harvard Square a couple of years later. Now people in Boston have to go out to the suburbs to get their Chili’s fix.

Looking for a homemade version

Off and on over the years, I’ve looked for a good recipe to make chili con queso at home. I wasn’t able to find one, so I looked for a recipe for queso sauce. All I could find are recipes that use Velveeta. I know some folks love Velveeta, but I disliked the gritty texture I always noticed in dishes that feature the block of pasteurized American cheese product.

What I was able to find was the ubiquitous jars of Tostitos Salsa con Queso. It’s pretty good, but I try not to give money to Frito-Lays’ corporate owner, PespsiCo. PepsiCo has been on my avoid list for several years due to their planet-killing love for palm oil. I’ve tried other brands of store-bought queso sauce, but none of them are as good as Tostitos’.

Having found a queso sauce, I made tacos one night, specifically making enough meat to have some left over. I stirred some taco meat into a bowl of salsa con queso, and I knew I had found the snack I had been trying to duplicate for over a decade.

Before we start, I have to point out something

This recipe makes enough dip for a single serving. You can double it (or more) to feed more than just one person, but you’ll have to increase the heating time. Make sure you heat it at 70% power in the microwave and stir it every 30 seconds.

A good dip needs a good chip

Frito-Lay’s Tostitos brand of tortilla chips is the 600-pound gorilla of the tortilla chip world. I prefer a plain corn tortilla chip like the original toasted corn flavor Doritos introduced to the United States in 1966. Flavored tortilla chips aren’t necessarily bad, and I love the taco-flavored chips Doritos introduced in 1967. But if I’m dipping a tortilla chip into something like salsa or queso, I don’t want a flavored chip to compete with the flavor of what I’m dipping it into.

Santitas, another Frito-Lay brand, became my favorite tortilla chip for dipping with its good corn flavor and easy dipability. I consider it the closest thing to the OG Doritos I loved that you can buy today.

America’s Test Kitchen did a taste test of tortilla chips in 2022, and while they crowned Tostitos their winner, they said Santitas was highly recommended. But they looked at the chips on the market again in February 2025, and the rankings changed a bit. Santitas was now #5, and Tostitos had dropped to #8. I was tempted to try Mission, the chip ranked #1 in the new taste test, and Juantonio’s (#2), but I had tried Over the Border (#3) and thought they were pretty meh. Utz, a regional chip brand from Pennsylvania, came in at #4 with their TORTIYAHS! Restaurant Style Superior Dipping Chips with Sea Salt. I found them at the grocery store and bought a bag to try, and I love them. The Cantina Style is a flavored version that I’m not wild about, but I always have a bag of the restaurant-style chips in my pantry.

Making the dip: First up, Taco Meat

It’s a pretty simple recipe to make the dip, and the first thing you need is some taco meat. I like to use Rachel Cooks’ version of taco seasoning mix. Not only does it have less salt and none of the preservatives of the supermarket pouches, but you can tweak the recipe to make it your own.

I know most folks know how to make taco meat, but I do something different with mine. Several years ago, I saw a great tip from America’s Test Kitchen to make a slurry before browning the meat. Before you brown the ground beef, toss it in a slurry of water and baking soda to help the meat retains some of its moisture, (I don’t recall where I first saw the tip, but it’s on a sticky note in a kitchen cabinet so I can use it whenever I make something with beef that I dont want drying out.)

After browning the ground beef, drain the grease and sprinkle your taco seasoning mix over the beef, then add some water to make a sauce that will help flavor the meat.

Now to add the meat to the queso

This was the hardest part. How much queso should I start with, and how much taco meat do I add to it? It was hard to find that Goldilocks point, and I always forgot to make a note of my proportions. Once I decided to develop the recipe for sharing, it took me several iterations to nail down the ingredient list.

I like to serve it in a paper-towel-lined plastic restaurant-style plastic basket that I got from Dollar Tree, but they’ve been discontinued. The basket gives me enough room to put the bowl of dip into the basket along with the chips.

Nutrituion

If you’re hoping to see nutrition information for this recipe, I don’t have it. I won’t call taco meat, store-bought queso sauce, and tortilla chips a healthy snack, but I don’t have the resources to get nutrition information for my recipes.

The Recipe

Chili con Queso à la JM

Serves: 1

Ingredients

Taco Meat

• 1 lb 80% lean ground beef
• 3 tablespoons water, separated
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning (I use the recipe from Renee Cooks)

Queso Dip

• 1/2 cup queso dip (I prefer the medium-spiced version of Tostitos’ Salsa con Queso)
• 1/3 cup taco meat
• 2 oz (56 g) tortilla chips (I like TORTIYAHS! Superior Dipping Chips Restaurant Style with Sea Salt)

Instructions

• If you’re making taco meat for this, put the ground beef into a medium mixing bowl.
• Make a slurry by putting 1 tablespoon of water into a small bowl and adding the baking soda to the water. Stir the baking soda into the water, making sure it’s well mixed and you don’t have any baking soda at the bottom of the bowl. (Doing it in this order makes it easier to mix it together. If you add the water to the baking soda, it’s really hard to get rid of the bubbles of dry baking soda.)
• Pour the slurry over the ground beef, and toss the beef to make sure it’s all coated with the slurry.
• Brown the ground beef over medium heat in a nonstick skillet, using a wooden spoon to break up the ground beef into small pieces. Continue cooking until the ground beef is no longer pink. Drain the grease and return the skillet to the heat.
• Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the ground beef and pour 2 tablespoons of water over it. Stir it all together and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reduces and is almost completely absorbed by the ground beef, approximately 6 minutes. Remove the ground beef from the heat and allow it to cool for 15-20 minutes.
• Once the meat has cooled, put 1/2 cup of queso into a medium bowl. (I use a 10-ounce glass custard cup.) Stir in 1/3 cup of the taco meat. (Serve the rest of the meat in tacos or store it in a covered container in the refrigerator for another use.) Stir until well mixed and put in the microwave oven, covering the bowl with a small plate to prevent splatters.
• Heat the dip for 2 to 2-1/2 minutes at 70% power, stirring every 30 seconds. If you’re using queso and taco meat from your refrigerator, you’ll definitely want to go the full 2-1/2 minutes. Be careful, the bowl will become quite hot. You may want to serve the dip before the 2 minutes are up, but going the full time will heat it enough to keep from losing too much heat as you enjoy it.
• Serve with tortilla chips.

If you make this, leave a comment letting me know how it comes out. If you know of a good recipe for a queso sauce that doesn’t use Velveeta, I’d love to know about it.