Chile Con Queso

Today I'm cooking up Chile Con Queso my friends!  We love some good queso in this family! I have been on the hunt for a queso recipe that would taste like the queso at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Pappasito's, for years now.   Oh just saying the word "Pappasito's" makes my mouth water.  I miss Pappasito's!!! They have great queso, homemade flour tortillas, and THE BEST beef fajitas hands down of any mexican restaurant we've ever been to.  I've have tried everything!  Different kinds of cheeses, spices, creams, etc trying to arrive at this queso.  Out of the blue I found a fabulous mexican cookbook at Tuesday Morning.  The title is "MEX TEX Traditional Tex-Mex taste" by Matt Martinez.  You won't believe this, but the first recipe I flipped to was Chile Con Queso.  I noticed an unusual ingredient in the list.  One I have never seen used before.  I kept looking through the cookbook and so many recipes looked really good!  Now I started asking myself "should I buy it?" or "should I put it back on the self and walk away?" Have I mentioned I'm addicted to cookbooks???    Literally I stood there and had this debate with 
myself for quite awhile.  One customer walked by me a few times and looked a little concerned, LOL!    I finally reasoned with  myself using the logic that it is 70% off the original price.... that's a deal!  Thank my lucky stars my addiction won out that day.  Because this is just what I have been searching for!  


Can you guess what the SECRET ingredient is?????  

Printable Recipe
Here's what you'll need:


2 - 4oz cans green chilies, if you like it spicy add some jalepeno
1/2 cup finely diced fresh tomotoes
1/2 cup finely diced onion 
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 teaspoons Tex-Mex Spice (see recipe below)
1 cup chicken broth (THIS IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT)
1 pound yellow american cheese cubed (purchased in the deli section of the grocery store)


Tex-Mex Spice
3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 tablespoons granulated garlic
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper


Mix together in a small airtight container. Use this as seasoning in all your mexican recipes.


Cooking the Queso
In a saucepan combine everything but the cheese.  Simmer for 5 minutes

Turn the heat to medium low and add the cheese.  Stir occasionally until melted.

Pour it into a bowl and dig in with your favorite tortilla chips!  


We used to be "Rotel" (velveeta and rotel tomatoes) people.  Not anymore.  This takes just a few more minutes to prepare than Rotel but is soooooooo worth it I promise!


Cheers,
Shannon