The Best Queso You'll Ever Make is Queso Fundido

I am Saul Montiel, I'm a professional chef,

and today I'm gonna teach you everything you need to know

to make the best queso fundido.

This is Queso Fundido 101.

What's the difference between queso and a queso fundido?

A queso, it's just a melting cheese, kind of like a saucy.

And then when it becomes a queso fundido,

with the real Mexican ingredients, with the chorizo,

with the mushrooms, with the poblano peppers,

that's what I'm talking about, like queso, queso fundido.

Now it's time to make queso fundido the best way. My way.

[bright music]

One of the most important ingredients in a queso fundido,

it's the type of cheeses that you use.

Typically I would use Oaxaca and queso quesadilla,

but in this case I'm gonna use mozzarella

and Monterey Jack cheese because they're more accessible

and also they're really good.

This kind of mozzarella, dried mozzarella,

it doesn't have that much water in it.

If you use fresh mozzarella, it has a lot of water,

so when you melt your cheeses, it will be very watery

and you probably boil the cheese

and you probably break the cheese.

Now the reason why I'm adding Monterey Jack,

'cause I wanna add some sharpness to it.

Now, these are the two cheeses that I'm using,

that doesn't mean that you should do that,

but just make sure whatever cheese you use, it melts easily.

Now look at this, it's not as dry as the store bought,

already shredded.

You can feel it, it's tender, it's soft,

and it's gonna take two seconds.

Not two seconds, six minutes to melt.

What I normally do, I add some cornstarch.

It's going to prevent from be too oily,

and also it's gonna make it a little more elastic.

It'll be easier to put it on your tortilla

and it won't be very watery.

[bright music]

Okay, now we're gonna cook some of the meats

and the vegetables.

We have this chorizo from Toluca in Mexico.

We're gonna remove the case out of this chorizo

and then we're gonna crumble it with our hands.

The most typical queso fundido will be with chorizo,

but again, you can just have vegetables

if you don't eat meat.

Now, we're not gonna put any oil into here

because chorizo has a lot of fat.

The best fat. It's like Mexican bacon.

Who doesn't love smell of bacon, right?

When you walk in the street and you there,

[Saul sniffs], Somebody's making bacon.

In Mexico it's like Somebody's making chorizo.

Basically it's ground pork with lot of spices

that makes it taste like chorizo, delicious.

We want to have a crispy chorizo, so we going to move it,

but not too much.

It's just like bacon, when the bacon is crispy,

it tastes delicious.

When it's not cooked properly, it's chewy.

Same thing with this. And the smell, oh my gosh.

Do we have a Smell-O-Vision? No, it's not Smell-O-Vision.

As soon as most of the chorizo has a nice sear,

the chorizo flavor is stronger.

All the flavors are waking up, telling me,

Smell me and eat me.

Our chorizo looks the way it should be. Crispy, crunchy.

So I'm gonna start with the poblano peppers.

It takes little longer to cook than the mushrooms.

You always cook what takes longer to cook.

In this case, chorizo takes longer to cook,

so we start first.

What's the second? Poblano peppers.

I choose poblano peppers

because it doesn't have the pepper flavor

as a normal pepper, this has a kick,

little more milder than a jalapeno.

We don't want the poblano peppers to be very soft,

it's just a no-no, so you need to keep it al dente.

We start with high heat to sear the chorizo

and now you go medium heat.

Remember, you control the heat.

The heat does not control you.

Now I'm gonna do the mushrooms.

I'm using regular button mushrooms,

but you can use shiitake, oyster, cremini.

Another reason why I'm not seasoning anything,

it's very simple.

The chorizo, it's salty.

There's a lot of seasoning on the chorizo, a lot of spices.

Chorizo is full of flavors and the cheese is delicious.

When you combine those together,

you have the best queso fundido.

Now, mushrooms can be very watery.

Like my eyes, when I see a sad movie.

We don't wanna overcook the mushrooms

because the mushrooms shrink.

So now we're gonna do the garlic.

Since it's a very small dice, it will cook really fast.

Now, if you notice, all the fat is gone. Why?

Because all the poblano peppers and mushrooms

absorb all the fat, so gonna put a little bit of butter.

The butter makes everything taste delicious.

And also it will help the cheese to stick together.

But wait, there is more. Elotes, sweet corn.

This is already cooked.

When you eat the queso fundido bite,

I want that corn to explode on your mouth

and you have that sweetness from corn.

You like, Whoa, where did this came from?

So you have the crispiness from the chorizo,

and then the explosion of the corn in your mouth,

and the saltiness and the spiciness from the peppers

and the mushrooms, it just la creme de la creme.

So now I'm gonna remove half of this,

it's gonna be mixed with the cheeses.

And then the other half is gonna be on top.

[bright music]

Now we lower the heat

because I don't want to overcook the cheese.

If you overcook the cheese, it won't be elastic

and flexible like me.

[Saul chuckles]

How many of the cheese? All at once.

'Cause I want this to melt at the same time.

What's better than cheese? More cheese.

It's very important to keep stirring

because we wanna make sure all the cheese

gets melt at the same time.

Look at this. It looks great already.

Now this is a queso fundido, right?

If it's not elastic, it's not a queso fundido.

I'm just gonna finish

putting the rest of the ingredients on top so it looks nice.

And there you have it, my queso fundido.

Look how beautiful it looks. I can see the chorizo.

Very important that you get to see what you're eating.

Also, the sweet of the corn, it adds color,

and also you adds a bite when you eat it.

Explosion of sweetness on your mouth. And the garlic.

Garlic and cheese is just a dream come true

when it comes to queso fundido.

I can't wait to eat this.

[bright music]

Look at this. Look how beautiful this looks.

We're gonna sprinkle some queso fresco.

It adds just a little bit of saltiness and also color.

Look at this beauty.

You don't have to add queso fresco, you don't have it.

I'm a professional, so I have it.

And we'll add some cilantro.

You can do chives if you want, scallions if you want.

It adds some fresh element to this.

Let's taste this queso fundido before it gets free-o.

You know, different places, different people

eat it with flour tortillas or tortilla chips,

at the end of the day, I have both.

How lucky I am. [Saul chuckles]

You have to make sure that the tortilla,

it holds the cheese properly.

Then you wrap it like a gift.

Ah-ha, you guys didn't know this, huh? Look at this.

I've been eating healthy lately, so I'm cheating right now.

[bright music]

[chip crunches]

The explosion of corn or sweetness on your mouth,

the saltiness, spiciness from the chorizo and the poblano,

just so good, so good and so simple.

My other favorite way to eat this, with a flour tortilla,

Look at this. I just need a salsa right here.

Make it like a flauta.

Can't believe I get paid to do this.

[bright music continues]

I prefer the flour tortilla.

It's sweet, it kind of makes it even better.

Flour tortilla wins.

It's so simple to do and so delicious

that you can please anybody that comes to your house.

Just melt some cheese, be happy and enjoy your company,

and have fun and enjoy life.

[bright music continues]