Chile con queso the way Tia Irma makes it - roasted green chile cooked down with onion and garlic, then melted into Cheez Whiz.
Illustration — a stand-in until there's a photo of the real thing.
Source Irma Brown
Ingredients
7-8 roasted & peeled long green chiles. I remove most of the seeds & inner veins if chile is really hot
About 1 cup sliced sweet onion, cut into 1 ½ - 2” pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
About ½ cup chicken broth (I make it using chicken bouillon)
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil
1 jar Kraft Cheez Whiz (original)
Method
Chile con queso
In large skillet, saute the onions in about 2 Tbsps olive oil, until translucent.
Cut up the chiles by scraping them with a sharp knife so that they shred into 1-2 inch pieces. Add these to the onions along with the minced garlic and salt & pepper.
Stir & heat for a minute or so, and then add the chicken bouillon.
Bring to a simmer, and simmer for a few minutes, until the chile mixture is very moist and just a little runny. You’ll want about a couple tablespoons of liquid left in the skillet.
Start adding the Cheez Whiz, stirring slowly until melted. Add until you think there is enough - I usually use about ¾ of the jar, but it depends on how cheesy you want it.
Continue to heat on low until good and hot, but don’t boil.
Serve right away, or put in crock pot and keep warm on low setting.
How to roast fresh, long green chili
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse chiles well & drain.
Cover a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil and Pam well. Lay chiles side by side on the cookie sheet, not overlapping.
Roast in the oven for 18-20 minutes.
Take them out & flip each chile over. Put back in oven and roast another 20 minutes or so until chiles are mostly browned & getting puffy.
In the meantime, lay a double layer of paper towels in your sink & wet them well.
When chiles are done, move them to the wet paper towel layer. Cut another length of paper towels, cover the chiles and wet those paper towels well. This will allow the chiles to steam and the skin will loosen.
When cooled, you can peel, remove the stem & seeds inside. I wear thin, disposable gloves to do this so that hot chile does not burn your hands.
Notes
I like this with Fritos Scoops, but also good with any tortilla chip.
Makes enough as an appetizer for a party of 10-12.
This is also great served on Caldillo, or as a topping on steak, grilled chicken or scrambled eggs.
This recipe is heavy on the chile side, not the cheesy side. My mother always said it was chile con (with) queso, not queso with a little chile. Most folks love it. Enjoy! - Irma Brown
Roasting usually works really well, but sometimes you’ll get “stubborn” chiles that refuse to peel nicely. Just do your best to remove as much skin as possible.
I like to buy a bunch of chile during chile season in August, preferably the genuine Hatch variety. Places like Albertson’s and Vista Market usually carry good chile. Look for long, straight chiles - not the bent or twisted ones. They are too hard to peel. I roast, peel & seed them, and freeze in freezer baggies with 8-10 chiles per bag. They freeze really well and defrost fairly quickly in the refrigerator.
