My Homemade Cheese Dip

This has been my secret for years but I want to share it with you. I would love to think I developed it but I’m sure someone has made it before but I had never heard of it. It WAS an experiment in our house and a success. Hope you enjoy it!

On our first round of tightwadding years ago one of the things that we faced giving up was one of my husband’s favorite snacks. He loved Velvetta dip made with sausage and Rotel.

Velvetta is shelf stable but very expensive so I didn’t keep it stocked as a staple.

One day I decided to see what I could come up with. I mean basically I needed a creamy cheese sauce. So I started with a white sauce. A white sauce is basically a plain gravy. They are great binders for casseroles. Or throw in salt and pepper and you have milk gravy. A basic white sauce consists of flour, a fat, and a liquid. The fat can be butter, oil, margarine, shortening, bacon grease or the drippings from where you cooked meat. The liquid can be milk, water, broth, or a combination . Depending on what your using your white sauce for will dictate which of the combinations you will want to use.

Plus your ratio of flour to liquid will determine your thickness of sauce.

For example 2 Tbsp of flour and 2 Tbsp of butter to 1 cup of milk will produce a thinner sauce just as 4 Tbsp of flour and 4 Tbsp of butter to 1 cup of milk will produce a thicker sauce. Of course more liquid can be added later to thin it down as desired.

To make the white sauce you want to make a roux.

Place your flour and fat of choice in sauce pan and cook over medium heat until the flour takes on a nutty flavor. Don’t worry if you didn’t know flour could smell nutty because you’ll soon see or smell for yourself and does it ever smell yummy! If you don’t cook the flour until the nutty smell then your sauce may have a floury taste to it. If you over cook your flour and scorch it then you just ring the dinner bell down south because you’ve got a good start on ol’ sawmill gravy.

But assuming you’ve cooked your roux to perfection then add your liquid in a steady stream and keep stirring. Cook until thickened. You can season to taste. You can add your salt and pepper at the beginning while cooking your flour if you’d rather.

Now on to the cheese sauce.

I make my white sauce with butter or oil and milk for this. I make it on the thick side but use 1 ½ cup of liquid. Then add in american cheese singles. When I first started making this I used around 6 or 7 cheese singles to make it really cheesy but have since cut back and use 4 or 5 and it seems just as good.

Then season with salt and do a taste test and add more salt and cheese to suit your taste. (Use a separate spoon for taste test please)

At this point it’s great to use in casseroles or top veggies or mashed potatoes.

To finish the dip version:

Now add in browned and crumbled and drained hot breakfast sausage.

And one well-drained can of Rotel or the off brand equivalent.

Let simmer until the flavors mix and adjust thickness by adding a little more liquid if necessary. Some liquid will cook out of the tomatoes and thin it a bit. It will thicken up on standing.

Great with tortilla chips or corn chips.

Kristi's Homemade Cheese Dip


4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

4 Tbsp butter or veg. oil

1 ¼ to 1 ½ cup milk

5-7 slices american cheese singles

½ lb to 1 lb browned hot breakfast sausage, drained and crumbled

1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies, well-drained

Salt to taste

In saucepan over medium heat cook flour and oil until flour smells nutty. Add in steady stream of milk while stirring constantly. Cook until thickened. Add in cheese singles and salt to taste. Then add in sausage and tomatoes. Simmer until flavors blend.