The 2 Ingredients You Need To Replicate Tostitos Queso At Home

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Cheesy, creamy, and with just the perfect piquant kick of mild heat, Tostito's salsa con queso is a singular delight. At around $5 a jar, however, consuming it in any kind of quantity — for a blowout tailgate event, say — can get spendy. What if we told you, however, that social media had cracked the code on Tositito's queso, and it only took two readily-available ingredients? According to Reddit, where a cheesehead fan made a request on a forum for copycat recipes, all you need is Velveeta and Ro-Tel.

Lest you wrinkle your nose at Velveeta, know that it is actually indispensable to making your homemade queso taste like the jarred kind. (Although, according to the FDA, Velveeta isn't real cheese at all.) Call it what you want ("cheese product" seems fair), but the stuff is unmatched in queso dips. That's due to emulsifying salts that keep the product stable at high temperatures, when a "real" cheese-based sauce would almost always break. 

Ro-Tel, which can be bought by the case on Amazon, is another humble item that's surprisingly versatile and tasty. Its standard version is just diced tomatoes and mild green chilies, which are the backbone to a queso with body and nuance. Sure, you could dice fresh tomatoes and chili peppers yourself, but why would you want to? Ro-Tel's own recipe for "famous" queso calls for nothing but one can plus a pound o' Velveeta — meaning that it may just share culinary genetics with Tostito's salsa con queso. Indeed, the Reddit post that compared the two broke down the ingredients, and found everything to be startlingly similar.

What we love most about making our own queso, other than the scalability of the preparation, is how many ways there are to customize it to personal taste. You'll notice that a three-ingredient queso we touted for Super Bowl parties is very similar in this regard. For example, there are many kinds of Ro-Tel, with varying heat levels or chili varieties. If you have the spice tolerance, why not mix things up with a ghost pepper or habanero version? (Keep in mind that store brands and competitors of Ro-Tel will work just fine; we're using the brand name as shorthand.) On the other hand, if you want to dull the mild burn of the chilies in even mild Ro-Tel, go ahead and throw in a block of cream cheese (which is also a great mayo swap on a sandwich). Not only will your queso be even silkier and more unctuous, but the extra fat and dairy will dilute spice.

Wanting to add some additional Tex-Mex flair to your queso? You can never go wrong with cumin. This quintessential seasoning has 5,000 years of history behind it, and it will add a mouthwatering aroma to your whole kitchen as it cooks. While you're digging through your spices, how about some chili powder or taco seasoning? We also think you can't go wrong with a bit of diced onion. Pan-fry it until it's softened, although not to the point that it loses all its crunch, and fold into your queso. Or, if you want to keep things isolated to shelf-stable selections like the Ro-Tel and Velveeta, toss in a can of beans. You'll love experimenting with the tastiest ways to make your imitation Tostitos queso sing.