Cheesy Queso Inspired Sour Cream Dip

Sour cream based dips are delicious.  I love dips that can work well with veggies, chips, crackers and can be enjoyed while watching football on Sundays or when having friends over to hang out in the backyard.  I found that this recipe is always a crowd pleaser and can work for any occasion.

Why I love this cheesy queso inspired sour cream dip

I am a huge fan of queso (here is my restaurant style queso recipe), but it is often not realistic to whip up at home without substantially more prep time. I love this dip recipe because it allows you to have a lot of the flavor components of queso without the time commitment and the dip is great cold.

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Ingredients in cheesy queso inspired sour cream dip

For this recipe I use Ro-Tel fire roasted tomatoes, fresh jalapenos, hot sauce and lime juice.  I think this combination gets you the right balance of fresh and canned ingredients while still being easy to make.  In a time crunch you can switch out the Ro-Tel fire roasted tomatoes, fresh jalapenos, hot sauce and lime juice for 1 cup of medium or hot chunky salsa of your choice.  But I think you will find it is worth the few extra ingredients and steps.

Sour cream is the base of the dish but if you want you can substitute Crema Mexicana or do ½ and ½ sour cream and crema Mexicana

Ro-Tel fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chilis are a great thing to have on hand.  They are a more flavorful diced canned tomato that works well in a lot of recipes.  They give the dish the tomato flavor

Jalapeno adds a little kick to the dip

Hot sauce of your choice but I think Tapatio, and Cholula are best, but can use what you have on hand, including Sriracha or Frank’s RedHot

Shredded cheddar cheese I like to use a thick or larger shredded cheese and prefer sharp or extra sharp to make the cheddar flavor really come through

Lime the fresh lime juice helps brighten up the dish

How to make cheesy queso inspired sour cream dip

Making this recipe is super simple and very quick.  The only prep is dicing the jalapeno.

Deseed and dice jalapeno.  If you like extra spicy you can keep the seeds in

Drain Ro-Tel tomatoes

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl

Ro-Tel Tomatoes – what to do with the leftovers

The above recipe only calls for ½ a can of Ro-Tel Tomatoes.  You can always add the whole can to make the dip more tomatoey.

My immediate use is to add the extra fire roasted tomatoes to my eggs in the morning with a little cheddar cheese to make a quick and easy scramble.  Otherwise, you can add them to pasta, chili, soup, really anywhere you would use canned tomatoes.

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