Sauce (makes a little more than you need-feel free to use grated cheese instead)
3ozgrated cheese such as Oaxaca, monterrey jack, or mozzarellaYou can substitute 3-4 oz of grated cheese
1tablespoonall purpose flour
1 ¼cupswhole milk plus another splash if needed for thinning the sauce
¼teaspoonsalt plus more to taste
Chorizo-Huitlacoche mix
1 9oztube chorizo sausage
8ozhuitlacocheor two cans or prepared huitlacoche
2 roma tomatoes(or 8 ounces total)
2ozshallot or white onionfinely chopped
1large clove garlicfinely chopped or grated
1tablespoonflavorless cooking oil or pork lard
Instructions
Chorizo mix
First make the chorizo mix. In a pan with high sides, sweat the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a small pot.
Score the bottom of the tomatoes with an X and cut out the cores, then cook in the boiling water for 30-60 seconds or until you can see the skins start to release. Remove the tomatoes and cool, then discard the skin, squeeze out the seeds and discard, chop the flesh roughly and reserve.
Add the huitlacoche to the pan and cook until it’s cooked off most of it’s water. Add the tomatoes and chorizo, breaking it up with a spoon, and simmer for 10-15 minutes (you can bake it at 350 for a similar amount of time if it threatens to splatter) or until thickened.
Queso Dip
As the chorizo mixture cooks, make the cheese sauce if using. In a small pot, melt the butter, then add the flour and whisk. Gradually add the milk, roughly ¼ cup at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition.
When all the milk has been added, stir in the cheese off the heat-from here on out, the sauce cannot boil or it will break and separate. Double check the seasoning of the sauce for salt and adjust with a pinch if needed.
Serving
To serve, spoon the chorizo mixture into a shallow baking dish (or serve it in a cast iron skillet). Top the mixture with the cheese sauce (you may not need all of it) or grated cheese, then broil until just starting to brown.
I use a blowtorch to make sure the sauce doesn’t separate. You can also just spoon the warm sauce over the hot chorizo mixture in a dish if you don’t want to bake it-a good option if you haven’t cooked with finicky cheese sauce much.
Serve the finished choriqueso garnished with chopped fresh cilantro and tortilla chips on the side or warm tortillas.
Notes
Serving notes
You can serve this with plenty of things. Tortilla chips, warm corn tortillas, or flour tortillas. Tortilla chips are the least messy.
Some people also add sour cream to the cheese sauce, but it makes it easy to break so I find it unnecessary.
Chorizo
Since chorizo comes in 9 oz tubes, I'm writing this accordingly so you don't have half a tube of extra sausage lying around, but know that it makes a big batch, so feel free to cut it in half if you need.