As you all should know by now, Rick Bayless is my absolute cooking idol. I love his food, his restaurants, and basically everything about him. I honestly feel like Mexican food is my true culinary calling. It must be the quarter-Mexican side of me (yes, really. I am a quarter Mexican). It also doesn’t hurt that he’s totally in love with me, as demonstrated in our Twitter convo:
Anyway, not the point. I recently made a slightly altered version of his Green Queso Fundido for a little feast I hosted for my mama and friends. That link is to his exact recipe, but I’ll tell you what I did. I will say this, the Queso Fundido was a HUGE hit with all my friends. Everyone gobbled it up in like 2.2. Here’s the recipe:
Queso Fundido
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or olive oil. I just like cooking better with veggie oil)
- 1 medium white onion, chopped
- 5 ounces of chorizo, chopped (Chorizo has many forms. It’s hard for me to find Mexican chorizo where I am in Boston, so I end up using Portuguese Chourico. Still tastes great)
- 3 tablespoons dark beer (I used an Gonzo Imperial Porter, and drank the rest of the bottle)
- 1.5 cups roughly chopped spinach leaves
- 8 oz Monterey Jack cheese (according to Senor Bayless, monterey jack goes best if you’re using beer)
- Chips, to serve with
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chorizo and onions and cook until the chorizo is cooked through, stirring regularly so the onions don’t burn. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
- Add the beer and the spinach to the skillet, and stir until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture looks dry again.
- Once mixture looks dry, turn off heat and let it cool a bit. Add cheese to skillet, on top of all other ingredients. Place in oven for about 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbling.
- Serve with big bowl of chips, and salsa if you’d like.
Enjoy!
