Cheese Sauce – A Beautiful Mess

Here’s a recipe everyone should have in their back pocket—homemade cheese sauce! I love this as an appetizer with chips, sliced apples, or warm bread like pita. But it’s also great as a part of a larger meal drizzled over steamed or roasted vegetables like broccoli. Yum!

This cheese sauce recipe is super easy to make on the stove top in under 10 minutes. And with only five basic ingredients you may already have everything you need to make this cheese sauce tonight.

Related: Looking more more melted cheese recipes? Next up, try Rotel cheese dip, spinach and artichoke fondue or beer cheese fondue.

Ingredients

• Butter
• All-purpose flour
• Milk
• Cheese – I like sharp cheddar
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper

Directions

In a small to medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, garlic powder, and just a little salt and pepper. This will create a paste-like batter, called a roux. This is the basis of all sorts of sauces and gravy recipes. Let the roux bubble and cook for a couple minutes; this lets the flour cook.

Incorporate the milk by whisking in with the roux. The goal is to whisk well enough that no lumps remain.

Turn the heat off and whisk or stir in the grated cheese. The cheese should fully melt within a few minutes of stirring. If it doesn’t, turn the heat back on for a minute just to rewarm the mixture. You don’t want to overheat the sauce as the cheese melts.

Taste and season with more salt and pepper as needed.

If you have leftovers, you can store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Rewarm on the stovetop over low/medium heat or in the microwave in 30-second increments until melted.

Tips for Making

• Use block cheese as opposed to pre-shredded cheese. The pre-shedded cheese has preservatives that keep it from clumping in the bag and these can leave your sauce with lumps or an overly stringy texture.
• If you don’t like shredding block cheese by hand with a grater, you can do it in a food processor as well.
• While I usually make this cheese sauce with sharp cheddar, you can use any melty cheese you like. Other great options are gruyere, pepper jack for some spice, or fontina.
• Feel free to add more seasoning or spices you like! This cheese sauce recipe is pretty basic and goes well with lots of different things, but you can totally change it up with more spices or seasonings stirred in.
• If you want to thin this sauce more (sometimes I feel it needs it when reheating), I like to use chicken stock or water rather than milk.

Serving Suggestions