A skillet of bubbling melted Mexican cheese, often laced with crumbled chorizo and roasted poblano strips, scooped molten into warm tortillas at the table.
Queso fundido — also queso flameado — is the molten-cheese appetiser of northern Mexico's cattle-and-dairy country, melted bubbling and scooped into warm tortillas, often with chorizo. It is border-region indulgence, eaten straight from the skillet.
Pull a tortilla away and the cheese stretches into long, elastic ribbons, salty and rich. Spicy bits of chorizo and smoky poblano punctuate the molten, savory pull with bursts of flavor.
Low, gentle heat melts the high-moisture Mexican cheeses without breaking them, keeping the texture smooth and stretchy rather than oily. Eating it straight from the hot skillet keeps the cheese above its setting point so it stays fluid.
Variations
with chorizo (choriqueso), plain, with rajas, with mushrooms, flamed with a splash of tequila (flameado)
On the Palate
Where Queso Fundido sits in the Mexican flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 18 min
Brown the crumbled chorizo in a skillet until cooked and crisp at the edges.
Watch outFry the chorizo until the edges go crisp and browned — that rendered, crackly bit is where the smoky flavor lives.
- 22 min
Drain off excess fat and set the chorizo aside.
- 36 min
Roast a poblano chile, peel it, and slice it into thin strips.
- 43 min
Grate the Chihuahua or Oaxaca cheese and pile it into an oven-safe skillet.
- 56 min
Melt the cheese gently under a broiler or over low heat until smooth and bubbling.
Watch outMelt the cheese low and slow just until it's smooth and bubbling; push the heat and it splits into a greasy, rubbery mess.
- 62 min
Scatter the chorizo and poblano strips over the molten cheese.
- 72 min
Return briefly to the heat so everything is hot and just starting to brown.
- 82 min
Bring the sizzling skillet to the table with a stack of warm tortillas for wrapping.
Watch outGet it to the table while it's still sizzling and molten — let it cool and the cheese stiffens into a rubbery slab you can't scoop.
