Melted and fondue
Queso fundido
Northern Mexican dish of melted cheese, often with chorizo or chillies, scooped into warm flour tortillas.
Queso fundido, melted cheese, also called queso flameado, is a shallow dish of hot melted cheese, often topped with fried chorizo, roasted poblano strips or mushrooms. It is brought to the table bubbling and scooped into warm tortillas. It comes from northern Mexico, where it is often served at carne asada barbecues, and is popular in Texas too.
What goes in
- Queso Chihuahua or Oaxaca739%, Grated or torn.
- Chorizo317%, Fried and crumbled.
- Poblano chillies211%, Roasted, in strips.
- Flour or corn tortillas528%, Warm, for scooping.
- Onion16%, Optional.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Fry Fry the chorizo until crisp and drain off excess fat. Step 2: Bake Roast, peel and slice the poblanos. Step 3: Grate Grate or tear the cheese into a shallow clay or iron dish. Step 4: Melt Bake or grill until the cheese is completely melted and bubbling. Step 5: Layer Top with the chorizo and chillies. Step 6: Serve Serve at once with warm tortillas. Finished Queso fundido, by share.
The north
Northern Mexico has a strong ranching and dairy tradition, and cheeses such as queso Chihuahua, made by Mennonite communities in the state of Chihuahua since the 1920s, melt beautifully. Queso fundido is cooked in a clay or cast-iron dish on the grill or in the oven. In some restaurants it is flamed with liquor at the table, which explains the name flameado.
Not a dip
Queso fundido is different from the thin, smooth chile con queso dip of Tex-Mex cooking. It is pure, stretchy cheese, eaten with a spoon or fork and folded into tortillas as a taco. The cheese should be a good melting variety: Chihuahua, Oaxaca or asadero, sometimes mixed. It must be eaten quickly, before it hardens.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
More on EveryCheese
No cheeses here yet. New pages are added every day.
Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.