Ultimate Velveeta Cheese Sauce
Published 6/27/2024 • Updated 8/16/2024
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Our Velveeta Cheese Sauce recipe has such a creamy texture and cheesy flavor that cheese lovers will want to pour it on everything!
The addition of Velveeta takes this creamy cheese sauce to a whole other level, while the simple spices and easy roux base make it a breeze to whip up.
When I tell you this is the ultimate cheese sauce, I mean it! At this point, I’ve made this sauce for almost every occasion. Serve it on game day as a cheese dip, use it as a homemade cheese sauce for baked mac and cheese, or drizzled over steamed vegetables for a comforting weeknight side dish, this luscious cheese sauce always delivers.
This easy cheese sauce recipe is ready in under 30 minutes. Just prepare the roux, add your cheese and spices, and you’ll have the cheesiest, smoothest cheese sauce you’ve ever tasted.
What You Need to Make this Velveeta Cheese Sauce Recipe
Our homemade Velveeta cheese sauce recipe comes together with a few simple ingredients! You’ll need:
- Unsalted butter: Butter is used as the fat for the roux.
- All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour is what’s used to create the roux so that it thickens the sauce.
- 2% milk: We used 2% milk, but any milk will work!
- Velveeta cheese: Can’t have a Velveeta sauce without Velveeta!
- Spices: To give this wonderfully perfect cheese sauce some oomph, we used salt, pepper, and granulated garlic.
- Hot sauce: We love adding a little vinegar-based hot sauce to our cheese sauce for a kick. It won’t make it a super spicy sauce, but you’re welcome to add more if you want!
Variations & Substitutions
Flour: You can swap this for white whole wheat or 1:1 GF all-purpose flour if you wish. Just be aware that the consistency and flavor may differ slightly.
Milk: This recipe calls for any milk you choose, including whole milk or non-dairy milk like almond or oat milk.
Tasty additions: Add chopped jalapeños, crumbled cooked bacon, or diced tomatoes for extra flavor and texture.
Velveeta
Mac and Cheese
Take this Ultimate Velveeta Cheese Sauce and make our Simple Velveeta Mac and Cheese for dinner tonight.
Velveeta Cheese Sauce Q&A
The best way to turn Velveeta cheese into a mac and cheese sauce is to create a roux and then melt the Velveeta cheese in the roux.
Velveeta cheese is a processed cheese product and is made primarily from milk, whey, and whey protein concentrate. HERE is more information about Velveeta cheese.
If you are making it homemade, then yes, it will likely need milk. If you’re using boxed Velveeta mac and cheese, then you do not need milk.
How to Store
If you have any leftover cheese sauce, pour it into an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 3-5 days.
When you’re ready to reheat, simply pour the sauce into a saucepan. Add a few tablespoons of milk and reheat over medium/low heat until warm. Reheating this cheese sauce low and slow will help prevent any changes in texture as you reheat.
How to Serve Velveeta Cheese Sauce
Love this Velveeta sauce and want to mix things up? Here are some ideas on how to repurpose this sauce for something other than our Velveeta mac and cheese:
Use on Any Noodle: All out of macaroni noodles? You can literally use 1 lb. of any noodle under the sun!
Nachos: We love using this sauce on top of nachos. Think – loaded nachos with all the fixings + this tasty sauce.
Burgers & Sandwiches: How good would this cheese sauce be on top of a burger or sandwich?! I’m drooling.
Chili Mac and Cheese: Mix this cheese sauce with 1 lb. of noodles and a batch of homemade beef chili for some chili mac! Check out our sister site’s Chili Mac and Cheese recipe!
Dip: When I dip, you dip, we dip. Grab your favorite tortilla chip and dip away!
Ultimate Velveeta Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 12 oz Velveeta cheese, chopped into small cubes
- 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
- ½ tablespoon hot sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 12 oz. Pasta, if serving with pasta
Instructions
- First, prepare a roux by heating a large pot or Dutch oven over medium/high heat. Add butter. When the butter is melted, add flour and whisk until the butter and flour form a crumble or paste.
- Slowly add milk to the pot, whisking constantly. Continue to whisk the roux over medium/high heat for about 4-6 minutes or until the roux thickens.
- When the roux is thick, remove from heat and add the Velveeta. Whisk until the Velveeta cheese has melted.
- Add granulated garlic, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to the cheese sauce. Mix well.
- Serve the Velveeta cheese sauce with tortilla chips, vegetables, or cooked pasta.
Tips & Notes
- This Velveeta cheese sauce is meant to me mixed with 12 – 16-oz. of dried pasta or used as a dipping sauce for vegetables or chips.
- Nutrition information does not include pasta.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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My grandmother on the English side, and subsequently my mother on the Colombian side have used a Kraft based sauce for years on a recipe I can not find anywhere else.
Steamed greens, generally Swiss Chard or kale, with sliced tomatoes, bacon crumbles, and a fried or poached egg on top, with. The cheesey goodness dribbled over the top, super quick to make and a Delicious combination of flavours.
You were suuuper close to the “Ultimate” until you added the impotent, 2% watered-down milk!! If readers & fans want to bastardize your recipes… that’s on them but start with the real deal. #2%IsSacrilegious
This cheese sauce is so delicious 😋 Thanks a million. I made this with mac and cheese the night before Thanksgiving to get a few steps ahead. On Thanksgiving morning there was only a little bite left. My son and I kept going back all in the wee hours of the morning getting just a bite 😋😅
I just had to give what little was left to my other children that came by. And the greedy son had the nerve to be mad 😡 that it’s all gone, so I’m making some more tonight. Again, thanks for this keeper recipe. I won’t buy boxed mac and cheese again 🤣
So easy and great for a family on a tired night! Thank you for the recipe!
PS…if you add just a touch of garlic and onion powder to the flour in the roux,…it really adds even more depth of flavor!🥰 And for those of us that are lactose intolerant, we can use lactose free milk, and it seems to counteract all that cheese!
Great ideas, Eleana!
This is my new favorite mac n cheese recipe! Thank you for sharing!
This is such an amazing cheese sauce recipe for noodles, veggies, bread, etc. to keep in your pocked at all times!
So glad you loved this recipe, Shell! Great idea to use on veggies 😀