Chipotle, one of the best creations since the microwave, can do no wrong. I mean, other than that E. coli outbreak which we will conveniently overlook for the time being. It has been a staple in fast food for years, and it is an easy option. But now they have introduced queso, a cheese dip staple in Tex-Mex cuisine. It’s supposed to be just as good, if not better, than the queso at Chipotle competitor Qdoba.
Costing a whopping $2.05, Chipotle’s queso is served either on top of your meal or on the side. If you want chips to go with it, the price almost doubles at $3.35. Looking and somewhat smelling like any other cheese dip, the taste is what really matters. If you have ever been to Taco Via, you have tasted similar cheese dips. The immediate taste is not so bad. At first the cheese flavor is masked by the strange salsa added to it, but the main turn off is the curdled cheese. The grittiness. The cheese tastes as if it was burnt or as if raw flour was added in.
“They use a cake filler for the queso,” said Chipotle cook Armando Miranda.
This ‘cake filler’ is a thickener, and it creates the texture to the so-called “cheese dip.” In order for me to somewhat enjoy the dip, I added in hot salsa, hoping the heat would mask to taste.
“We get it in a bag each day, and we boil it to the specific directions on the package,” said Miranda.
If you are craving queso, my best advice is to grab some Rancho Grande. Panzon’s queso (in Lenexa, Kan.) is more than delightful. We could even go way back to our first fake cheese love at Taco Bell. Any of these options will give your taste buds some satisfaction.
And if you’re struggling to find fake cheese, an at-home queso is as simple as mixing up melted Velveeta with Rotel. If you’re too lazy for that, I still say: save your money and skip the Chipotle queso.