There are plenty of food holidays worth celebrating, but few are as deliciously comforting as National Queso Day. Celebrated each year on September 20, National Queso Day is dedicated to the warm, creamy, cheesy dip that has become a favorite at restaurants, parties, game-day gatherings, and family celebrations.

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For queso lovers, this is the perfect excuse to grab a bowl of melted cheese, open a bag of tortilla chips, and start dipping.

Queso can be simple or loaded with ingredients. It can be mild and creamy or fiery enough to make you reach for a cold drink. Some people want nothing more than cheese and peppers, while others pile their queso with seasoned beef, chorizo, tomatoes, onions, beans, jalapeños, or fresh cilantro.

However you prefer it, National Queso Day is about celebrating one of those foods that has a way of bringing people together.

What Is Queso?

The word queso simply means cheese in Spanish. In the United States, however, asking for queso—particularly in Tex-Mex restaurants—usually means you’re looking for a warm cheese dip served with tortilla chips.

One of the best-known versions is chile con queso, which combines melted cheese with chile peppers and sometimes other vegetables or seasonings.

The beauty of queso is its simplicity.

At its most basic, you need a creamy cheese base and something for dipping. From there, you can make it your own.

Add jalapeños if you want heat.

Mix in tomatoes and green chiles for additional flavor.

Add ground beef or chorizo to transform your queso into something hearty enough to become the centerpiece of a snack table.

Top it with cilantro, green onions, pico de gallo, or avocado.

There really isn’t one single way to enjoy queso, which is part of what makes it so much fun.

The Tex-Mex Connection

Although cheese sauces and melted-cheese dishes have long histories in Mexican cooking, the creamy queso dip many Americans recognize today is strongly associated with Tex-Mex cuisine.

Tex-Mex cooking developed through the blending of Mexican culinary traditions with ingredients and cooking styles found in Texas and the American Southwest.

Over time, queso became a restaurant staple.

Walk into many Tex-Mex restaurants today and there’s a good chance you’ll find some version of queso on the appetizer menu. It is often brought to the table bubbling hot alongside a basket of tortilla chips.

And once that bowl hits the table, everyone suddenly seems to move a little closer.

That’s part of queso’s appeal.

It isn’t usually a food you eat alone with a knife and fork. It sits in the middle of the table. People gather around it, pass the chips, talk, laugh, and keep dipping until somebody scrapes the last bit of cheese from the bottom of the bowl.

Why Queso Became So Popular

Queso combines several things people naturally enjoy: melted cheese, salt, spice, creaminess, and crunch when paired with tortilla chips.

It’s also incredibly versatile.

You can serve queso as an appetizer before dinner, put it out during a football game, make it for a birthday party, serve it during a backyard gathering, or enjoy a bowl while watching a movie at home.

Queso can also go far beyond tortilla chips.

Pour it over nachos.

Drizzle it over tacos.

Spoon it onto burritos.

Add it to fries.

Use it on baked potatoes.

Pour some over roasted vegetables.

Add it to a burger.

Use it as a topping for hot dogs.

Or simply grab a chip and enjoy it straight from the bowl.

There aren’t many cheese lovers who will complain about having too much queso.

How to Celebrate National Queso Day

The easiest way to celebrate National Queso Day is obvious:

Eat some queso.

Visit your favorite Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant and order a bowl for the table. Better yet, invite a few friends or family members to join you.

You could also turn September 20 into a queso tasting night.

Make several different versions and see which one everyone likes best.

Try a classic queso followed by a spicy jalapeño version, a smoky chorizo queso, and a loaded beef queso. Give everyone tortilla chips and let them vote for their favorite.

Another idea is to create a queso bar.

Make a large batch of basic queso and place different toppings around it, such as:

• Jalapeños
• Pico de gallo
• Chopped tomatoes
• Green onions
• Cilantro
• Seasoned ground beef
• Chorizo
• Black beans
• Corn
• Avocado
• Hot sauce
• Crumbled bacon
• Sour cream

Everyone can build their own bowl exactly how they want it.

Easy Homemade Queso

You don’t need a restaurant kitchen to make delicious queso at home.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 small jalapeño, finely diced
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 1 cup milk
• 8 ounces American cheese, chopped or shredded
• 4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 1 small can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• Salt to taste
• Chopped cilantro or green onions for garnish
• Tortilla chips for serving

Directions

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add the diced onion and jalapeño and cook for several minutes until softened.

Reduce the heat and add the milk.

Slowly add the cheese, stirring continuously until it melts and becomes smooth.

Stir in the tomatoes and green chiles, garlic powder, cumin, and a small amount of salt.

If the queso becomes too thick, stir in a little additional milk until you reach your preferred consistency.

Pour it into a serving bowl and garnish with cilantro, green onions, jalapeños, or additional tomatoes.

Serve immediately with warm tortilla chips.

Turn It Into Loaded Queso

Sometimes plain queso isn’t enough.

That’s when it’s time for loaded queso.

Prepare the basic queso recipe and add cooked seasoned ground beef or crumbled chorizo. Then top everything with jalapeños, pico de gallo, green onions, and cilantro.

For an even bigger version, add black beans and corn.

Serve it with thick tortilla chips because you’re going to need something strong enough to handle all those toppings.

Loaded queso can easily become more than an appetizer. Put it in the center of the table alongside tacos, nachos, rice, beans, and other Tex-Mex favorites, and you’ve got the beginning of an entire meal.

Make It Spicy

If you believe queso should have some serious heat, National Queso Day gives you plenty of opportunities to experiment.

Start with jalapeños for moderate heat.

Serrano peppers can take things further.

For even more heat, carefully add hotter peppers or your favorite hot sauce.

You can also create layers of flavor rather than simply making the queso overwhelmingly hot.

Try roasted peppers, chipotle peppers, smoked paprika, or a smoky hot sauce. These ingredients can give queso additional depth while still providing the heat you’re looking for.

Remember that you can always add more spice.

Taking it back out is considerably harder.

What Should You Dip in Queso?

Tortilla chips are the classic choice, but don’t stop there.

Queso pairs surprisingly well with many foods.

Try dipping soft pretzel bites into queso for a combination of salty bread and melted cheese.

French fries and potato wedges work beautifully.

You can dip toasted bread, crackers, roasted potatoes, bell pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, or even chicken tenders.

If you’re hosting a National Queso Day party, put together a giant dipping platter.

Place the queso in the center and surround it with tortilla chips, pretzels, vegetables, potato wedges, bread, and anything else that sounds good.

People will quickly discover their favorite combinations.

Queso Is Perfect for Game Day

Few foods belong on a game-day table quite like queso.

It’s easy to share, relatively simple to prepare, and pairs naturally with many other football favorites.

Imagine a table filled with queso, tortilla chips, chicken wings, sliders, nachos, tacos, potato skins, and cold drinks.

That’s a pretty good way to spend an afternoon watching sports.

If you’re serving queso during a long gathering, a small slow cooker can help keep it warm. Give the queso an occasional stir and add a splash of milk if it begins getting too thick.

Because cold, hardened queso isn’t nearly as exciting as a bubbling bowl of melted cheese.

Queso Brings People Together

Food holidays can sound silly until you realize what they’re really about.

Food creates memories.

Think about some of your favorite meals. Chances are you don’t remember only what was on the plate. You remember who was sitting beside you.

You remember conversations.

You remember laughter.

You remember birthday parties, holidays, football games, family dinners, nights out with friends, and those spontaneous moments when somebody said, “Let’s go get something to eat.”

Queso fits perfectly into those moments because it’s naturally a sharing food.

A bowl gets placed in the middle of the table and everyone reaches in.

Nobody needs a complicated reason to celebrate National Queso Day.

Sometimes sharing good food with people you care about is enough.

Try a Queso Challenge

Want to make National Queso Day more interesting?

Challenge your friends or family members to make their own queso recipes.

Set out several numbered bowls without revealing who made each one.

Everyone tastes each queso and votes on categories such as:

Best Overall Queso

Spiciest Queso

Most Creative Queso

Best Loaded Queso

Best Traditional Queso

Queso You Can’t Stop Eating

The winner gets bragging rights until next September.

Just make sure you have plenty of tortilla chips available. Running out of chips during a queso competition should probably be against the rules.

Don’t Forget the Drinks

A salty and spicy bowl of queso practically begs for something cold alongside it.

Lime sparkling water, lemonade, iced tea, agua fresca, fruit punch, or a cold soda can all work.

For adults who choose to drink alcohol, queso also pairs naturally with margaritas and many Mexican-style beers.

If you’re serving particularly spicy queso, having plenty of cold beverages available is especially important.

Celebrate September 20 With Plenty of Cheese

National Queso Day doesn’t require decorations, presents, or elaborate plans.

All you really need is cheese.

Preferably lots of it.

Make your favorite homemade queso, visit a local restaurant, invite friends over for a queso tasting, or build an enormous plate of nachos covered in warm cheese.

Experiment with different peppers.

Try new toppings.

Create a queso recipe of your own.

And don’t worry too much about making it perfect.

The best bowl of queso is often simply the one sitting in front of you while you’re sharing food and conversation with people you enjoy.

So on September 20, grab the tortilla chips, heat up the cheese, add your favorite toppings, and celebrate National Queso Day.

Because sometimes happiness really can be as simple as a warm bowl of melted cheese and one more chip to dip.

What’s your perfect bowl of queso—classic and creamy, loaded with meat and toppings, or hot enough to make you sweat?