This easy, extra creamy cheese sauce has just four simple ingredients and tastes great with broccoli, cauliflower, baked potatoes, and more!
Baked Potato Day. I would look forward to it every single Wednesday in middle school, when you’d get a big ol’ baked potato for lunch and a helping of the cafeteria’s cheese sauce. No one liked baked potato day like I did. In fact, I’m probably the only one who even liked it at all. 🤣
Alright, there are in fact a few things you need to know to make sure that you have super creamy consistency, otherwise you could easily end up with a grainy texture. Read on!
How to Melt Cheese for the Creamiest Consistency
-Melted cheese will have the best, most creamy consistency if it’s at room temperature prior to being melted.
-Avoid using cheese that’s pre-shredded. The cheese melts best if it’s purchased as a block and shredded or sliced at home.
–Avoid aged cheeses. Stay away from hard cheeses like Parmesan. Those won’t melt nearly as well.
-Add the cheese to a warm base gradually. If the liquid is too hot, the fat from the cheese will separate too quickly and the consistency will be grainy or clumpy.
What to Serve with Cheese Sauce
Aside from pairing cheese sauce with roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and baked potatoes, you can also drizzle it over homemade french fries or burgers! It also makes a great dip for pretzels, bread sticks, chicken tenders, tortilla chips, and more!
Storing Leftover Cheese Sauce
This sauce is best if refrigerated and used within 3-5 days.
Reheating
- Reheat in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add splashes of milk to loosen it up and restore it back to it’s original form.
Can You Freeze Cheese Sauce?
I love to freeze anything and everything, however creamy, dairy-based sauces such as this one don’t usually freeze well, the consistency just isn’t the same when reheated.
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Easy Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons Flour
- 1 cup milk
- 8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded, **See Notes
Instructions
- Shred the cheddar cheese and set it aside, it should be at room temperature when you add it to the sauce.
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan.
- Whisk in flour. Continue to whisk for 1-2 minutes, until you can no longer smell flour.
- Slowly add the milk in splashes, whisking continuously as you do so. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Reduce the heat to low. Gradually sprinkle in the cheddar cheese, whisking constantly as you do so. Continue to whisk until the mixture is well-combined.
- Let the sauce continue to heat over low heat, it may appear thin at first but it will continue to thicken upon standing.
- Once it's reached your desired level of thickness, remove it from the heat and serve!
love this recipe easy and simple to follow
Yayyy! Thanks Sharon I’m so glad you liked this one and found it easy to follow!😃
Thank you
Turned out really good. I did though use 1/2 while milk and 1/2 cream to equal the 3/4 cups half and half instead of what the recipe called for and it came out really creamy.
I also used medium cheese cheese instead of sharp cheese cheese.
Great recipe, thanks for the tips.
You’re very welcome Joanne!😀 I use this cheese sauce on everything, especially broccoli!
Why does the flour instruction say “separated”?
Hi Sandy! Sorry about that, I should have removed that. I used to sprinkle a little bit of extra flour over the cheese to help it melt better but I ended up removing that step as I didn’t want to add any flour taste to the sauce. I just removed it, thank you for catching that 🙂
I must say that recipe is awesome the cheese tastes so good on my broccoli and cauliflower I am going to share that recipe.
Thanks so much Christine! mmmmm broccoli and cheese is soooo good!😋
Yum!
So glad you like the recipe Sheri! Thanks for the review!!!😀
I made this to help jazz up some frozen broccoli and cauliflower a few weeks ago. It was a huge hit!
I’m planning on trying it this weekend as a mac and cheese base. Has anyone tried it with macaroni?
So glad that you enjoyed it Jen!! 🙂 WOO!!! I haven’t tried it with Macaroni before but I bet it would be delicious!
The name says it all. My family love it.
🤣 I guess the words easy cheese sauce is pretty incising! So glad the family loved it!
This is soooo goood yet so easy! I added a splash more half/half, salt, pepper and garlic powder. I especially appreciate your tips on adding the cheese slowly before the butter mixture gets too hot to avoid the graininess you sometimes encounter. Thanks so much, Stephanie! This is a new regular in our house!
That’s so great to hear, I’m happy that my tips helped too- I was doing it all wrong for years so I am glad to share the knowledge, it makes a HUGE difference! 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!! -Stephanie
This is almost too thick as written. I usually add a touch more more milk/cream and water to thin it down a bit.
Love broccoli and cheese sauce, this is so good!
THANKS SUZANNE!! I finally ate my potato, HAHAH.. (it was GOOD, worth the wait!!!) 😉