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My homemade cheese sauce is ultra-creamy, wildly easy, and totally better than anything from a jar. Mild for kids, bold enough for nachos—amazing on everything!
A Reader’s Review
Best cheese sauce EVER! Children and grandchildren think it’s the best ever, including me. Thank you so much!
Secrets To Cheese Sauce Success!
- Only 4 Ingredients! Why complicate perfection? This sauce is simple, fast, and full of flavor.
- Sharp Cheddar is My Flavor Secret! Rich, flavorful sharp cheddar cheese is the reason my cheese sauce stands out above the crowd!
- Melt Slow and Low: My secret to not having lumpy, clumpy cheese sauce is adding the cheese right at the end so it doesn’t get too hot and taking it off the heat as soon as it melts!
Homemade Cheese Sauce Ingredients
- Mix It Up! Different cheeses = different vibes. Try Swiss or Gruyère for silky bread dips or Monterey Jack when nachos call your name.
- Spice It Up! Feeling bold? Add hot sauce, chili peppers, cayenne pepper, or Rotel for that extra kick your taste buds desire.
- Grate it fresh! Bagged cheese might be easy, but it won’t melt like a dream. Ditch the pre-shredded cheese and grab a grater. Trust me, your cheese sauce will thank you.
How to Make Homemade Cheese Sauce
My easy homemade cheese sauce recipe uses simple ingredients and comes together fast—perfect for vegetables, nachos, or dipping! It’s seriously the best cheese sauce!
- Melt: In a medium-sized saucepan, add the unsalted butter. Heat over medium heat until it melts.
- Whisk: Whisk in the all-purpose flour until it makes a roux.
- Stir: Add in the milk and shredded cheddar cheese to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
- Melt: Whisk until the cheese is melted and smooth.
Alyssa’s Pro Tips!
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
If you want to make this homemade cheese sauce ahead, or you are in the rare position of having leftovers, this cheese sauce stores well and is easy to heat and use again.
- In The Refrigerator: You will need to keep your cheese sauce in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
- To Reheat: Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir and repeat until it is heated through. Add a splash of milk if the sauce is too thick.
What to Serve with Cheese Sauce
Pour, dip, or drizzle it over pretzel bites, cauliflower fritters, nachos, french fries, baked potatoes, tortilla chips, pasta, steamed broccoli—or pile it onto a roast beef sandwich. Here are a few more ideas!
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Easy 4-Ingredient Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a medium-sized sauce pan, add 2 tablespoons unsalted butter. Heat over medium-high heat until the butter melts.
- Whisk 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour until it makes a paste.
- Add 1 cup milk and 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese and stir to combine.
- Whisk until the cheese is melted and smooth, and serve!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My brother made this as a chicken wing dip while watching TV sports today. He added a little gartic and all agreed it was excellent.
The butter and flour, of course, make a roux. Dissolve the roux in milk and it becomes a Bechamel (aka White) Sauce, one of the 5 great “mother sauces” of cooking. The cheddar cheese effectively makes it a Fondue Sauce.
I have made this sauce – with 1 tsp prepared mustard added to kick it up a notch. I’ve used it to make broccoli and/or cauliflower and cheese or pasta and cheese.
With or without mixing in a 4 oz. can of crabmeat, it turns a baked whitefish (Tilapia, Haddock, etc.) with salt, pepper, and lemon/lime juice into a gourmet dish by coating the fillet with this cheese sauce the last 5 minutes it bakes.
Mine didnt blend. Ended up with melted lump of cheese in an orange colored milk bath
Did you use pre-shredded cheese? That contains an anti-caking additive that makes it nearly impossible to melt right in a sauce. If you’re making any kind of sauce with cheese, it’s always best to grate your own block of cheese
Perfect!
I think this is the best cheese sauce recipe and so easy to make! I was wondering if you could mix Gruyère, Gouda, white cheddar?
I haven’t tried changing up the cheese with this recipe but I’m sure that would work and be delicious! Let me know how it turns out!
Ratio fine, this recipe needs more instruction though.
End result is a grainy sauce because the roux hasn’t been made properly
I made it with a touch more milk, because I like my sauce a little runnier, and also added some nutmeg. Perfect amount and delicious!
I would give it five stars, but I found it a bit plain and gritty, as is. I would definitely include a tablespoon of either Sour Cream of Cream Cheese, to give it a nice velvety texture, and it definitely needs some heavy seasoning.
Great base for Welch rarebit! Put over toast & add sliced hard boiled egg & paprika. Yum!
My new go-to base for any cheese sauce! I use 1/2 & 1/2 sharp cheddar/pepper jack w/ onion powder and Mex chili lime seasoning for a spiced-up sauce; or a pinch of mustard powder, onion powder and Trader Joe’s “21 Season Salute” for a nice veggie sauce. LOVE how easy and fast it is to make and elevates boring sides to decadent! Thx for sharing!
That sounds delicious!
Best cheese sauce EVER Children and grandchildren think it’s the best ever including me Thank you so much
You’re welcome! So glad to hear that you all loved it as much as I do!
really really great! although i do think there is too much butter and flour so i now do 1 1/2 table spoon butter and 1 tablespoon of flour- i find there’s also too little cheese involved for it to be an actual cheese sauce so i put 3-4 cups of cheddar cheese!
over all it an amazing basic recipe for cheese sauce
So delicious and cheesy was definitely a favorite in my family and super easy to make thank you.
This was easy and delicious. Thanks for sharing.
(I did alter it a smidge, as well: onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper – and a l’il chipotle-pepper adobo sauce. I then used the sauce for tortellini, with broccoli. Delish!
My intuitions tell me about something similar, skip the chipotle adobo, and maybe use a combination of Mozzerella and crumbly fetta
Use it for the sauce base on a pizza, with BBQ chicken and the usual veg
Sooooo Yummy!!!!
Amazing!! Everyone in the house loved it.
I’m pretty terrible at cooking, but I made something decent (though quite thick), thanks for the recipe I’m gonna keep attempting to perfect my methods because it seems solid enough for me to learn off.
loved this recipe. thinking of trying it at the weekend for my whole family. nervous + excited. thank you for sharing it.
Hi i did not try this recipe yet but it looks delish