Expert Tips For Heating (And Reheating) Your Nacho Cheese Sauce

There are two main types of nachos, one being the traditional "nachos especiales" that actually is a Mexican invention, albeit an accidental one whipped up to feed American army wives. The other is a Tex-Mex creation where the chips are smothered in nacho sauce. Keyshawn Hudson seems like a man who appreciates a good ballpark-style nacho as he has a recipe for nacho cheese sauce (aka movie theater queso) in his cookbook "Food, Family, Repeat." That makes him our go-to nacho sauce guy, so Mashed asked him for some expert tips on heating the stuff.

Before you start making the cheese sauce, there is one piece of equipment you'll need, namely a double boiler. If you don't have this kind of pot, though, there's no need to go out and spend big bucks to buy one since these are easily jury-rigged using a metal or heat-proof ceramic bowl set atop a pot of simmering water. Such a set-up, Hudson says, is "ideal for gradual melting," although he cautions that you need to keep stirring the cheese as it cooks to make sure that it melts evenly.

But what if you make more cheese sauce than you can eat in one sitting and wind up with leftovers? No worries, Keyshawn Hudson isn't one of those chefs who gets all pearl-clutchy over the idea that you won't consume every last bit of his recipe while the sauce is still warm. He acknowledges that leftovers are a thing, and what's more, he even has a super-easy tip for reheating them –- yes, he says that you can use the much-maligned microwave. After all, this appliance is ideal for reheating certain types of food, particularly moist ones such as soups, stews, casseroles, and, yes, cheese sauce. (Surprisingly enough, microwaving some leftovers might even have health benefits.)

Even with microwaving, though, it helps to have the proper equipment and technique. Hudson recommends using microwave-safe containers, which sounds like a no-brainer but is a good reminder for any of us who've ever tried zapping something in a plastic margarine tub and witnessed that tub start to melt. Hudson also suggests that you heat the sauce in short bursts, so use that 30-second button and stir between each interval. Doing so, he says, will "prevent the sauce from becoming too hot and breaking."