Smoked Brisket Queso
This smoked brisket queso features leftover chopped brisket, melty white American cheese, fresh pico de gallo, and smoky peppers. The perfect way to use your leftover brisket, and a great smoked queso dip that will have your friends coming back for more!
Servings: 12 people
Equipment
- 12" cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb leftover brisket
- 2 lbs white American cheese cut into ¾" to 1" cubes, see notes
- 1 roma tomato diced, seeds removed
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 jalapenos
- 1 chipotle in adobo diced, only 1 pepper from the can
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
For Serving:
- 1 cup pico de gallo see notes
- tortilla chips
Instructions
- Heat pellet grill or smoker to 250℉ with your choice of wood or pellets.
- While the smoker is heating up, place the two whole jalapeños directly on the grill grates to smoke and soften. Smoke for about 30 minutes while you prep the other ingredients. Then seed and dice the smoked jalapeños.
- Cut leftover brisket into cubes that are about ½" square. While you're cutting the brisket, remove any large pieces of fat and discard it.
- Add the cubes of American cheese spaced out evenly in the bottom of a 12″ cast iron skillet. Top with cut brisket, diced tomatoes, diced chipotle, cumin, granulated garlic, and chili powder. Sprinkle the diced smoked jalapeños over top. Pour the milk and heavy cream evenly over the other ingredients.
- Place the cast iron skillet directly on the grill grate, and smoke at 250°F for about 45-50 minutes.
- Stir well to help melt the cheeses and incorporate the milk and cream, then put the dip back on the smoker, and smoke for another 45 minutes.
- Carefully remove the brisket queso from the smoker. Stir briefly, and add the fresh pico de gallo to the middle of the dip. Serve immediately with tortilla chips.
Notes
- For the American cheese - This queso dip is best with the white American cheese that you get from the deli counter. Ask for the cheese to be portioned in a large block instead of sliced for sandwiches.
- For the chipotle in adobo - You only need one pepper from the can of chipotles. We like to freeze the leftover peppers flat in a zip top bag. Then, we can easily break off one of the frozen peppers as we need them for different recipes.
- For the pico de gallo - We make our own fresh pico de gallo to garnish the dip. Highly recommended! Mix together these ingredients and refrigerate for 1-2 hours:
- 3 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 medium onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon salt