This recipe is taken directly from Hey Grill Hey — the Smoked Queso recipe published by founder Susie Bulloch. It’s a hot-smoked, hot-held party dip, not a cold-smoked one: everything in the pan spends time at a 275°F chamber temperature, so this is a case where the smoker is doing the same job an oven would, just with wood smoke added along the way.
Ingredients
For the sausage and vegetables
- 1 pound pork sausage
- 3 Tablespoons Hey Grill Hey Fiesta Rub, divided
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
- ½ cup yellow onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, diced
For the pico de gallo
- 3 medium tomatoes, diced
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
- ½ cup yellow onion, diced
- Fresh lime juice, to taste
For the queso
- 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
- 8 ounces cream cheese, cubed
- 16 ounces Velveeta
Method
- Preheat your smoker to 275°F (135°C) with your favorite hardwood.
- Lay a large sheet of foil on a rimmed baking sheet. Add the diced peppers, onions, and garlic and mix to combine. Top the pan with a flat cooling rack. Break the sausage into 4-6 balls, set them on the rack above the vegetables, and season with 2 Tablespoons of the Fiesta Rub.
- Place the pan on the smoker, close the lid, and cook for 45 minutes.
- While that smokes, combine the tomatoes, jalapeño, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and the remaining 1 Tablespoon of Fiesta Rub in a bowl for the pico de gallo. Taste and adjust, then refrigerate until needed.
- Remove the sausage and peppers from the smoker. Crumble the sausage and mix it with the peppers, then transfer everything to a half-sized aluminum pan. Add the beans, shredded cheese, cream cheese, and Velveeta.
- Set the pan back on the smoker, close the lid, and smoke for 45 minutes, until the cheeses are fully melted.
- Remove from the smoker and stir in any remaining Fiesta Rub. If the queso is too thick, stir in a couple of tablespoons of milk to loosen it.
- Top with the fresh pico de gallo and serve with tortilla chips, vegetables, or crackers.
Why the Sausage and Peppers Get Smoked Twice
The recipe calls for two separate smoking stages rather than dumping everything into one pan from the start. Bulloch’s method smokes the raw sausage and vegetables uncovered for 45 minutes first, then folds the cooked, smoke-flavored meat into the cheese mixture for a second 45-minute smoke. That second pass is what actually melts and blends the cheeses; the first pass is purely about giving the sausage and vegetables their own direct exposure to smoke before they’re buried in Velveeta and cream cheese, where they’d otherwise pick up almost none. Hey Grill Hey’s own notes call this the “double smoke flavor” and say it’s optional — if time is short, the sausage and peppers can be browned in a skillet instead, though the finished dip won’t taste the same.
Getting the Texture Right
Velveeta and cream cheese are both processed to melt smoothly, which is why they anchor the recipe rather than a naturally-aged cheese that can break or turn grainy under sustained heat. Even so, 90 minutes of combined smoker time plus the pinto beans can leave the finished dip thicker than expected, and the recipe’s own fix is simple: stir in a couple of tablespoons of milk at a time until it loosens back to a dippable consistency. Bulloch also flags that this base recipe swaps easily — chorizo in place of the pork sausage for more heat, or a different melting cheese such as queso asadero in place of the Velveeta, are both changes she’s confirmed work in the comments on the original post.
A Note on the Sausage
The pork sausage goes onto the smoker raw, so it needs to reach a safe internal temperature rather than just look cooked. The USDA’s Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart lists ground meats, including sausage, at 160°F (71.1°C), with no rest time required. The recipe times the first smoking stage at 45 minutes rather than giving a target temperature, so it’s worth checking a sausage ball with an instant-read thermometer the first time you make this, especially since the balls are broken apart by hand afterward and any undercooked center would otherwise be mixed straight into the finished dip.
Serving It
The finished queso is topped with the fresh, unsmoked pico de gallo rather than having it stirred in and cooked down, which keeps the tomato and cilantro tasting bright against the smoky, rendered sausage and melted cheese underneath. Hey Grill Hey serves it straight from the aluminum pan with sturdy tortilla chips, though the recipe notes it works just as well with cut vegetables or crackers for anyone skipping the chips.
Keep reading
- Hey Grill Hey’s Smoked Cinnamon Almonds, Step by Step
- Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings: Hey Grill Hey’s Method
- Reverse-Seared Tomahawk Ribeye: Hey Grill Hey’s Recipe
- Weber’s Grill-Cooked BBQ Baked Beans, Step by Step