If you are looking to take potatoes to a whole new level – learn how to make homemade cheese sauce. Make it in just a few steps and with 4 ingredients you already have on hand.

A white place with chopped potatoes covered in homemade cheese sauce with a blue bowl with cheese sauce running over the side. Potatoes and a lovely tea towel fill the background

This homemade cheese sauce is good on more than potatoes.

Try it on veggies. I remember loving broccoli and cheese as a kid. This cheese sauce topped on my broccoli takes me back in time a bit. It’s also great on green beans, too.

Have you ever tried green beans, cooked on the stove, smothered in softened cream cheese and garlic salt?? Delicious, but a bit off topic.

One of our favorite go-to’s is steak marinated in Worchestershire sauce, steak sauce, and steak seasoning, cooked to perfection on the grill, served with chopped potatoes and broccoli, ALL smothered in this homemade cheese sauce. It seriously makes everything just taste better.

One of the four ingredients is optional.

I have made this homemade cheese sauce with and without the vegetable oil. The oil seems to give it a smoother consistency, but does not alter the taste. If you don’t like using vegetable oils in your cooking, it’s just as good without.

The other three ingredients you should have on hand.

I love when a recipe doesn’t call for a special trip to the store. Where I live, it is over 20 miles – one way – to the grocery store. In our situation, anything I can make on a whim that consists of ingredients I always have is a win.

This homemade cheese sauce is simply melted together on the stove with butter, shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream. One pot. Three ingredients. Add one whisk and a few minutes of your time. Delicious.

You already put these ingredients on baked potatoes sometimes anyway – but this is just BETTER.

Think of a loaded baked potato: Butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon. You are pretty much there with this cheese sauce, and it goes way further than just a few dallops on top of your potato. It heightens the whole meal.

If you want to add some bacon flavor to this homemade cheese sauce, perhaps add a teaspoon of leftover bacon grease for some bacon flavor. I haven’t tried it, but hey, maybe someday? This cheese sauce is thick enough that I don’t think a little bacon grease would ruin the texture. I will sometimes add bacon grease to my cast iron skillet when cooking the chopped potatoes anyway, so why not marry the flavors?

Simply pull out these three ingredients and one small sauce pan.

A wooden cutting board on a pretty table with some chopped butter, a bowel of shredded cheese and a bowl of sour cream

2 teaspoons (tsp) vegetable oil (again optional)
2 tablespoons (T) butter, salted
3/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup sour cream

Side note: This makes enough for 2-3 people. For more people, we usually double the recipe.

Simply melt the ingredients together: In the proper order.

For some reason, this homemade cheese sauce is like your favorite cookie recipe: It has to be done mixing certain ingredients in a certain order.

I have tried just dumping everything in and mixing, but this tends to cause the cheese sauce to separate. You could do this and just stir before serving, but I don’t advise it.

Step 1:

Melt butter in sauce pan on low heat until completely melted.

A white stockpot with wooden handles and a wooden spoon on a stove containing melting pads of butter

Step 2:

Add the cheddar cheese, stirring with butter until cheese is completely melted. A metal whisk helps speed up the process.

A white stock pot with a wooden spoon stirring in some melting cheddar cheese and mixing with melted butter

Step 3:

Add sour cream. More mixing until combined.

A white stock pot on a stove with a wooden spoon, stirring sour cream into a butter and cheese mixture

Serve warm.

A white stock pot with wooden handles and a wooden spoon on a pretty table, filled with homemade cheese sauce

While we are on the subject of potatoes…

A wooden cutting board with a small cast iron skillet filled with chopped seasoned potatoes with a side of homemade cheese

How do you eat yours? Whether it is by baking them, chopping them like shown here in the cast iron skillet or on the Blackstone, mashed, twice-baked, or cut into fries, all of these are great with this cheese sauce. Breakfast potatoes, love cheese sauce on that too. Top it with some salsa or serve it on the side, either way it’s simply devine.

Looking for other homemade recipes using potatoes?

I hate when you buy a bag of potatoes for one meal and have a ton left over. Rather than making them over and over as a side, what about putting them in a soup? This sausage, potato and kale soup does just that, in the slow cooker or Crock-Pot in no time at all. If you have ever had this similar soup at Olive Garden and love it, this version does NOT disappoint. Click below for the recipe!

Zuppa Toscana (Sausage, Potato and Kale) Soup

Served in a creamy homemade broth, there’s little prep into making this homemade soup for your family.

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Homemade Cheese Sauce

Take potatoes, steak, veggies and more to a new level of flavor with this 4 ingredient simple homemade cheese sauce.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Cheese, homemade cheese sauce

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 10

Servings 4

Author Jamie Hoffman

Cost $3-$5

Equipment

1 sauce pan small

Ingredients

2 tsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp butter salted
3/4 cup cheddar cheese shredded
1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions

Melt butter in sauce pan on low heat until completely melted.
Add in vegetable oil and shredded cheddar cheese, whisking to combine with butter until completely melted.
Add sour cream. Mix until all ingredients are combined.