4-Ingredient Slow Cooker Sausage Cheese Dip

This 4-ingredient Slow cooker sausage cheese dip is the kind of recipe you keep in your back pocket for busy weeknights, game days, and every holiday gathering in between. It’s hearty, effortless, and comes together with pantry staples while the Slow Cooker does all the work.

Why You’ll Love It

Only 4 ingredients — ground sausage, Velveeta, cream cheese, and Ro-Tel. That’s it.
The Slow Cooker does all the work — brown the sausage, dump everything in, and walk away.
Feeds a crowd — makes enough for 10 to 12 people and stays warm and creamy right in the pot.
Endlessly flexible — mild or spicy, add beans, add corn, spoon it over baked potatoes. It works every way you try it.
Made with real pantry staples — nothing fancy, nothing you have to hunt down.

A Few Notes on the Ingredients

The sausage: I use whatever’s on sale, honestly, but I prefer a mild Jimmy Dean-style ground pork sausage. If you like heat, the hot version is very good, and it plays nicely against the creaminess of the cheeses. Just know it can get spicy fast — I made it once with hot sausage and jalapeño Ro-Tel and spent most of the evening quietly nursing a glass of water.
Velveeta: I know, I know. Just get the block. The 16-ounce block. Don’t try to substitute it with a bag of shredded cheddar — I’ve done this, it gets grainy and odd, and the texture is wrong. Velveeta melts in a way that nothing else does. Embrace it.
Cream cheese: The regular full-fat kind. Not whipped. The 8-ounce brick. Let it sit out for a little while before you cube it so it melts faster in the slow cooker, though if you forget to do this it still works fine, it just takes a bit longer.
Ro-Tel: I use the original. Don’t drain it — the liquid is part of what keeps everything from getting too thick. If you can’t find Ro-Tel, a regular can of diced tomatoes with a small can of green chiles stirred in works pretty well. I’ve done it in a pinch.

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork sausage (mild or hot, your call)
1 (16-ounce) block Velveeta, cut into rough cubes
1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese, cubed — let it soften a bit if you can remember
1 (10-ounce) can Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained

Here’s How I Make It

Start by browning the sausage in a skillet over medium heat. Break it up as you go — I use a wooden spoon and I do mean I really break it up, I like small crumbles rather than big chunks in a dip. Drain off the grease. This part matters; if you skip the draining step, the dip gets oily and strange.
Spray the slow cooker insert lightly before you add anything — just makes cleanup so much easier and I don’t always think to do it and then I’m annoyed at myself afterward.
Add the sausage first, then pile on the cubed Velveeta, then the cream cheese, then pour the whole can of Ro-Tel right over the top, liquid and all. Don’t stir it yet. Put the lid on.
Cook on LOW for about 2 to 3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so after the first hour. Or HIGH for about an hour to an hour and a half if you’re short on time. Either way works. You’ll know it’s ready when everything is melted and when you stir it, it looks smooth and sort of glossy.
Taste it before you serve it. Sometimes it needs a pinch of salt, sometimes not — depends on your sausage. Give it a good final stir to make sure the sausage is well distributed throughout.
Then set it to WARM and serve it right out of the slow cooker. Give it a stir every 20 or 30 minutes if it’s sitting for a while.

Variations

A cup of frozen corn stirred in toward the end makes it more filling — good if it’s standing in for lunch at a party. I’ve tried it with Italian sausage once, just because it’s what I had. It was… fine. Not the same. The Italian seasoning kind of competed with the tomato and chile. I wouldn’t do it again, but if that’s what you have, it won’t be inedible.
If you want to make it stretch for a bigger group, a can of drained black beans stirred in works really well. Adds some bulk without messing up the flavor too much. I’ve also done it with a can of drained white beans when I didn’t have black beans, and honestly I couldn’t tell that much of a difference.
For something genuinely spicy — not just “a little kick” spicy — use the hot sausage, the hot Ro-Tel, and add a can of drained pickled jalapeños. That version is not for everyone. Keep that in mind before you serve it to company.

Leftovers

It keeps in the fridge for three or four days in a container with a lid. Reheat it slowly in a saucepan over low heat with a splash of milk stirred in — it comes back together pretty well. I’ve also just microwaved it in small portions and it’s fine, though it can get a little thick and you have to stir it between bursts.
I have, more than once, forgotten about a container of this in the back of the fridge for longer than I’d like to admit. It doesn’t keep forever. Don’t let it get to the point where you have to make a judgment call.

Serve it with whatever you have — tortilla chips are the obvious choice, corn chips work even better if you can find them, and honestly a thick slice of toasted bread is underrated. I’ve spooned it over baked potatoes for a lazy dinner when I didn’t feel like cooking properly. Nobody complained.