Homemade Pimento Cheese - Big Bear's Wife (2024)

Homemade Southern Pimento Cheese is super easy to make at home! This recipe is a combination of a recipe from my grandmother’s recipe box and my own twist. It’s our favorite pimento cheese recipe!

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I’m not sure where you’re at when you’re reading this or if you’re from the south or not but homemade Pimento Cheese is a thing around here. Pimento Cheese is like a BIG thing around here, it’s almost as important at the perfect homemade chicken salad recipe.

I mean, if you go to a baby shower, wedding shower or house warming shower, you better believe that there will be little Pimento Cheese sandwiches right alongside of the chicken salad sandwiches. If you’re planning a menu for a little party and the question is “What kind of little finger foods should we have?”, you should already know to put down these little sandwiches before you move onto anything else; they’re just a given!

“Pimento Cheese is a southern party staple!!”

What you need to make Homemade Pimento Cheese:

• shredded cheddar cheese
• cream cheese, softened
• mayonnaise
• garlic powder
• paprika
• onion powder
• diced pimentos
• dried mustard

How to make Homemade Pimento Cheese:

With an electric mixer, mix the cheddar cheese and cream cheese together. Mix for 2-3 minutes.

Add in the mayo and mix.

Add in the garlic powder, paprika, onion powder and dry mustard. Stir everything together.

Mix in the pimentos.

Refrigerate for at least 10-15 minutes before serving.

This pimento cheese is great just a a dip or used to make sandwiches. I personally love to use this as filling for sandwiches!

Let us chat about this recipe for a second! I found an old Homemade Pimento Cheese recipe in my grandmother’s recipe box a while ago, made a few small changes (like the amount of mayo and garlic) and came out on the other side with some of the best homemade pimento cheese that I’ve had in a very long time.

“…..an old Pimento cheese recipe I found in my grandmother’s recipe box up got an update…..”

Let me be honest with you though, I haven’t always been a fan.

When I was little I couldn’t get over the orange color. Ok, I know that sounds weird because I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s, everything was colored. Our foods were dyed, purple, blue, green, red and every other color known to man. But something about this orange “Pimento Cheese” spread just wasn’t in the cards for me and I had no interest in trying it, that is until I got a little older and wanted to seem a little more “fancy” at gatherings. haha

Even then, I’d only get like onelittlePimento Cheese sandwich and nibble on it while I secretly eyed the butter-mintsandsheet cakes squares.*

Heck, I really didn’t even know what was in this cheese spread when I was younger. I knew that it was some type of cheese stuff but I didn’t even know that a Pimento was a pepper until like 6 or 7 years ago. Oops…..

I didn’t start to like this kid of cheese dip until I got older, Thomas didn’t even care to try it until we just happened to see it on the menu at the bistro last year.

“……after we tried it from the bistro downtown….”

When we moved into the apartment last fall, we were so happy to be able to walk to a couple of the restaurants downtown.

I have to admit that it’s pretty sweet to be able to walk, hand in hand, down from the apartment to a fancy little dinner date the bistro. <3

But anyways, when we were there for dinner on night, Thomas ordered the fried green tomatoes topped withPimento Cheese! This totally took me by surprisebecause he’s not aPimento Cheese cheese guy, he’s not into anything that’s made with mayo! However, he says that he’s trying to be even morewilling to try new foods so he thought he’d give them a try.

Let me tell you, Fried Green Tomatoes aredelicious(we already knew that) but topping them withPimento Cheese isphenomenal. Isphenomenal an ok word for them? Too Much? Well it’s what I’m going with!

After I found out that Thomas would actually eat Pimento Cheese I decided to make it at home. I flippedthroughmy grandma’s recipe box and found one that she has written out on an old index card. Perfect. 🙂

I didn’t add quite as much mayo since I know Thomas isn’t really a fan and I did add a bit more garlic because well, it’s garlic. haha. It turned out so good. I packed up a few tubs to take to the office with me for taste testing and that was that. I now have a “go-to” homemade recipe!

Going to make this at home? Try it with crackers, make a sandwich or heat that up and bit and make a grilled cheese with it! I mean this dip on crackers is good but smearing it inside of a sweet Hawaiian roll is amazing.

If you love this, take a look at these recipes because they all either use it in the recipe OR are flavored recipes! I’m in love with all of them!

• Southern Pimento Cheeseburgerfrom Oh Sweet Basil
• Pimento Cheese BLT Wrapfrom Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen
• Chicken Broccoli Skillet with Pimento Cheese Saucefrom Southern Plate

HOMEMADE PIMENTO CHEESE

**You don’t have to use THESE brands but there are a few that I love**

Homemade Pimento Cheese

Yield: ABOUT 2.5 CUPS

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Every good southern woman should have a homemade Pimento Cheese recipe in her back pocket! With the recipe from my grandmother's recipe box and a few tests in the kitchen, I made some of the best we've ever had!

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 4 ounces diced pimentos, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard

Instructions

1. With an electric mixer, mix the cheddar cheese and cream cheese together. Mix for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add in the mayo and mix.
3. Add in the garlic powder, paprika, onion powder and dry mustard. Stir everything together.
4. Mix in the pimentos.
5. Refrigerate for at least 10-15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Source: Ma's Recipe Box

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 40Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 62Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 12mgSodium: 73mgCarbohydrates: 1gNet Carbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gSugar Alcohols: 0gProtein: 2g

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