Cheese Fondue with Lamb Dippers

This easy cheese fondue party with fondue dippers is one of the easiest ways to throw a party! It’s fun, quick and delicious—specially when you’ve got succulent pieces of lamb dippers! Invite as many friends as you can and Enjoy 🙂

Today’s fun delicious post is in partnership with the American Lamb Board. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Nothing like a nice good End of the Year Party to bring an ending filled with friends, laughter and good times. While I LOVE the Holidays and everything about it, I probably enjoy end of the year parties a bit more.

It’s more laid back, we plan lots of games and contests, and we choose super easy food options. A cheese fondue party with dippers is always a HIT with our friends. 

CHEESE FONDUE

Classically a cheese fondue comes from Switzerland and hence made with Swiss cheese. However, any type of cheese works. In fact, I love a good white aged cheddar cheese fondue much more than the Swiss cheese one.

Also, I’ve tried a combo of fontina,  provolone, asiago and parmesan fondue which is what I’m sharing today. It’s to DIE for! Blue cheese fondue is another great option. So you can totally personalize this recipe to your taste.

The idea of a cheese fondue party is to have a nice pot of melted cheese sauce (fondue) surrounded by different fondue dippers. Everyone gets their own mini fork (or fancy toothpick) and picks a dipper. 

Once you’ve got your dipper on the fork, you’ll then dip that into the melted cheese pot to coat it. And now it’s ready to taste. Seriously YUM! More on the dippers below!

CHEESE FONDUE RECIPE

The breakdown of a cheese fondue recipe is: liquid, cheese and cornstarch. Add ons include spice and herbs.

Let’s start with the liquid. You’ll need a cup total. You can make this a cup of white wine, or a cup of stock for a non-alcoholic version. The one thing you can’t skimp is an extra teaspoon of lemon juice.

Lemon juice helps to stabilize the cheese fondue and maintains a beautiful stretchy melty texture to the cheese. So don’t miss it!

The cheese is probably best to use your favorites. Today’s fondue is mainly fontina, provolone with a touch of Asiago and Parmesan. 

The Cornstarch is what makes the cheese fondue thicken beautifully. It gets cooked for a few minutes with the cheese and liquid so the fondue will not taste anything like cornstarch.

The add ons. I simply added salt. You can however add black pepper, spices such as garlic powder, nutmeg, paprika or whichever you feel like.

I personally LOVE the taste of pure cheese fondue, so I rely on my dippers for flavor. Hello, I’ve got beautifully seared American lamb shoulder pieces as dippers. So that says it all!

CHEESE FONDUE DIPPERS

The sky’s your limit here! You an totally play around with cheese fondue dippers. Make them as many or as little as you like. The best thing is to have a variety.

Today’s Cheese Fondue Dippers include:

• American Lamb Shoulder Bites
• Broccoli florets
• Garlic bread croutons
• Grapes
• Colored tomatoes
• Persimmons

Other things to dip in a cheese fondue:

• Apples/pears
• Pretzels
• Pickles
• Mushrooms
• Carrots
• Cauliflowers
• Roast Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes

You can probably pick your favorites and simply chop or cube them. The one dipper you can NOT skimp on is the American Lamb Chunks. 

Those seasons chunks of American Lamb shoulder perfectly seared till crispy pair so beautifully with the cheese fondue. And since every other dipper requires no cooking, you’ll have time to plan for cooking the lamb.

I season it with salt, pepper, oregano and onion flakes. Sear for just 2 minutes with butter in a hot skillet and it’s ready. It’s the STAR of my cheese fondue party every single time.

AMERICAN LAMB

I LOVE American lamb. It’s the only type of lamb we eat at home, and coming form a person who’s had lamb in so many places around the world, I can say American lamb has own my heart! 

Why American Lamb? 

• It’s absolutely raised with LOVE. Having visited so many local ranches and met amazing hard working and loving ranchers, I know how much love goes into this industry. 
• It’s Delicious, tasty and flavorful!
• Fresh from the farm to your table.
• Raised to the highest industry standards
• Digestible protein that can be substituted for any other protein in your meals. (Think burgers, meatballs, tacos, steaks, BBQ, roasts and more!)
• Available locally
• Sustainable agriculture which is what our environment needs right now.
• Great value for the protein!
• Versatile.

HOW TO MAKE CHEESE FONDUE

First of all, prepare your lamb. The lamb dippers are the real STAR here, because what’s a good fondue without good dippers?

Season your American lamb shoulders and sear them in butter over high heat for 3 minutes per side until golden and crispy. Add in fresh chopped mint and thyme and cover the lamb chunks before serving.

Make the cheese fondue. See that garlic clove in the video? Well that’s how I get a nice hint of garlic flavor in my fondue without actually adding garlic or garlic powder. I find this trick makes a world of difference!

I use the garlic rub trick on both the post in which I make the fondue in, and on the fondue serving bowl. 

Bring the liquid to a boil, add in the cheese, cornstarch and season. Which and cook until cheese has melted and cornstarch has cooked off. This takes about 6-8 minutes over medium low heat.

Serve the cheese fondue in a heat proof ceramic or metal bowl, which you can keep warm using a tea candle.

Arrange the cheese fondue dipper around the fondue pot and have plenty of forks around.

Watch as everyone tried dipping all the fondue dippers to decide which is their favorite. Can you guess mine? 🙂

See how simple this comes together? I can’t wait for you to try your own cheese fondue recipe and share your favorite cheese combinations, and your favorite fondue dippers, aside form the lamb of course 🙂

Happy New Year to all of you! Tag me so I can have a peak at the goodies you’re making 🙂

CHEESE FONDUE TIPS:

• Prepare your fondue dippers first. Chop, slice or arrange chips, veggies and fruits on your serving board. 
• Cook the lamb dippers and roast any potatoes if using ahead of making the cheese fondue.
• Pick your favorite cheese or combo of cheeses. 
• If you’re making a blue cheese fondue, you’ll need to have about half the amount of cheese neutral base such a provolone or mozzarella cheese. The other half can be blue cheese. This is because blue cheese doesn’t have a good melty/stretchy characteristic.
• Infuse a hint of garlic to your cheese fondue by rubbing a clove of garlic on the insides of your fondue pan and pot.
• Add lemon cheese to your cheese fondue because it helps the cheese maintain a stretchy texture.
• Flavor your cheese fondue with spice and herbs if you like.
• Pour the cheese fondue in to a heat safe dish (ceramic, glass or metal), so that you can keep a tea candle underneath and maintain it to be warm.
• You don;t need a fondue pot, all you need is a heat safe bowl and a tea candle.
• Double or triple this recipe and entertain with fondue for up to 25 people.
• Have a variety of dippers, and have them vary from veggies to fruits, to chips/pretzelts/bread or potatoes, to lamb chunks. 
• Lamb dippers are a show stopping dipper for any type of fondue! So don’t skimp! 

ENJOY!

LAMB RECIPES

Smashed Potatoes With Spicy Lamb

Grilled Lamb Skewers BBQ Party

Roast Lamb And Chickpeas

Roast Lamb Shoulder Recipe

Lamb Chops Date Night Platter

American Lamb Meatball Subs On The Grill

Moroccan Lamb and Turmeric Lentil Soup

Spicy Harissa Lamb Shoulder Chunks in Pita Cones with Tahini Sauce

5 from 7 votes

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Cheese Fondue with Lamb Dippers

This easy cheese fondue party with fondue dippers is one of the easiest ways to throw a party! It’s fun, quick and delicious—specially when you’ve got succulent pieces of lamb dippers! Invite as many friends as you can and Enjoy 🙂

Course Appetizer, brunch, Dips, finger food, tutorial

Cuisine American, French, Swiss

Keyword Cheese Fondue, Cheese Fondue Dippers, Cheese Fondue Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 6

Calories 453 kcal

Author Mahy

Ingredients

American Lamb Shoulder Chunks

• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1.5 lbs American Lamb Shoulder cut unto an inch chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon onion flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 tablespoon chopped mint
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves

Cheese Fondue

• 1 whole garlic clove peeled and top cut off
• 1 cup liquid white wine, stock, or a combo of both
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 lb grated cheese 3 cups total of 1 cup fontina, 1 cup provolone, 1/2 cup asiago and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Cheese Fondue Dippers

• American Lamb Shoulder Chunks above
• 2 cups croutons
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 2 apples
• 1 cup grapes
• 1 persimmon

Instructions

1. Start by preparing the American Lamb chunks. Place all ingredients (except butter) in a bowl and toss well.
2. Heat a cast iron or any skillet over high heat and add in the butter.
3. Add the lamb shoulder chunks one at time without crowding the pan, and sear the chunks for 2-3 minutes on each side until seared beautifully with a crispy crust. Add the fresh herbs and cover the pan, set aside.
4. Make the cheese fondue. rub the pan with the cut off side of the garlic clove all over to infuse the garlic flavor into the pan. Remove the garlic clove and set aside.
5. Add the liquid and lemon juice, and cover the pot. Bring to a boil.
6. Once it bils, lower the heat to medium low and add in the remaining ingredients. Use a whisk to melt in the cheese and cook the cornstarch for 6-8 minutes.
7. Take the fondue serving pot or bowl and rub the insides of it with the same cut off part of the garlic clove. Pour the ready cheese fondue in to the bowl/pot and set over a stand with tea candle underneath.
8. Arrange the dippers and serve with the cheese fondue.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

.Prepare your fondue dippers first.
.Chop, slice or arrange chips, veggies and fruits on your serving board.
.Cook the lamb dippers and roast any potatoes if using ahead of making the cheese fondue.
.Pick your favorite cheese or combo of cheeses.
.If you're making a blue cheese fondue, you’ll need to have about half the amount of cheese neutral base such a provolone or mozzarella cheese.
.The other half can be blue cheese. This is because blue cheese doesn’t have a good melty/stretchy characteristic.
.Infuse a hint of garlic to your cheese fondue by rubbing a clove of garlic on the insides of your fondue pan and pot.
.Add lemon cheese to your cheese fondue because it helps the cheese maintain a stretchy texture.
.Flavor your cheese fondue with spice and herbs if you like.
.Pour the cheese fondue in to a heat safe dish (ceramic, glass or metal), so that you can keep a tea candle underneath and maintain it to be warm.
.You don;t need a fondue pot, all you need is a heat safe bowl and a tea candle.
.Double or triple this recipe and entertain with fondue for up to 25 people.
.Have a variety of dippers, and have them vary from veggies to fruits, to chips/pretzelts/bread or potatoes, to lamb chunks.
.Lamb dippers are a show stopping dipper for any type of fondue! So don’t skimp!

Nutrition Facts

Cheese Fondue with Lamb Dippers

Amount Per Serving

Calories 453 Calories from Fat 270

% Daily Value*

Fat 30g46%

Saturated Fat 19g119%

Cholesterol 89mg30%

Sodium 882mg38%

Potassium 309mg9%

Carbohydrates 27g9%

Fiber 3g13%

Sugar 11g12%

Protein 21g42%

Vitamin A 1203IU24%

Vitamin C 33mg40%

Calcium 585mg59%

Iron 2mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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