4 best tips for perfect loaded nachos
How can loaded nachos do anything other than make you happy? Crunchy tortilla chips, melted cheese, beans or meat (or both!), thick sour cream and, as a spicy counterpoint, some sharp, fresh salsa. LOVE IT! And for the perfect oven dish or baking sheet of nachos, these are the best tips…
As a snack dish, they have always been a good benchmark in the hospitality industry, but homemade loaded nachos from the oven may be even tastier. Especially if you follow these do’s & don’ts:
Don’t use your most expensive cheese
The whole idea behind this dish is ‘simple and easy’ (after all, it came about as total improvisation!), so save your more expensive cheeses for a beautiful cheese board or snack board. After all, so many more flavors are about to come into play that you don’t want to knock that delicious Appenzeller® cheese from its throne. And while grating it yourself may earn you bonus points, a bag of grated cheddar is perfectly fine if you don’t feel like it.
Try round tortilla chips
Apparently, some brands make their round chips sturdier than the triangles. The triangles originated from cutting a round tortilla into wedges before frying them. Nowadays, mass-produced tortillas are cut in alternating zigzag triangles in ‘strips’ in the dough, and then fried. The points are therefore perfect for dipping into something. But when you spread them on a baking sheet, as with loaded nachos, and then pile on lots of toppings, a little extra sturdiness can’t hurt. And just like with grating your own cheese: if you’d like to make round tortillas yourself and keep a pan of frying oil on the stove, we won’t stop you, but you’re of course also perfectly fine with delicious ready-made tortilla chips.
A layer is better than a mountain
In this case, it’s better to work with one well-spread layer of chips on a baking sheet than with a stacked mountain. As tempting as a mountain of nachos is—we get it. But the toppings can’t reach all the corners and gaps properly, and those bare, empty chips are just sad. It’s better to spread everything out in a beautiful layer and give every chip some topping lovin’.
Layer by layer
You might think it’s simply a matter of dumping all the toppings onto the chips and sliding them under the grill, but perfect nachos require a little more attention. It’s better to heat the protein you’re using separately before putting everything in the oven, such as black beans, stewed meat, or the pulled chicken or leftover fried minced meat you were smart enough to save. It generally takes a little longer to heat that properly, and before you know it, you’ll end up with burnt edges on the chips—or soggy chips that have become wet from the meat sauce. So start with chips and cheese, then add the heated meat on top and put it under the grill. Only then add the last-minute toppings, such as sour cream, delicious classic guacamole, and fresh salsa. The latter can also be served separately if you don’t want them to warm up slightly from the heat of the nachos. By the way, don’t place the baking sheet too high in the oven under the grill; somewhere in the middle should be fine, giving you less chance of burning the chips.
Ready? Add an ice-cold beer and your fiesta is on!
Also read:
- Did you know this about guacamole?! A favorite dip dissected…
- This is the difference between green and brown avocados
- 10 absurdly handy kitchen hacks
