Making chicken nachos at home is easier than you may think. It’s also perfect for game day dining!
You may think that nachos are a bar food. That’s what we thought too. We loved eating the cheesy tortilla chip dish when we hung out with friends but sometimes we were suffered from nacho disappointment. And then it hit us. We could and should make nachos at home.
First though, we had a few key decisions to make about our recipe for the quintessential bar food. What kind of cheese should we use? Should we use solid or liquid cheese? Should we make our nachos in a dish or in a tray? Should we add a protein and, if so, what kind? And, most important, how will we prevent the cheese from making the chips soggy?
The answers revealed themselves once we did a little research. We have to give it up to Chef John and his YouTube channel, Food Wishes. He’s a YouTube legend – we’ve been watching his videos since we went nomadic in 2016. Watching his “Super Deluxe Steak Nachos” video provided the inspiration we needed in a tight convenient package.
In that video, Chef John bakes nacho chips in a deep baking dish with a simple layer of cheese, homemade refried beans and cubed steak. He then tops the baked nachos with additional accoutrements. This approach solved two of our challenges:
- The baking dish provides insulation, keeping the chips, cheese and beans hot.
- The cheese melts over the beans and protein without making the chips soggy.
After getting the necessary inspiration, we took our nachos recipe in a different direction. First, we found that chicken breast, if sautéed properly in a skillet, provides a wonderful complement to the cheese and other toppings, which we prefer over steak. Next, unlike Chef John, we don’t make refried beans from scratch. Finally, we like to top our nachos with flavorful guacamole instead of simple avocado chunks. The result is an ovenful of goodness that’s not only an ideal game day snack but also a wonderful dish on any party spread.
Discover more party recipes.
A World of Nachos
So what makes us nachos authorities? While doing our nacho research, we realized that we’ve eaten nachos on four different continents. Nachos, like pizza, have a become a quiet phenomenon in world cuisine and part of our global eating repertoire. We’ve eaten them in European cities like Lisbon and Prague as well as in Da Nang, Cape Town and, of course, all over the USA.
The nachos we’ve eaten in bars around the world have ranged from lick-smacking good to painfully awful. In retrospect, eating all of those versions gave us the impetus to create great nachos in our kitchen. And, now, we’re glad we brought the bar food home. Our nachos recipe is so satisfying that pizza may be next.
Ingredients
Here’s everything you need to make loaded chicken nachos at home:
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
How To Make Loaded Chicken Nachos
You need to do a bit of prep work before you make your nachos. Specificlally, you need to pre-make the guacamole, cook the chicken breast and warm the refried beans. You also need to do a bit of chopping and grating. Once you do those tasks and arrange your mise en place, you’re ready to go.
Start by laying the chips about three deep in a baking dish.
Top the chips with refried beans. Add the cubed chicken with the chicken jus.
Top the chips with a generous layer of grated cheese.
Place the baking dish into a conventional oven at 450°f / 230° or 420°f / 215°c in a convection oven (oven with a fan).
Set the timer for five minutes at which point you’ll want to check the nachos for doneness – the cheese should be melted with just a hint of brown edges. If the nachos aren’t done, set the timer for another five minutes and check the nachos frequently. You don’t want the cheese to burn!
Now comes the fun part. First, generously dollop the nachos with the guacamole.
Next, sprinkle the nachos with diced tomato and diced onion.
Sprinkle on the pickled jalapeño rings.
Decorate the nachos with a artistic squeeze of crema and optionally garnish with chopped cilantro.
Splash on hot sauce like Texas Pete if you’re a hot sauce fan like Mindi. Otherwise, the nachos will be plenty flavorful on their own.
Serve with a spoon and dig in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nachos are essentially tortilla chips topped with melted cheese plus optional toppings like guacamole, diced tomato and refried beans. Nachos can also have protein toppings like chicken and steak.
Nachos made their first official appearance in Piedras Negras in Northern Mexico across the Texas border.
Tortilla Chips, Grated Cheese, Grilled Cubed Chicken Greast, Guacamole, Diced Onion, Diced Tomato, Refried Beans, Mexican Crema and Cilantro
Loaded Chicken Nachos Recipe
This loaded chicken nachos recipe is a crowd pleaser. It’s easy to make and fun to eat.
Servings: 4
Calories: 549kcal
- 8 ounces tortilla chips
- 2.5 ounces white cheddar cheese (grated on the largest hole on a box grater)
- 2.5 yellow cheddar cheese (grated on the largest hole on a box grater)
- 1 grilled chicken breast (1/2 pound chopped into 1-inch cubes with its juices)
- 6 ounces refried beans (canned, heated until warm)
- 6 ounces guacamole
- 1 onion (medium, diced)
- 6 ounces tomato (diced)
- 1/4 cup pickled japalapeno (jarred)
- 3 tablespoons Mexican crema (in a squeeze bottle)
- 1 tablespoon cilantro (chopped)
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Preheat a conventional oven to 450°f / 230°c (or 420°f / 215°c if your’re using a convection oven).
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Place tortilla chips In a medium sized rectangular baking dish approximately three layers deep.
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Spoon the refried beans over the chips first and then place the chicken cubes (with the juice) over the refried beans and chips.
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Add two more layers of chips and then generously top with grated white and yellow cheddar.
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Place the baking dish in the oven and heat for 5 to 10 minutes checking frequently until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and place on a heat proof surface.
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Add the remaining ingredients in layers, starting with the guacamole, then the diced tomato, diced onion and pickled jalapeño. Using a squeeze bottle, add the Mexican crema in an artistic criss-cross pattern. Optionally garnish with chopped cilantro and served with a spoon or spatula.
- Modify the ingredient amounts to your taste. Assuming that you don’t overcook the nachos, you can’t mess up this recipe!
- You can omit the chicken or replace it with steak.
- It’s best to use homemade guacamole in this nachos recipe.
Serving: 4g | Calories: 549kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 635mg | Potassium: 575mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 704IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 244mg | Iron: 2mg
