How I make Nachos and Rachel Ray's Super Nachos!

Nachos for a Really Quick and Easy Meal!

We eat a lot of Nachos at our house.  Nachos can be an appetizer, a snack, or a quick meal depending on how you make them.

When I lived in Mexico, we made the refried beans from scratch.  This thread will explain about frijoles refritos or refried beans.

This is the way I like mine minus the jalapenos



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I have been making them for so long that I don't use a recipe.  I put tortilla chips on a sheet pan.  I heat the refired beans on the stovetop and add some salsa.
The refried beans go on top of the chips. Then grated cheese is sprinkled on top of the beans.  I put the sheet pan in the oven or under the broiler until the cheese is melted, maybe 10 minutes.

This is the way hubby likes his:



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If you want something fancier, this is Rachel Ray's Super Nachos Recipe:



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Ingredients:

2 bags corn tortilla chips in 2 colors or different flavors, such as blue corn, red corn, yellow corn, lime flavored, chili flavored or black bean chips -- pick 2 favorites

Pico de Gallo Salsa:

4 vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped, for medium to hot heat level

1 small white onion, chopped

1/4 cup, 2 handfuls, cilantro leaves, finely chopped -- substitute parsley if cilantro is not to your liking

Salt

Beef and Beans Topping

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound ground sirloin

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons dark chili powder

1 1/2 ground cumin, half a palmful

2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper sauce, giving you medium to hot heat level

1 can black beans, 15 ounces, drained

The link for the refried beans has a recipe for making the beans rather than using canned beans, your choice!

Cheese Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

3/4 pound pepper jack cheese, shredded, about 2 1/2 cups

Additional toppings to choose from, optional:

Sour cream

Chopped scallions

Chopped black olives

Diced pimento

Sliced avocado, dressed with lemon juice

Hot pepper sauces

Directions:

   Arrange a mixture of 2 varieties of corn chips on a very large platter or use your broiler pan as a platter.

   Combine salsa ingredients in a bowl and set aside for flavors to marry.

   Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add oil, garlic, onion and peppers to the pan and saute 2 minutes, then add meat and crumble with wooden spoon. Season meat with salt, chili powder, cumin and cayenne pepper sauce. Cook meat 5 minutes, then stir in beans and reduce heat to low.

   In a medium sauce pot, melt butter and add flour to it. Cook flour and butter 1 to 2 minutes over moderate heat, then whisk in milk. When milk comes to a bubble, stir in cheese with a wooden spoon. Remove cheese sauce from the heat.

   Pour cheese sauce evenly over the massive spread of chips and top evenly with beef and beans and the pico de gallo. UBER NACHOS! Serve immediately as is or, garnish with your choice of extra toppings from the toppings list.

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https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/super-nachos-recipe-1914057

Nachos are a rare treat for me, this is how I like to make them:

Layer of corn chips
Layer of cooked brown rice
Layer of Mexican beef mince from my cookbook
Spoonfuls of salsa scattered around
A generous amount of grated cheddar or mozzarella
Corn chips stuck into this, to poke out the top and get extra crispy.

Once they're ready, if I have guacamole or sour cream I'll add some of that, and serve them with shredded lettuce or grated carrots, and some fermented vegetables on the side.

Kate, I love how you make yours!  I will have to try it with brown rice. I love them with salsa, guacamole, or sour cream.

I'm not good at picking out avocados for guacamole, they just aren't ripe enough.

I read a way to pick the ripe ones. though I don't do it because it just doesn't seem fair.  Take a finger a pop off the end that has the little button thing.  Sorry, I can't think of the name for it.

How do you make your guacamole?

The brown rice makes them more filling, and it is so tasty when it's covered in the Mexican beef mince - it absorbs the flavours and juices... Thinking about it makes me want to make nachos this way now!

For guacamole I keep things simple - just mashed avocado, a little lemon juice, a pinch of salt and  maybe a little black pepper.

It can be hard to get avocados at the right moment. My trick is to (very gently) squeeze towards the top of the avocado, and if it has the slightest bit of give, then it's ready (or will be ready in a day or two). Usually at the start, it's good for slicing, then a couple of days later it's perfect for mashing.

Anne Miller wrote:I'm not good at picking out avocados for guacamole, they just aren't ripe enough.

Anne, you have to plan ahead with avocados. Several days ahead.  Avocados mature on the tree but ripen only after they've been picked. If they are picked too early by unscrupulous growers, they never ripen and just become rubbery. Unfortunately in a supermarket you have no way of knowing which is which!  Depending on variety they can take 2-10 days to ripen after being picked.  Some like Fuerte give you no visual clue as to ripeness, only squeezing will tell. Hass on the other hand goes black as it ripens. A green Hass is going to take several days to ripen, probably a week. Ripen avocados on the side in your kitchen. Do NOT put them in the fridge until they are fully ripe! Putting them in the fridge once fully ripe will extend their shelf-life by nearly a week. If you put them in the fridge before they are ripe they never ripen. Supermarkets often sell "ripe and ready" avocados - in my experience they are not. They usually require at least 24-48 hours on the side before they really are ripe and ready to be eaten.  Hope that helps!

Anne - popping off the bit of stem will only tell you if the avocado is still green or if it's overripe and brown. Alcina has some good pointers for finding a ripe avocado.

Nachos are a good way to use up bits of protein and cheese. Usually we use black beans, not a fan of refried. Bits of chicken are good and grating whatever melting cheeses we need to use up. We always have sour cream, tapatio, guacamole and salsa.

Thanks, Alcina and Stacy

As far as I know, the only ones available are Haas.

I hadn't had the nerve to buy any avocados since my last sad experience.  I only bought them when they were on sale. And with covid, I have not seen a grocery store since September.

We take our nachos all sorts of ways, depending on if it's a quick snack, or planned ahead for dinner!
Simple would be to lay out a plate with chips, then top with shredded cheese and heat until melted. Top each with a spot of salsa, and jalapenos on mine please!
More involved would be the same with any of the following ingredients: fresh tomato, minced onions, black beans, avocado, sour cream, cilantro, ground meat cooked with Mexican spices.
A FUN version of the "more involved" uses the "scoop" type chips, which are like mini bowls... and each gets its own tiny portion of all the ingredients. They'd make awesome hors d'oeuvres, but for us it's usually a plate full of them (each) for dinner.

Our standby, however, is more of a sandwich than nachos... it's all the same ingredients, but wrapped in a flour tortilla and toasted in a cast iron skillet.

In the center of a flour tortilla, shredded cheese then a layer of chips (can be broken bits) in a circle about half the diameter of the tortilla.
Add the other ingredients you have, salsa, beans, meat, onion, avocado, jalapenos, sour cream... in small amounts, it adds up, and is difficult to wrap up if overstuffed.
Top with another layer of chips, like before (easier if these are whole) and smoosh it down a bit. Top with shredded cheese, like before.
Fold the tortilla over the top to close. I make six folds, in opposite pairs, and it's okay if they don't close off the top...the exposed cheese gets fried and crispy, so good!!
Now to get it to your pre-heated pan, replace your folding hand that is holding the tortilla closed with an upside-down spatula. This hold the folds closed and the cheese in on the way to the pan...flip it over and slide it off the spatula once it's in the pan.
Toast both sides, until golden brown and delicious. Fairly neat to eat if you don't make it too runny with salsa, and portable.

I live alone & work full time so I make these ready to go Nachos on a day off:

About 1/2  can Refried Beans (maybe more depending on the number of chips you use)
Non-GMO Tortilla Chips
About 1/2 can Black Olives , chopped
Scallions chopped (I use a lot of them)
Cheese or Cheez
Fresh Cilantro, chopped if available

Quick & Easy  ~ about  8 - 10  minutes in the oven at about 400 degrees

When my kids were little we often went to potlucks with other families with children and took dessert nachos.

Ingredients:
1 bag tortilla chips
1 bag mini marshmallows
1 bag mini chocolate chips

You can use vegan ingredients also.

Layer chips, marshmallows, chocolate chips twice until your pan is full with marshmallows on top.

Heat in 350 F oven 10 minutes, then turn on the
low broiler watching carefully until marshmallows look toasty brown.

Sometimes we’d use a glass baking dish, sometimes a deep, aluminum roasting pan if the crowd was expected to be large and doubled the ingredients.

The pan always came home empty.

I always have Kalamata olives and Monterey Jack in the fridge. Chop and shred, open can of refries (Pintos), slice up fresh Jalapenos or grab jarred, get out the homemade creme fraiche (easy peasy to make!) and start layering a plate with tortilla chips and cheese...pop in oven til melted, pull out and add everything else and return to oven to warm thru,  CHOW TIME!!  You can also make great quesadillas usin either corn of flour tortillas, also a staple at my house.

And if I'm REALLY feeling lazy (and flush), talk the hubs into a run to Home Depot for next project, stop at Chili's for beer and nachos, with a side of southwestern eggrolls.