Nachos

Each chip loaded separately in a single layer and the cheese grilled onto it, never poured over a heap.

Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 250 g tortilla chips, as on their own page
• 300 g cheese that melts — Chihuahua, Monterey Jack or mild Cheddar — grated
• 150 g pickled jalapeños, in slices
• 200 g refried beans, as on their own page (optional)
• soured cream, to serve
• guacamole, as on its own page, to serve
• pico de gallo, as on its own page, to serve

Method

1. EACH CHIP IS LOADED SEPARATELY IN A SINGLE LAYER AND THE CHEESE IS GRILLED ONTO IT, NEVER POURED OVER A HEAP. This is the whole difference between nachos worth eating and the usual bowl. Chips piled three deep with cheese sauce poured over give you a crisp top layer, a warm soggy middle, and a cold bare bottom -- and the cheese sets into a sheet that lifts twelve chips at once. Spread in ONE layer on a tray, so no chip is hidden, with grated cheese dropped on each one and a jalapeño slice on top, and then grilled: every chip comes off the tray as its own complete thing, crisp underneath, with its own cheese melted onto it. More trays rather than deeper trays.
2. IT IS GRATED CHEESE AND NOT A SAUCE. Grated cheese melts onto the chip and stays there. A poured sauce runs off, pools under the chips and softens them from below within a minute -- which is the mechanism by which nachos go wrong.
3. IT IS GRILLED FROM ABOVE AND NOT BAKED. A hot grill, close to the element, two or three minutes. The oven heats the chips through and they go stale-tasting and limp; the grill melts the cheese from above before the chips below have time to warm up much at all.
4. THE BEANS, IF USED, GO UNDER THE CHEESE AND IN SMALL DABS. Half a teaspoon per chip, not spread across the tray. Beans are wet and a continuous layer of them turns every chip soft; dabbed on individually and then covered with cheese, the cheese seals each dab in.
5. THE COLD THINGS GO ON AFTER IT COMES OUT, AND AT THE TABLE. Cream, guacamole and pico de gallo are all wet and cold. Spooned on in the kitchen they start softening the chips immediately; put on the table in bowls, each chip gets dipped as it is eaten.
6. The grill heated to HIGH, with a shelf close to the element.
7. The tortilla chips spread on a large baking tray in a SINGLE LAYER, no chip on top of another. Two trays if needed.
8. If using beans: a HALF TEASPOON dabbed onto each chip individually. Not spread.
9. The grated cheese dropped onto EACH CHIP by the pinch, so every one is covered.
10. A slice of pickled jalapeño set on top of each.
11. Grilled 2 to 3 MINUTES, WATCHED -- the cheese should melt and just begin to bubble and brown at the edges.
12. Taken out the moment it bubbles; it goes from melted to burnt quickly this close to the element.
13. Left 1 MINUTE to firm slightly.
14. Slid straight from the tray onto a warm platter, keeping the single layer.
15. The cream, guacamole and pico de gallo taken to the table in SEPARATE BOWLS.
16. Eaten at once, each chip dipped as it is taken.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes