18: How To Nachos
July 21, 2010
In my continuing endeavors to educate the masses, I present another “how to” poster.
Layers.
Layers are key in any good nacho making. Well, that and a whole lot of cheese.
Never make them in the microwave. That’s sacrilegious. Plus, if you make them on a pan, you can just slide them off onto a plate and chow down.
I suppose if there was one additional bit of knowledge I could impart, it would be to not let the chips on each layer overlap too much. I arrange the chips extremely carefully. It usually takes me longer to assemble than to eat.
Stick to these tips and you’ll go far.
OK. One more picture.
8 Comments
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Something a week 
Brilliant and tasty.
So really it’s like an alternative lasagne?
Definitely. You got it.
Makes my mouth water….yes, I want some NOW! One more motherly tidbit for the masses…add the toppings after the broiling–I would hate to think others who are not as nacho savvy as you might actually broil the guacamole and sour cream!
Amen. This is the only way to make nachos. When I make nachos, I, too, painstakingly layer the chips so that there are as few gaps between the chips as possible, but the overlap of chip-over-chip on each layer of chips is also minimized. This way, you don’t get too much “wasted” cheese, and you also don’t get a bunch of dry clumps of chips glued together by one thin layer of melted cheese on top, but are dry and comparatively flavorless in the middle.
I must admit that I do sometimes microwave my nachos, but I can attest that it is so worth it to make it in the oven. I don’t like most salsa, especially if it’s chunky, so I usually use a few smatterings of “hot sauce” (tapatio is a favorite, however, Tabasco’s chipotle sauce is quite good as well, though I don’t recommend their regular sauce for nachos). I also don’t like guacamole, but that’s just my personal preference. Kyle, it seems you really know the right way to make nachos. It should take at least an hour to construct and then bake them, and then less than 15 minutes to eat them, unless of course you’ve made an enormous pan of them. I also like adding ground beef or shredded chicken. On the rare occasions that I use sour cream (I just don’t usually buy it because even a small portion doesn’t usually get used before it goes bad) I sometimes put it on after baking so that there’s a cool contrast in the mix. However, baking it does make it smoother.
Damn, now I want to eat nachos.
Also, I think I deserve some kind of mention for writing a sentence that has a 3 word, 3-comma run that is entirely grammatically correct. Thank you.
Let’s have a nacho party.
Now, that’s a comment!
Can you send this to the “Mexican” restaurant that my wife and I ate at in Paris? We lived there for three years and I was dieing for some Mexican food. I ordered the nacho platter for an appetizer. Here is what it was: 6 (yes six) chips on a plate. Each of them had a separate topping. One had 3 pinto beans. One had what I thought was some sort of picco de gallo sauce on it…but really was just 4 or 5 small chunks of tomato, and one just had cheese…not some good cheddar but emmental (a tasteless filler cheese). It was very, very disappointing to spend over $7 on that weak excuse for nachos.
That is a terrible thing to happen to anyone.