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Nachos

These are the quick oven nachos: tortilla chips, grated cheddar and fresh red chili, baked at 200 °C for about 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted. The recipe serves four, one plate each, as a snack or a starter. To turn them into a main course, add sliced chicken or minced meat and beans.

Tortilla chips covered in melted cheddar and topped with rings of fresh red chili on a white plate, with a fork and a linen napkin beside it
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Tortilla chips covered in melted cheddar and topped with rings of fresh red chili on a white plate, with a fork and a linen napkin beside it

Recipe

Nachos

Prep
5 mins
Cook
5 mins
Total
10 mins
Serves
4 people

Ingredients

Method

  1. Turn on the oven at 200 ° C.
  2. Distribute tortilla chips on four large plates that can withstand the heat of the oven. Spread them out evenly. Do not make the layer too thick.
  3. Distribute grated cheddar cheese over all four portions.
  4. Put the four plates in the oven until the cheese is melted – it takes about 5 minutes time.
  5. Sprinkle with chili peppers – or with pickled jalapenos in rings.

Step by step, in pictures

The six moves of the method, from heating the oven to topping the melted cheese with chili.

  1. Line drawing of a hand turning the control knob on the front of an ovenHeat the oven to 200 °C
  2. Line drawing of tortilla chips spread in a single layer over a large round dishSpread the chips on four plates
  3. Line drawing of a hand grating a block of cheese on a box grater, with a small pile of grated cheese belowGrate the cheddar
  4. Line drawing of a plate of tortilla chips scattered with grated cheeseCover the chips with cheese
  5. Line drawing of a hand sliding a tray of cheese-topped tortilla chips into an open ovenBake about 5 minutes
  6. Line drawing of chili rings falling onto a plate of nachos covered in melted cheeseTop with chili

How to keep simple nachos crisp

Spread sturdy chips in one loose layer, cheese straight on top, and add wet or fresh toppings after baking. This recipe uses four plates instead of one deep pile, so every chip gets cheese, and the chili or pickled jalapeños go on after the oven.

Grate the cheddar yourself from a block. It is usually cheaper than ready-grated cheese, and it takes only a minute or two longer.

Serve the nachos straight from the oven, and warn people that the plates are as hot as the cheese.

What to put on nachos

Beyond chili or pickled jalapeños, sliced olives and sun-dried tomatoes both work as toppings.

For dipping, serve guacamole, salsa verde, or a garlic and chili sauce, hot or sweet. One or two dips is plenty.

To make nachos a meal, top them with sliced chicken breast (lime and coriander go well with it), or with minced meat and beans. They also work as a starter, or on the side of chili con carne.

Where nachos come from

Nachos are credited to Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, maître d’ at the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. Most accounts date them to 1943; some early newspaper accounts put it around 1940.

The story goes that a group of wives of US soldiers from Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass came in when there was no cook in the kitchen. Anaya made them a snack from what was there: fried tortilla triangles, cheese and pickled jalapeños. Accounts differ on the cheese, naming cheddar or Colby.

He called the dish “Nachos especiales”, and over time the name shortened to nachos.

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