August 2, 2020

Mile-High Buffalo Chicken Nachos

Mile-High Buffalo Chicken Nachos is the perfect dish for an at home gastro pub night. Chill your favorite beers, or sodas, and get ready for a fun and delicious night in the comfort of your own home. I love to serve these nachos in individual pans, so that everyone can build their nachos just the way they like them.

The Equipment You’ll Need

4 small cast iron skillets- You will need these to serve your individual mile-high nachos in. If you don’t have these, no worries, just use one big cast iron skillet, or a sheet pan.
A food processor- This is helpful for making the salsa verde as well as the blue cheese dressing. If you don’t have one, just chop and blend everything by hand.

The Ingredients You’ll Need For Mile-High Buffalo Chicken Nachos

Corn tortilla chips- Buy the best chips you can, usually the stone ground organic chips are thick and tasty. We love the Donkey brand chips. Be sure to hide the chips from your family until you are ready to cook with them, or they may be eaten prematurely!
The Hot Sauce- I like Frank’s Hot Sauce.
The Ketchup- I like Heinz organic.
The Black Beans- I like to use dried beans. Since this calls for such a small quantity, they’ll cook really fast. I just rinsed them, covered them with lots of water, and boiled them for 3 minutes, and then simmered them for about 40 minutes.
The Monterey Pepper Jack- The fancy cheese counter at my supermarket has really creamy Monterey Pepper Jack. I store it in my freezer, so that my family can’t snack it all away.

How I Made It

Although this dish has a lot of components, it all comes together in one hour. It can also be made ahead, dressing and all, and then be broiled right before serving.
I started by baking my chicken, and boiling my beans. I also made the blue cheese dressing and the salsa verde, and chopped the tomatoes.
Next, I made the Buffalo sauce, and shredded the chicken. I found it easiest to just slice the chicken really thinly, not actually shred it.
Finally, I piled the chips high with toppings, and melted the cheese for about a minute, under the broiler.
I served this dish as an appetizer to Black Truffle Macaroni and Cheese (see my post; I wrote it around 7/13) and some steamed broccoli.
I plan on heating up the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I had a lot of fun making this dish, probably because it’s so decadent and delicious. I like to order nachos in restaurants, but am so often disappointed in what I receive. So often, restaurants serve up, overly processed thin chips, tasteless cheese, and boring toppings. That’s why I love making nachos at home, where I can control the quality and choice of my ingredients. A great vegetarian variation would be to substitute pinto beans for the chicken. I think they would be yummy in Buffalo sauce. So, I hope you’ll try these Mile-High Buffalo Chicken Nachos, and feel free to customize them to your desires.

Mile-High Buffalo Chicken Nachos

Tortilla Chips piled high with buffalo chicken, salsa verde, black beans, Monterey pepper jack cheese and blue cheese dressing.

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Prep Time 25

Cook Time 35

Total Time 1

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Tex-Mex

Servings

Equipment

Food processor

Ingredients

To assemble the Loaded Buffalo Chicken Nachos:

Buffalo Chicken
Salsa Verde
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup cooked black beans
2 cups shredded Monterey pepper jack cheese
4 cups corn tortilla chips
blue cheese dressing

For the Buffalo Chicken:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
7 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. hot sauce
¼ cup ketchup
1 tbsp. honey

For the Salsa Verde:

6 chopped tomatillos
¼ cup cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. lime juice

For the Blue Cheese Dressing:

¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. blue cheese
¼ cup whipped cream cheese
1 tbsp. buttermilk
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

To assemble the Loaded Buffalo Chicken Nachos:
Place the tortilla chips on a large sheet pan or in individual cast iron skillets.
Top with the Buffalo chicken, salsa verde, tomatoes, beans, and cheese.
Cook under the broil just until the cheese melts.
Drizzle with blue cheese dressing.

To cook the Buffalo chicken:

Preheat the oven to 375°.
Place the breasts in a small baking dish and top with 3 tablespoons of sliced butter. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt the rest of the butter, and then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Shred the cooked chicken and add to the sauce.