Makes 4-ish servings

Notes:

Oh, nachos how we love you. Your cheesy goodness. Your plentiful toppings. And no - we’re not talking about the ballpark or movie theater nachos of your youth. Gone are the overly salted, nondescript tortilla chips. There’s no suspicious cheese-like sauce or rubbery meat. Instead, we used a high quality chip, one of our favorite salsas, pinto beans for the protein, and - of course - a significant amount of cheese. Some pickled, sliced jalapeños rounded out the dish.

Pro-tips:

Start with a sturdy chip: You want a chip that will hold its shape and texture under the toppings. Avoid anything labeled “thin.'“
Layer thoughtfully: as with sandwiches, there is an art to building your nachos. Start with your chips, then create a buffer between those and your wet toppings with a layer of cheese. Add your salsa and your protein, top with one more layer of cheese to prevent everything from drying out, then garnish with your jalapeños, etc. and bake.

Products recs:

We’ve talked about our fave salsa brand before: La Fundidora. Unfortunately, that wasn’t available when we were shopping, so we grabbed our second fave - La Frontera.
For the beans, we used Fillos’ pink beans, but their pinto, mayocoba, or black beans would all work well.
We used Siete’s chips, because they were on sale, they’re a brand we trust, and because we though blue corn would be pretty. But, use whatever you have on hand or grab your preferred variety - multigrain, baked, etc. You could also use another chip entirely - say Jackson’s sweet potato chips, or even make your own if you have leftover tortillas lying around.

Swaps:

We opted for a shredded Mexican blend cheese, but cheddar, Monterey jack, or colby would all work fine.
Feel free to swap the beans for some browned ground meat, or shredded chicken. We don’t always love fake meat, but this recipe also works nicely with seitan chorizo, particularly Upton’s.

Add-ons:

For extra cheesiness, top with some crumbled cotija.
We added slivered radish for a pop of color and crunch. Some diced fresh tomatoes, slivered cabbage, or chopped white onion would also be nice.
You can never go wrong topping nachos with some sliced olives, and sour cream/crema.
Garnish with a diced, ripe avocado, toasted pepitas or quartered lime to kick things up a notch.

Equipment:

Sheet pan
Parchment paper
Spoon
Spatula for serving

Ingredients:

~8 ounce bag of tortilla chips
2 x 10 ounce bags of refried or pinto beans OR 1 x 15 ounce can
8 ounces. pre-shredded Mexican 4-cheese blend (about 2 cups)
~2 cups jarred salsa verde
½ cup sliced, pickled jalapeños
½ bunch cilantro or scallions

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment. We recommend adding a drizzle of oil to that, too.

Spread chips in a single layer with as little overlap as possible. Top your chips with half your cheese, then dollop on your beans, and your salsa. Top with your remaining cheese and sliced jalapenos.

Bake nachos in your preheated oven until the cheese melts and just begins to brown in places, about 8 minutes.

While the nachos are baking, tear your cilantro leaves from your stems.

When the nachos are ready, remove from the oven, dish into bowls and garnish with cilantro or scallions, and any other toppings you may be using. Serve immediately.

Glorious Sheet Pan Nachos