Description
Sheet pan nachos are a super-easy way to make an awesome party snack. They’re also flexible so you can make them with any ingredients that your family loves. I highly recommend the quick-pickled red onions (and jalapenos if you like heat)—they really make it!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small white or yellow onion
- 1 pound ground turkey (or ground beef or ground chicken, or any leftover roasted or rotisserie chicken works, too); look for the 93% lean ground turkey if possible
- 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning, OR, 1.5 teaspoons each chili powder & ground cumin (whichever you have on hand)
- sea salt or kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bag tortilla chips, or chips of your choice (you’ll have some leftover)
- 1 small bag Mexican blend cheese; OR vegan queso (I like the Siete foods cashew queso if you need to buy it), or my zesty taco cashew cream if you want to make it from scratch
- 1 (14-ounce) can of black beans (or pinto beans would be great), drained and rinsed
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 small container of fresh pico de gallo from the store, or 10–12 cherry tomatoes
- your favorite salsa (preferably one that isn’t watery to prevent soggy nachos)
- pickled red onions & jalapenos*
- 2 green onions, white and green parts thinly sliced
- chopped fresh cilantro (omit if you don’t like it)
- optional: sour cream or my zesty taco cashew cream
- 1–2 limes, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Pre-step: Make your pickled red onions & pickled jalapenos—this can be done up to 3 days in advance. If possible do it as early as possible to give them time to marinate, but even just 30 minutes of marinating works.
- Tip: The meat can be made up to 1 day in advance and stored in the refrigerator until use if desired.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and diced onion. Saute for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the ground turkey and a big pinch of salt and cook until it’s opaque about 8-10 minutes. Use the back of a wooden spoon to break up the turkey as it cooks. Once it’s almost done, add the taco seasoning or chili powder/cumin and a few spins of freshly ground black pepper. Cook another 5-10 minutes until the turkey is slightly browned. Taste and add another dash of salt if needed. Remove from heat.
- Place a piece of parchment paper (NOT wax paper) on a sheet pan. Add 4-5 big handfuls of tortilla chips and scatter around, until the pan has one layer of chips. This is about 4-5 cups of chips.
- Top the chips with the seasoned ground turkey (or any meat you’re using). (Of course, omit this if not using meat.)
- Sprinkle the drained and rinsed beans all over the top of the chips and meat.
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup of pico de gallo (or chopped tomatoes) over the top. If using pico de gallo, first place it in a fine-mesh strainer or pick up pieces with a fork to drain the liquid from it to prevent soggy nachos.
- Sprinkle about 1.5 cups of shredded Mexican blend cheese over the top. (If using the vegan queso, use a teaspoon to make dollops all over the top of the nachos and add after the next broiling step.)
- Turn the oven to broil and place the oven rack 4-5 inches below broiler (this is usually the 2nd spot down from the top.) The heat from the preheated oven and broiler will quickly melt the cheese and brown the edges of the chips, so don’t walk away! Watch it closely for 1-4 minutes and carefully remove the hot sheet pan once the edges of the chips are brown.
- Turn off the broiler and turn the oven back to 350°F.
- Garnish the nachos with pickled red onions & jalapenos, diced avocado, spoonfuls of salsa, sour cream dollops/cashew queso if using*, chopped cilantro, and chopped green onions and cilantro. Squeeze a few wedges of lime juice over the top them place the lime wedges throughout the edges of the pan so people can use more if desired. Feel free to add another handful of cheese all over the top if desired, but that’s pretty extra and not necessary unless you want to go big.
- Place the whole thing back in the hot oven for 5 minutes to warm it all up together and melt any remaining cheese.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- To make this grain-free: use grain-free tortilla chips. I like the ones from Siete Foods.
- To make this vegan: omit the meat and instead cook the beans with the onion and taco seasoning. Use cashew queso instead of cheese.
* If you want to turn your sour cream or cashew cream into “crema” to drizzle back and forth as it did in the photos here, whisk together 3 tablespoons of sour cream (or cashew cream) with 4 teaspoons each water and fresh lime juice. Use a spoon or a pastry bag to drizzle it back and forth over the nachos.
