”You have to taste a culture to understand it.”

– Deborah Cater

Nachos with meat and cheese

Nachos with meat and cheese are quite common snacks/appetisers in restaurants and bars, but they are also super easy to make at home and can be a relaxing weekend dinner meal or a party snack. 

Nachos can be made with cheese only, but they are delicious with juicy and soft cooked ground beef. To be ready to make nachos quickly, I usually pre-cook the ground meat and have it frozen in smaller portions.

Step by step video tutorial
Serving Size:
For 2 – 3 people to share
Time:
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Bake time: 8 min
Difficulty:
Easy

Ingredients

These are ingredients I use. Adjust the amounts as you like and use the ingredients you like.
  • Corn chips (150 g/ 5.29 oz)
  • Cooked ground beef (300 g / 2 cups)
  • Grated cheese (I use Cheddar, Gouda, Mozzarella, Emmental) (200 g / 2.4 cups)
  • Sweet corn (30 g / 2 tbsp)
  • Bell pepper (a small slice)
  • Tomato (1 small)
  • Jalapeno or guindillas (marinated spicy peppers)
  • Avocado and sour cream to serve
For cooking the ground beef (for nachos only about 300 g ground beef is needed, but I cook more and save the rest for other dishes):
  • 1 kg / 2.2 lb ground beef 
  • Half an onion (medium)
  • About 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • 1.4 tsp cayenne pepper 
  • 1 tsp spicy paprika powder
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 200 ml / 0.75 cups water
  • 100 g / 0.5 cups tomato sauce
  • Cooking oil

Directions

  1. Pour a bit of cooking oil in a frying pan and heat it. Put the ground beef to fry. Put the lid on top and let it cook for a few minutes on medium heat. Check and stir the meat once in a while to make sure it does not burn and cooks through.
  2. Cut the onion in small cubes and chop or press the garlic cloves. Put both – onion and garlic – in the pan with the meat.
  3. Add also the spices. I’m adding salt, ground black or mixed pepper, cayenne pepper, a generous teaspoon of spicy paprika powder and thyme.  If you don’t like spicy, skip the cayenne pepper and use sweet paprika powder instead. Mix everything and let fry for a few minutes till it gets dry.
  4. Add in the pan about 200 ml water and 100 g tomato sauce. I’m adding it as I want to stew the ground beef and have it very soft, juicy. Put the lid on the pan and let the meat stew on medium heat till the liquid is mostly gone. When almost ready, taste the meat to see if you want to add more spices. Remove from the stove and assemble nachos.
  5. Set the oven to heat to 180 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  6. Cut the tomato, bell pepper and spicy peppers in small cubes.
  7. Put a piece of parchment paper in a baking tray (if using) to easier remove nachos. Or assemble them in a baking dish in which you will serve them.
  8.  Put a layer of corn chips in the dish, some grated cheese on top, then some cooked ground beef and a bit of corn, bell pepper, and tomato. If making nachos in a small dish in layers, repeat the with layers of corn chips and all the rest of the ingredients.
  9. On top of the final layer put all the ingredients generously, including the spicy peppers and top it off with the grated cheese. 
  10. Put the nachos in the oven for about 5 to 8 minutes till the cheese melts. 
    Remove from the oven and enjoy!