Truly Ultimate Chicken Nachos Recipe

First, grab the tortilla chips to form the base. To make the ultimate melty bed for the toppings, you'll need several cheeses such as mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey Jack, and cotija to melt over the chips. Shredded rotisserie chicken provides the meat of the meal, while a mix of black beans, corn kernels, and diced tomatoes provides pops of color, earthiness, sweetness, and acidity. Onions and pickled jalapeños deliver crunch and spice. We use a special blend of garlic, olive oil, and salt to make a secret garlic sauce that is out-of-this-world good. For the creamy, saucy aspects, we use a trifecta of hot sauce-laden mayonnaise, salsa, and sour cream. Finally, chopped cilantro on top adds freshness. 

Distribute the shredded chicken, black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, onions, and pickled jalapeños evenly over the chips.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the edges of the chips start to turn golden brown.

Add dollops of salsa, sour cream, and spicy mayo on top. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro.

Though the bit of spice in this dish makes it much more interesting, you can customize the amount of heat to suit your tastes. To make these chicken nachos less spicy, consider reducing or removing the pickled jalapeño peppers. You can also use fresh diced jalapeño with the seeds removed, which cuts down the acidity and provides the pepper flavor with less spice. For a milder version, use only a tablespoon or two of diced seeded jalapeño. You can skip the jalapeños entirely or you can replace them with milder fresh peppers like Anaheim or poblano peppers instead. 

You can also reduce the amount of hot sauce or use a milder variety like Cholula Chipotle to cut down on spice. Finally, you can keep the spice level as it is but provide a cooling contrast by topping the nachos with more sour cream, adding guacamole, or making your own lime crema. The cooling ingredients will balance out any heat, and you won't lose any of the recipe's flavor and complexity.

The beauty of nachos lies in the contrast between the chips that stay crispy and the gooey, toppings-laden ones in the middle. But sometimes those chips become too mushy. There are a couple of tricks you can use if you prefer crispier nachos. To make the nachos extra crispy, bake them in a single layer on a sheet pan before adding any toppings so they crisp up in the oven and hold up better to the layers of other ingredients. 

Don't overload the tortilla chips with too many moist toppings in one place or they'll become soggy. Instead spread all the toppings out as much as possible. As the recipe instructs, it's best to add the wet ingredients like salsa, sour cream, and mayo after baking. And finally, take the nachos straight from the oven to the table for serving immediately. The less time the nachos spend between the oven and table the more they will maintain that fresh-from-the-oven crunch.