Oniony Beefy Nachos Recipe

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Nachos are a staple meal in my house. They’re something that’s always easy and we usually have all the ingredients on hand. It’s the kind of meal that’s kept in the back of my mind as something we can always do if the night goes late or if we have someplace to be in the evening.

The best thing about nachos is that they’re easily customized with very little effort. If you have picky eaters, you just leave out the ingredients that they don’t like. The whole family can build their own nachos to order and include the ingredients to make their own perfect nachos. It’s a win for everybody.

Beef Nachos Recipe

This recipe is as easy as it gets. All the ingredients are inexpensive and easy to prepare. As the recipe is written, you can jazz up the ground beef with some onion soup mix to give it some extra flavor. It’s milder than if you were to use fresh onions, so the onion taste isn’t overpowering.

If you’re like me, I often don’t make any recipe exactly as it’s written. Instead, I use it as a jumping-off point to add my own modifications using additional ingredients or other flavors. This recipe is especially well suited to changing it up.

You can use ground turkey or diced chicken instead of ground beef to make these nachos a little bit healthier and leaner. My family really likes shredded Mexican cheese, with a combination of cheddar, Monterey Jack, queso quesadilla, and asadero cheeses. Mexican blend cheese melts very well so it’s perfect for nachos.

For this recipe, you can swap the black beans for pinto beans or even refried beans, depending on what your family likes best. You can even serve the beans separate from the salsa rather than cooking them together. Those who want the extra heat from the salsa can add it separately. If you have picky eaters or kids who don’t like spicy stuff, they can still have dinner with the family.

Shredded Beef Nachos

If you want to make your nachos more like you’d find in a fancy Mexican restaurant, that’s not hard to do, either. Restaurant-style nachos often have shredded beef instead of ground beef. Don’t be intimidated or think that this is going to make nachos a super difficult meal to make, though.

Throw a chuck roast in the crockpot in the morning and the meat will be falling apart by dinner time. Then you can easily shred the beef and season it. You can also buy pre-cooked brisket to use for your nachos, then you would just have to heat it and serve.

If you feel like being really fancy, you could roast a brisket for a Sunday meal and save the leftovers. Brisket is one of those meats we love down here in Texas and it’s great for a variety of purposes. You can serve it plain after cooking it, maybe with traditional Texas sides like macaroni and cheese or baked potatoes.

But leftover brisket is great in several dishes and I guarantee you won’t get the usual complaints about leftovers with this. The smoky, rich flavor of brisket makes excellent barbeque beef sandwiches, is perfect on nachos, and even in enchiladas.

Nachos are an ideal family meal because they’re easy and quick to prepare. But you can also take a kitchen sink approach and put whatever you happen to have on hand in your nachos. You can use ground beef, cheese, and salsa, and make them basically like flat tacos. Or you can dress them up and use shredded beef, a variety of cheeses, or even vegetables like lettuce or bell peppers.

If you enjoyed this recipe, make sure to check out our Taco Dip Recipe and our Enchilada Recipe.

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The image featured at the top of this post is ©Lauri Patterson/ via Getty Images.