The Best Nachos You’ll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)

The first time that I tried nachos,

it was here in America.

I'm from Central Mexico.

We don't really eat nachos,

but when I first tried it, I've fallen in love with nachos.

I feel like this dish is a little bit more Tex-Mex

than Mexican, but you know, it's both, so relax.

When we talk about nachos,

they should be crispy and full of flavors.

Every single nacho should have the same amount of cheese,

beans, pico de gallo, salsas, queso, crema.

Build it right and you know, you'll be happy. [laughs]

[upbeat music]

So the nachos that I'm making today don't have any meat,

but the beans, it's gonna take place of the protein.

I'm making smashed beans with some onions, garlic,

serrano, epazote, and a little bit of cilantro.

We're gonna start with some neutral oil.

A little bit of cebolla. [pan sizzling]

I'm gonna add a little bit of salt.

What salt is gonna do to the onions, they're gonna sweat,

It's gonna help to speed the process of cooking.

And it's gonna add flavor.

I'm gonna add garlic, which I love.

Remember, grandma says to eat a lot of garlic.

I love beans.

They're meaty, they're creamy, they're soft,

they're savory, they're delicious.

If you wanna eat meat, you know,

I highly suggest you to put some chorizo,

carne asada, or cecina.

Cecina is a salty beef.

I'm gonna blitz the pasota a little bit,

and the serrano just to get the aromas out of the air.

Epazote, it's a bitter green

that has a lot of aromas and flavor.

I will say it's a little bit licorice,

and I will say a little bit minty.

The aroma is unbelievable.

The serrano is gonna add a little bit of heat,

but I'm not cutting it.

I'm just blistering the pepper a little bit

to get the spicy oils out of the serrano

so they get married with the onion and garlic,

and they can all live happy together.

Now I'm gonna add the frijoles.

I'm gonna add a little bit of water.

Once this cooks, it's gonna get thick.

We want that texture that you can actually spread

the beans all over the place without being so thick.

These are store-bought beans, they're canned beans,

and that's why I add the serrano,

the pasote, the onions, and the garlic,

'cause I feel like it needs more love.

The best time to season beans after they're cooked.

If you season the beans before,

it breaks the skin of the beans.

I'm gonna throw some cilantro in here too.

I'm gonna start smashing them.

The reason why I'm smashing them

is 'cause I want this to be a sauce,

like a thick, rich sauce.

So my beans, they look phenomenal.

I just need to remove the aromatics.

So this is the consistency that I want.

You still see the beans, still a sauce,

and you can actually spread it all over the nachos.

And it's not pureed, and it's not refried.

It's actually a nice, thick, rich sauce for the nachos.

[upbeat music]

Now that my beans are ready, my chips are ready,

I'm gonna do the cheese.

And this is why I don't bake this,

because this step is different from the others.

And I feel like this will help you make the best nachos

without baking it.

So we're going back to basics.

I'm just gonna do a quick fundido,

put it on top of the nachos, and have the best nachos.

A fundido is a melted cheese.

I don't like bake because I feel like you struggle

to put the tray in the oven.

You always worry about where you're gonna put that.

Put it on what part of the table you're gonna put it.

And also you burn the tips of the tortillas.

And I feel like they dried out, they get soggy.

The ones in the middle,

I feel like you don't have a quality crispy tortilla chips.

This is how you can avoid all that.

So I'm gonna start with a little bit of oil.

We're gonna put some queso.

I use queso quesadilla.

It's on the Mozzarella, Monterey Jack cheese family.

It's a cow's milk cheese.

Look at this, it's just easy to work with.

It's a quickly melted cheese.

A little bit of heavy cream

is gonna keep this cheese nice and runny

'cause we don't want this to be so thick.

The reason why you bake nachos is to melt the cheese.

And this, you don't need to do that.

So this is melting right now,

I'm gonna go and start plating.

[upbeat music]

So that's two base layers of nachos.

Then on top of that, a couple of more chips

and all the fresh toppings and sauces.

Why the top is on top?

Because those are cold, are fresh,

and if you put it underneath, they will get more saggy.

So that's why they need to be on top.

These chips that I have today,

I bought a store-bought tortilla and I fried them.

That's why they're so crunchy.

[chips crunching]

Look, this is how crispy they are.

You can hear the noise.

That's say you have a really good nachos.

Now I'm gonna start assembling my nachos.

I'm gonna take a beautiful bed of nachos.

[bowl clanging]

That's one.

Now I'm gonna do a little bit of beans right here.

Now, when I say I want it to have like a saucy beans,

this is the reason why.

'Cause every single chip is gonna have

a little bit of this delicious beans.

Now you can put more, but I'm not gonna do that.

Because I don't want my nachos to get so wet.

I want them to be crispy.

The beans is just an ingredient to add to the chip.

It's not the main thing.

So now I'm gonna wait for this to get hot.

[pan sizzling]

See?

You don't see this when you bake your nachos.

When the cheese is dancing,

that's when the cheese is ready.

See, it's dancing.

And I'm gonna do this right here.

Make sure that every single chip gets some cheese.

Now we're gonna do more cheese, 'cause you know me.

If you know me, you know me.

And then I'm gonna do more chips.

This is my second layer.

And why I do layers?

Because I want every single chip

to get the same amount of love.

I feel like when people make nachos,

they just put a pile of nachos.

And then when you get to the middle, there's no cheese.

There is dry chips.

And with this, you will make sure you have enough

of everything in every layer.

A little bit of cream.

Don't overcook your cheese.

Fundido's really fast, as you can tell.

And keep it warm when you serve it.

And now, here's the second layer of cheese. [groans]

I'm just gonna put a little bit more chips.

I'm gonna do a little bit of beans.

It's like making a cake.

So when we talk about nachos,

you're supposed to have layers of ingredients

and make sure they're all evenly

to get the perfect nachos.

It's not about just pile of food throwing in there.

So this is why I do this this way,

'cause I'm a professional.

Now I'm gonna do salsa.

This is chile de arbol salsa.

It's spicy, it's made out of tomatoes, onions, garlic,

and a little bit of cumin and oregano.

It's always good to put the sauce in a squeeze bottle

because like that you can spread the sauce

in every single nacho.

This is an avocado sauce.

It's avocado, onion, cilantro, lime, but it's raw.

So this is a cooked sauce, spicy sauce,

and this is a creamy, raw sauce.

The reason why I put two sauces

is because one complements the other.

It's like marriage.

So when you take a bite, you know, it's spicy, it's creamy,

it's a little mild, but it has the heat,

and it's crispy because of the nachos

and it has the saltiness from the beans.

Now I'm going to add la crema.

So crema, just in case if it gets too spicy,

also it adds a fresh element to it.

Okay, and here I have some pico de gallo.

We made this just now.

Just diced tomatoes, cilantro, onion, lime, and salt.

This is gonna add a freshness element

'cause everything is cooked, everything is sauce.

This is gonna have like a fresh kick.

I'm going for a lot of balance in flavor here, and texture.

Everything has to be creamy, fresh, spicy,

just like Mexicans, you know, we're full of surprises.

And then I'm gonna do queso fresco.

Queso fresco has salt element.

It's fresh, scrambling, and it adds a really good taste.

And then I'm gonna add some pickled jalapenos.

These add that pickle spiciness.

It's like a surprise element.

It's like, whoa, where does this come from?

Sweet, spicy, sour.

Cilantro is gonna add presentation,

but it's also gonna add some aroma and more freshness.

Look how pretty this looks.

Meatless nachos.

And this is how I make my non-bake nachos.

You don't need to bake it,

you just need to make sure you do it right.

You have to make sure you have layers,

consistency of layers,

so every single bite has the same amount of love.

It looks like the best nachos I've ever seen

in my whole life.

Ha!

Every single bite is crispy,

and it has the perfect amount of cheese and queso crema.

So it's salty, it's creamy, it's hot,

and it's fresh, and it's spicy,

and it has a little acidity from the jalapenos.

It's just so many flavors

and textures going on into one bite.

So, these nachos, you don't need to bake them.

You don't need any meat.

You just need to have the right ingredients

and enjoy the ride.