Thursday, July 18, 2013

Nacho Mind

I love Costco. Granted, my weekly Costco trips only consist of stocking back up on fruits and vegetables for the week, it is still a great experience. I get their rotisserie chicken once in a while because that 1 chicken lasts my other half and I about 3.5 days for $5.00! What?! Yeah, for real. It's crazy.

While talking to one of my dear friends and biggest supporter of me and this blog, she said "chicken nachos!" And started listing out mouth watering accompaniments to the nachos. I was going to make chicken and shrimp spring rolls, but nachos sounded way better. I needed to get tortilla chips, but wanted to make it "semi-homemade" so instead of buying chips, I bought yellow corn tortillas and decided to bake them! If I wanted it to be homemade, I would've bought masa harina to make my own masa dough ->tortillas->chips, but I hadn't intended on doing that. Maybe next time! ;)

I cut the tortillas into triangles (1 tortilla = 4 chips), and baked them at 350 degrees. I did 2 test batches prior to ensure I wouldn't mess any of the chips up. The 1st batch was made at 350 with 1 plain chip and the other brushed with olive oil. The 2nd batch had the same type of chips from the 1st batch, but I increased the temperature to 400. I preferred the plain chip that was made at the 350 temperature. It had a great crunch and no grease!

Freshly baked tortilla chips!

The best part of nachos is the cheese. I'm not a fan of cheese, but I love nacho "cheese". So artificial, but so good. I had low fat shredded mexican cheese but wanted to make a good creamy, yet healthy nacho cheese sauce. And I did it with 3 ingredients: Cheese, flour, and chicken broth! I don't eat a lot of dairy products so when I want to create something creamy and lush, I improvise and whatev happens, happens! I made chicken broth, whisked in flour and added the cheese and that was it! I would add water if it got too thick. I love spicy food, so I charred some diced up jalapenos to get their essence going then added the other ingredients. And voila! Healthier cheesy goodness.

Oozy, gooey, bubbly cheese

What is nachos without salsa? I enjoy acidic food cutting through the richness of the cheese, so I made a fresh salsa using a red onion, corn, tomato, cilantro, green onion, and squeezed the juices from a lime and lemon. Added a little ground black pepper and garlic powder and put it in the fridge for the flavors to blend together.

It looks so fresh and I love the colors!

With the chicken from Costco, I shredded it and added its juices to the salsa.

And there you have it! Simple, healthy chicken nachos! I added Cholula hot sauce to mine to give it more of a kick. The chips came out so good! They were not greasy and very crispy. I was on Google Hangout with my friend and she wanted to hear me crunch into a chip and it did! This meal for 2 people didn't even cost $2 because I didn't fully use all the ingredients! AND if you have leftover salsa and tortillas, you can make chicken tacos! BAM! Another meal.

The salsa really added a great raw crunch and freshness. These nachos won't make you feel heavy after!


Until Next Time!
CheFelicia



PS. You can check out my Instagram: Pholeeshia for photos!









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