Experts weigh in on this fully loaded party-ready snack
Nachos might be the most social food; they are meant to be shared.
Jon Carnevale, the owner of Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse in Manchester and Nashua, agreed. “I think that’s the great thing about nachos,” he said. “I think it certainly really lends itself to just being social and going out with friends and enjoying yourselves, enjoying company. It’s something that, like our nachos here, they’re huge. So they can feed one, two, three people to an order, depending on the appetite. … [Nachos] have something primal about them — eating them with your hands. …There’s a connection there that doesn’t exist for some other dishes.”
According to Andy Sanborn, owner of Draft Sports Bar in Concord, it’s possible that nachos have become the No. 1 bar food. “We have some great nachos and it raises the question … are nachos overtaking chicken wings and tenders as the go-to snack for America,” Sanborn speculated, “and we think it could be. We have some awesome, awesome wings here that I’m very proud of. But it could be nachos over wings. They’re that popular.”
“Nachos are just like an easy grab-and-share item. I think that that’s what’s appealing to people,” said Elissa Drift, owner of Local Street Eats in Nashua. “Nachos are endless; you can put whatever you want on them and just really customize them to make them unique or different, colorful, and flavorful. And I think that is what the big appeal is. I’m a sucker for a nacho. I love a good cheesy nacho. But I just think it’s honestly just that a fun little grab and bite and you can put a little bit more on, a little bit less on, and it’s … just the versatility that it has to offer.”
For Jaime Metzger, manager of Granite State Candy in Manchester, it’s that versatility that makes nachos great.
“There are just endless options,” Metzger said. “You know, you have a chip and then you just, you have, there’s so many ways to, there’s so many ways to nacho. You can do sweet, you can do savory, you can add whatever toppings you want. It’s a group thing, but it can be individual — no judgments. Nachos aren’t judgy.”
The Chips
Nacho professionals agree that good nachos have to start with a base of good chips.
“We make our own chips with our own spices on them,” Andy Sanborn said. “I think that’s important. It keeps them fresh. It keeps them new. It gives them an individual taste.”
The tortilla chips at Shorty’s are made in-house, too. “Yeah, you’ve got to cook those every day,” said owner Jon Carnevale. “Those are done in-house again, seasoned by us.” While Carnevale and his staff don’t make tortillas from scratch, he emphasized that they make chips from them every day.
This focus on freshly made chips can extend beyond tortilla chips. Jeff DiAntonio, chef at The Peddler’s Daughter in Nashua, makes fresh potato chips for the base of his Irish nachos. “We cut our own chips,” he said. “We use 90-count russet Idaho potatoes, and then we fry those off to order.”
Other nacho-makers are less invested in making chips in-house but have high standards for the qualities of the chips they use.
“I get these really excellent corn chips from my vendor,” said Stanley Tremblay, owner, chef and head brewer of Liquid Therapy in Nashua. “They’re nice and thick with just enough salt to be tasty, with a good crunch, and they’re fairly thick so they withstand the toppings without getting soggy. So it’s really a primo chip that I love. It’s a real nice, crunchy, good yellow corn.”
The Cheese
Sharing equal billing as the most important element of an order of nachos is the cheese.
Jon Carnevale said the best cheese for nachos requires extra effort.
“You absolutely have to grate your own cheese,” Carnevale said. “You don’t want to use pre-bagged cheese that you’d find in the supermarkets, because it’s dry. It doesn’t have the moisture content that it would if you grated your own. That’s one of the big points. You don’t get the cheese pull, you don’t get that kind of luxurious cheesiness that you get if you grate your own.” The stretchy, melty cheese feels better in a person’s mouth, he said, and gives a plate of nachos important visual appeal.
“We use cotija cheese,” said Camaron Carter, co-owner of Sunstone Brewing in Londonderry. Cotija, pronounced “co-tee-hah,” is a dry, crumbly, Mexican cheese, a little like feta. “It just adds a little bit more saltiness to it. We like nachos that are more of the dip version of a nacho instead of your classic melted cheese on top. With melted cheese, you peel it off and you end up with that nucleus in the middle that everyone’s fighting over. This way, we kind of like this version of a nacho where it’s a lot easier to eat, easier to share.”
Andy Sanborn likes to have cheese options. “We use a tri-blend mix of cheese,” he said. ”But within our restaurant, we have something like seven different cheeses. So our ability to utilize different cheeses to hit differently on the taste palette is important.”
“We use a blend, a 50-50 blend of cheddar and jack,” said Jeffrey Spencer, a prep leader and shift supervisor at Margaritas Mexican Restaurant in Manchester. The cheddar gives the nachos a deeper cheesy flavor, he said, and the jack gives them a gooey, melty quality. “We have it shredded for us. It’s a specific brand that’s made for us specifically. They send us the blend; it has a box labeled Margaritas, mixed cheese.” This provides a consistency to the cheese; it is reliably the same every time.
The Build
We’ve all been disappointed at one time or another by finishing off delicious toppings only to be left with half an order of dry, broken chips. All our nacho experts agreed on the importance of making certain that all the chips are paired with toppings.
“We start with a skillet,” said Jeffrey Spencer, “and we put beans down on the skillet. Then we put a layer of chips and then we cover them with queso sauce. Then we do another layer of chips, add the protein, and then our mix of cheeses on top. And then when it comes out of the oven, it gets pico [pico de gallo, a fresh salsa], pickled jalapeños, guacamole and sour cream to add some brightness to set off all the stodge. We make our own queso. It’s not like from a can.”
“A key point is that you’ve got to do two layers,” advised Jon Carnevale. “You have to have one layer of cheese, more than whatever toppings you’re looking to add. You’ve got to have the right chip-to-cheese ratio. That’s very important, so you don’t have a little cheese on top and then a bunch of dry chips on the bottom. We do it in two layers here and we have a method that we stick to to make sure we preserve that ratio.”
Jeff DiAntonio is also a proponent of equal chip coverage, also in layers. “We [cook nachos] on a sheet pan in the oven,” he said. “We have a nice layer of chips and a little bit of cheese, and then a little bit more chips, cheese, and then the toppings go on top of that.”
For Stanley Tremblay at Liquid Therapy, though, the whole concept of layers of nachos seems fraught with danger. “Ours are cooked in the oven,” he said, “not under a broiler. The most important thing though is that everything is all on one layer, so you never get a bad chip.’
Andy Sanborn said that contrary to popular opinion putting together a really good plate of nachos can actually be fairly labor-intensive.
“I think you have to put in the work to make great nachos,” he said. “Look, you know, someone can just throw some tortilla chips out of a bag onto a pizza tin and throw some cheese on it, throw it in the oven and add some tomatoes, jalapeños and onions and call it a day. There are plenty of people that do that, and it works for them. We make everything from scratch at our restaurant; we want to make [our nachos] memorable.”
CLASSIC INGREDIENTS
Most people have a baseline image of nachos: tortilla chips, cheese and some fresh ingredients.
“The biggest thing for nachos is that you have to make a lot of them,” said Jon Carnevale. “That’s the key. And that’s what we do here at Shorty’s. I think sour cream has to be in there. Pickled jalapeños will go on them. Because you have all the richness from the cheese and all those other ingredients, you have the pickled jalapeños to kind of keep it in focus. It’s a good balance to that richness. It adds a little heat too. But it should be a little sprinkle. It’s not to overpower the plate, but just a little accent. We add a scoop of guac on each order of our nachos; that adds something. If you’re looking for meat, I’d pick good old-fashioned gringo ground beef, or even our chili. We make our Jailhouse chili in-house every day. And that on nachos is fantastic, especially this time of year.”
INNOVATIONS
What if you want to be a little more adventurous and experimental with your nachos? Nachos provide a great canvas to showcase special ingredients.
Short rib nachos
According to Michael Martin, chef at Miller’s Tavern in Manchester, highlighting a special ingredient on an order of nachos means the ingredient has to be of the highest quality. “We make our short ribs from scratch,” he said. “We have a house recipe that we use. Our short rib is slow-roasted for four hours so it’s tender and full of flavor. It’s so good. To top it off you can get it with our … barbecue sauce. We make nachos with pork or with the short rib. Most people go with the short rib. And then we top that with melted cheddar cheese, our house-made pico de gallo, along with our house-made barbecue sauce. You can add sour cream or diced jalapeños.”
Irish nachos
One increasingly popular form of nachos substitutes potato chips for tortilla chips. Jeff DiAntonio at the Peddler’s Daughter said potato chips support an even larger number of directions to take nachos in.
“These are something different. It’s not your typical corn tortilla. … The potatoes are a different spin on the ordinary nacho you get. We fry the chips to order, and we’ll top them with cheddar jack cheese, onion, tomato, sour cream and scallion for a basic one. But then we also have options to add barbecue pork, grilled chicken and bacon to them,” he said.
Street corn nachos
The nachos at Sunstone Brewing take their inspiration from Mexican street corn, which as its name suggests, is sold on the streets of Mexico, roasted and topped with lime juice, crema, and salty cheese.
“The base [of our street corn nachos] is a cream and cream cheese based street corn dip,” said Camaron Carter, “with corn, peppers and jalapeños. Obviously there’s the corn, which is fire roasted. And then you have some green and red peppers in there as well. Then on top you have the grilled chicken with some pickled jalapeños on top, some cotija cheese. And then chopped green onions to finish it. It was on our very first menu when we opened and people have loved it so much that it’s been there ever since.”
“I think our classic Sunstone Golden Ale goes perfectly with nachos,” Carter said. “It’s nice and light and not too hoppy. It has a breadiness to it that kind of helps deal with all the saltiness of the chips and all of that. I think it’s kind of perfect, especially if you’re watching a football game or any sports and having some nachos and some beers. You kind of want something light like that, that won’t overtake some of the flavors that you get from the nachos.”
Korean nachos
One very adventurous variation on traditional nachos is Liquid Therapy’s Korean-inspired Seoul-ful nachos.
“It’s a nice easy base of 100 percent corn chips,” Stanley Tremblay said, “with some cheddar jack on top. And then I have my shredded pork and my shredded chicken that I make in-house. That goes over the top. Then I’ll add some red onion, some mushrooms and some peppers. I add a little more cheese on top and a gochujang drizzle. If you’ve ever had Korean barbecue — it’s sweet, it’s tangy, it’s got a little heat. It’s got everything you want to have in something that’s super delicious and stick-to-your-ribs and comfort food.
“I also created an Asian-style pickle, with rice wine vinegar, a little apple cider vinegar, some ginger, some soy sauce, some heat from red pepper flakes, some garlic, and I fine-chopped some radishes, carrots and napa cabbage, with more red onion and garlic. I do a quick pickle to kind of create this kind of kimchi-meets-pickle salsa. A little cup of that goes out so people can put that on at their leisure on top of the nacho to get that, you know, little bit of continued Asian feel and warmth and deliciousness,” Tremblay said.
“My vendor had this awesome gochujang sauce that I was able to plug and play with, and it all just kind of came together. I even made chili out of it as well. I did a chicken pork chili with some peppers and onions and beans and then put a little gochujang with that pickle medley as well and people ate it up. So I think this year it really seems like that spicy-sweet setup is getting traction in the restaurant industry. I’ve noticed that a lot with my, you know, my Buffalo and I’ve got some other things that I made with a ghost pepper aioli with some honey and some other stuff. It has this full mouth feel, full tongue effect, bringing in all those different senses,” Tremblay said.
Carnitas and Buffalo chicken nachos
“For our Buff [Buffalo] chicken nachos,” Andy Sanborn said, “we fry chicken tenders that we dice, then we wet batter them again with our own wet batter. We fry the chicken off and then we have our own Buffalo sauce that we toss the chicken tenders in before we put them on the nachos. So you’re getting good, fresh, uniquely battered and uniquely Buffalo-y Buffalo sauce chicken on top.”
“For our carnitas nachos, we make pork carnitas [shredded roast pork] the old-fashioned way,” he said, “and then we have a southwestern cowboy queso dip that we include with the cheese. It actually kind of goes on top of the cheese near the end to give it yet another flavor profile, so it’s not just tortilla chips, cheese, tomatoes, onions and jalapeños. It’s more involved than that as something to eat.”
“We actually do our own smoking here,” Sanborn noted. “We smoke the pork off first. When we make our carnitas, it’s pork that’s smoked in-house. It’s dry rubbed in-house with our own special sauce and with our own special spices, which is secret. And then we smoke it until it’s finger soft. People talk about ribs falling off the bone, but you want your pork shoulder to break up easily because it’s easy for people to chew on. We kind of pride ourselves in our taste palate on our smoked pork.”
Ice cream nachos
Nachos are flexible enough to support sweet versions as well as savory ones.
Jaime Metzger invented ice cream-based nachos for Granite State Candy.
“Ice cream nachos are a lot of fun, actually,” she said. “Basically, it’s pieces of waffle cone in the shape of round nacho chips. You can pick two different ice creams or two of the same ice creams. And you get your choice of two sauces. Again, you could do the same sauces or you could do different ones. Hot fudge, caramel, peanut butter, marshmallow, strawberry, the list goes on. And then you get to pick two toppings. So you can pick a candy topping, you can do sprinkles, you can do whipped cream, you can do any of those. And then there you are.”
“My only complaint,” Metzger said, “is, we have hard ice cream — versus soft serve — so sometimes the chips break when you try to dip them in the ice cream and that bothers me. We give spoons with it, though, so you could take the spoon and use it to load the chips.” Ice cream nachos are really good to order on a date, she said. “I’ve definitely seen couples get it. Like he picks and then she picks and they do their thing, because it’s two of everything. For an additional fee you can get an extra bag of the waffle chips if you don’t think there’s enough that comes with it. You can buy another bag of waffle chips. Any additional toppings or anything are available upon request, for an additional cost. I mean, you can go crazy and put tons and tons of things.”
Where to find these nachos
Traditional nachos:
Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse 1050 Bicentennial Drive, Manchester, 625-1730, shortysmex.com, Nachos – starting at $12.99
Margaritas Mexican Restaurant Manchester 1037 Elm St., Manchester, 647-7717, margs.com, Loaded Skillet Nachos – $16.99
Short rib nachos:
The Miller’s Tavern 1087 Elm St, Manchester, 854-8442, themillerstavern.com, $18.95
Irish nachos:
Peddler’s Daughter 48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com, starting at $13
Korean nachos:
Liquid Therapy Brewery and Grill 14 Court St., Nashua, 402-9391, liquidtherapynh.com, Seoul-ful Nachos, $16
Carnitas and Buffalo chicken nachos:
The Draft Sports Bar and Grill Concord Casino, 67 S. Main St., Concord, 227-1175, draftsportsbar.com
Ice cream nachos:
Granite State Candy Shoppe 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com, $8.95
Featured photo: Korean Nachos at Liquid Therapy. Courtesy photo.