Super Bowl 50 playbook calls for loaded nachos

Want some bacon on there as well, or a slash of hot sauce? Go to! Some will add beans. Others black olives, chopped raw onion. Please do.

But take care to layer well. Layering is the key to loaded nacho perfection.

Lay a sheet of chips across a sheet pan and top it lightly with your meat sauce, some cheese and a few toppings, though not too many. Then repeat and repeat, topping the whole with an enormous amount of cheese — Cheddar, yes, and some Monterey Jack as well, along with some crumbled Cojita if you can find it — and holding back only tomatoes, cilantro, sour cream and, if using, the raw onion to anoint your nachos at the end.

Start your baking at the 2-minute warning before halftime, said Josh Capon, an executive chef and partner in a number of Manhattan restaurants, including Lure Fishbar and Bowery Meat Co. His Super Bowl parties are semi-legendary among professional chefs in New York City.

“You need to control the crowd,” Capon said. “You give them too much up front, they’re dead by halftime.” Ten minutes or so at 400 degrees will do it, until the cheese is bubbling and the edges of the chips are beginning to darken.

Then serve right away. “That’s the game plan,” he said.

Loaded Nachos

Total time: 30 minutes

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1/4 pound slab or thick-cut bacon, diced

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced

1 1/2 pounds ground beef, like chuck or sirloin

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 tablespoons ancho chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons smoked paprika, hot or mild

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon light brown sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 to 2/3 cup chicken stock, homemade or low-sodium, or water

1 12- to-16-ounce bag corn tortilla chips

1/2 head iceberg or romaine lettuce, shredded

1/2 cup pickled jalapeños

2 avocados, pitted and sliced

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup crumbled Cojita cheese

3 radishes, cleaned and thinly sliced

2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced into quarters

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves

2 limes, cut into eighths, for garnish

Hot sauce, if desired

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put a large sauté pan with high sides over medium-high heat and add the bacon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat has rendered and the pieces are crisp, about 5 to 7 minutes, then remove the bacon and set aside.

2. Add the onions to the bacon fat and sauté, stirring occasionally, until they have softened and started to go brown around the edges, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the ground beef and garlic and cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon, until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt, paprika, pepper, sugar, cornstarch and red pepper flakes and stir to combine and toast the herbs. Add enough chicken stock or water to loosen the mixture, and allow it to simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes. (Add a little more stock or water if mixture is too thick.)

3. Assemble the nachos on a half sheet pan. Put a layer of tortilla chips on the pan and cover with about 1/3 of the meat sauce, then add about 1/3 of the lettuce, 1/3 of the jalapeños, some avocado slices and a handful of the Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses. Top with more tortilla chips, more meat sauce, more lettuce, jalapeños, avocado and cheese, then make a final layer of chips, meat, jalapeños and cheese. Top with crumbled Cojita cheese and slide the sheet pan into the oven to bake until the cheeses have melted through, about 10 to 12 minutes.

4. Top cooked nachos with the sliced radishes and tomatoes, and dot the tray with teaspoons of sour cream. Scatter the cilantro over the top and serve, accompanied by limes and hot sauce.