Nachos may be the perfect bar food: crunchy, salty, spicy, cheesy and made for chasing with beer. But would I really want to make a full meal of them at home?
Dan Whalen clearly anticipated that question in the introduction to “Nachos for Dinner: Surprising Sheet Pan Meals the Whole Family Will Love” (Workman, $22.95).
“Nachos are one of those appetizers that are just a little too big to be a true app, and a little too small and imbalanced to be dinner,” he writes. But they don’t have to be. In this slim volume, Whalen applies the appeal of a pile of nachos to a range of weeknight meals and communal weekend feasts that deliver on the fun, while covering the basic food groups.
Whalen has made a career of such challenges. He’s the creator of The Food in My Beard, a popular recipe blog that has fueled four previous cookbooks riffing on s’mores, Tater Tots and other comfort foods.
His latest begins with the story of Ignacio Anaya — better known as Nacho — a maitre d’ in the Mexican city of Piedra Negras who concocted the now-ubiquitous snack in the 1940s for some late-night customers from Texas. Whalen’s recipes follow that original formula — crispy base (chips), melty layer (usually cheese) and flavorful topper (such as jalapenos) — leaving room for some wild detours.
For a dinner party, I assembled a batch of Classic Nachos by first running a pan of chips covered in taco-style ground beef and grated cheese under the broiler. Then I invited my friends to load up their portions with Whalen’s versions of guacamole, lime crema, pico de gallo, corn salsa and jicama slaw. It was such a hit, I’m now ready to go rogue with chips topped with cumin-roasted cauliflower or shrimp and grits, or a chip-less construction such as Chicken Tikka Masala Naanchos or Lasagn’Chos.
Each is a meal in itself — but you may want to save room for Apple Pie Nachos for dessert.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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