Name: Chicken Nacho Dinner
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: Tex-Mex
Ingredients: 6 cups baked corn tortilla chips; 4 cups shredded or cubed cooked chicken (such as rotisserie chicken or leftover roasted or grilled chicken); 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained; 1 cup prepared salsa; 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, mild or sharp

Nachos are one of my family’s favorite meals. Whether we’re having them while watching football with friends or just want an easy to prepare a meal on a busy night, nachos are always popular.

Sometimes we make nachos as simple as just chips and cheese, but that usually feels like too much of a cheat and not like a real meal. But the truth is that it’s not very difficult to make more of a full meal out of nachos. This chicken nacho dinner is easy and quick and everyone is guaranteed to love them.

We don’t need fancy meals; we’re not that kind of family. But we too often fight the temptation to go to fast-food restaurants for dinner. We try to avoid fast food for dinner, both because it’s unhealthy and because it’s easy to blow through our food budget for the month.

Nachos are a satisfying alternative to fast food. They’re still just as tasty and easy to make. In fact, I can often prepare nachos in less time than it would take to go through a drive-thru. But the good news is that even though nachos aren’t the absolute healthiest meal, they’re still a lot healthier than a greasy burger and fries. And they are a fraction of the price to prepare, which means that you can save your money for more important things.

Easy Chicken Nacho Recipes

This recipe is better than the simple chips and cheese because it has more ingredients. Because it includes chicken, black beans, and salsa, it packs more nutrition. The chicken has protein, the black beans have fiber, and salsa is full of antioxidants.

But even though the recipe has more ingredients, it doesn’t take a lot more time to prepare. In fact, the whole meal comes together in about 20 minutes. That’s one of my top rules for meals that stay in my regular cooking rotation: it can’t take too long to make. Anything that takes too
long means that on busy days, I’m more likely to opt for take-out instead.

The chicken is easy to add because you don’t even have to cook it. If you use leftover chicken from a previous night’s dinner or buy a rotisserie chicken from the store, it cuts down on the cooking time significantly. You just have to rinse the beans and pour the salsa over the chicken and tortilla chips, then melt cheese over the whole thing in the oven for about 10 minutes. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

The best thing about this meal, other than how easy and quick it is to prepare, is that cleanup is a breeze. Since you’re only using one pan to cook them—the cooking sheet or similar to cook them in the oven—you will have virtually nothing to wash after dinner. You can just move on with your night with full bellies and a happy family.

Nachos with Chicken

Even though nachos have a reputation for not being the healthiest food, you can still do a lot to make this recipe more health-conscious. These nachos with chicken are not terribly unhealthy to begin with since they have only a few simple ingredients.

One thing that makes this recipe healthier than other nachos is the choice to use chicken rather than ground beef. Chicken is much lower in fat than ground beef. It’s also healthier because it uses baked tortilla chips instead of regular fried chips. You could even say these nachos are practically health food already.

But if you want to make them even healthier, you can add extra vegetables to it. Good vegetable choices for nachos include peppers (jalapenos if you like it spicier!), onions, corn, and lettuce. However, even though you could make nachos healthier by using low-fat cheese, I don’t recommend it. Low-fat cheese simply doesn’t melt very well.

Although the recipe doesn’t specifically call for it, my family also likes sour cream on nachos. You can top your nachos with chicken with sour cream, guacamole, and maybe a few sliced black olives or green onions to make a more deluxe version.

Nachos are the kind of simple, unpretentious food that will always make it on my list of regular meals that I make. It’s always guaranteed that my family will love them. Try these nachos with chicken and I bet your family will love them as much as my family does.

If you enjoyed this recipe, make sure to check out our Taco Dip Recipe and our Enchilada Recipe.