My husband LOVES nachos, and it’s no joking matter when we dive into a healthy nachos grande. When we were in London with my sister and BIL, we had to stop at every pub that crossed our paths, and order the nachos just to see what we’d get. Nachos in the UK are terrible. They are not at all what we’ve come to expect. And to call something ‘grande,’ it better be damn good and extra large.
I recently read a recipe in Clean Eating magazine that inspired me to try making my own healthy version of Nachos…and it had to be Grande! We used this recipe for dinner twice in the same week (rather than as an appetizer) because it does get really filling. I did steps 1 and 2 in their entirety, but then I cut the recipe in half and followed steps 3-5 using only half the ingredients each night. The result: AMAZING, which makes me happy! Try it out for yourself.
Notes
If you want to try your hand at making your own refried beans, you can use a can of whole black beans. Spray a pan with some olive oil, add 1 clove garlic minced up for about a minute, add the beans including their liquid and heat on medium until hot. Add in optional hot sauce to taste. Remove from heat and mash up until desired consistency.
Ingredients
- Olive Oil cooking spray (I use one of those mister spray bottles)
- 2 chicken breasts, diced after cooking
- chile powder to taste (approx. 1-2 tsp)
- salt and pepper (I like to use Simply Organics Grind to a Salt Seasoning)
- 8 6-inch corn tortillas (I like to use La Tortilla Factory Hand Made Style Yellow Corn Tortillas)
- 12-18 cherry tomatoes diced
- 1-2 jalapeno peppers diced (I used my frozen fresh peppers that included Jalapenos and Caribbean Red hot peppers)
- 3 sweet peppers diced (you know the type that have the shape of jalapenos but aren't hot? and are red/yellow/orange in color)
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 15oz can Refried beans (I used black bean based refried beans, but you can also make your own. See below).
- 4 oz shredded cheese of your choice (I like the Mexican cheese blend most of the time, but I was out so I used regular cheddar cheese).
- 1 avocado diced
- Optional toppings: shredded lettuce, sour cream, fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Sprinkle chicken breasts with fresh ground pepper, salt, and 1/4 of the chile powder (approx. 1/2 tsp). Broil chicken until done. Thickness can make cooking time vary from 5-10 minutes per side. Let cool and dice up.
- In the meantime, cut the corn tortilla shells into 6 equal pie shaped pieces. Line cooking sheets with foil and mist with olive oil. Arrange tortillas into a single layer and mist with oil and sprinkle with remaining chile powder. Bake at 350degrees for approx. 15 minutes. Be sure to turn 1/2 way through. The 'chips' will start to turn brown on the edges.
- If you are in a hurry as I usually am, rather than make your own refried beans, I heated a can of beans on the stove (or in the microwave) until hot.
- Using a serving dish that can be heated in the oven, spread half the chips on dish. Top with half the beans, chicken, and cheese. Create 2 more layers, each time making the layer smaller as you build up. Heat the entire dish in the oven (at 300 degrees) to melt the cheese.
- Before serving, add the diced tomatoes, jalapenos, sweet peppers, onion, avocado, and any other additional toppings of your choosing.
Making extra topping will also allow leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Just pack the chips separately so they don’t get mushy.
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I had some really amazing nachos over the weekend and they have got me on a nacho kick. These look really good, ill have to try them out!