Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 days ago
In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef Saúl Montiel teaches you how to make the best loaded nachos at home. What’s the secret to this meatless nacho recipe? Two layers of chips to avoid dry spots and no oven, so every bite is cheesy, crunchy, and perfectly balanced.
Transcript
00:00The first time that I tried nachos,
00:01it was here in America.
00:03I'm from Central Mexico.
00:05We don't really eat nachos,
00:06but when I first try it, I fall in love with nachos.
00:09I feel like this dish is a little bit more Tex-Mex
00:13than Mexican, but you know, it's both, so relax.
00:16When we talk about nachos,
00:18they should be crispy and full of flavors.
00:21Every single nacho should have the same amount of cheese,
00:24beans, pico de gallo, salsas, queso, crema.
00:28Build it right, and you know, you'll be happy.
00:34So the nachos that I'm making today don't have any meat,
00:37but the beans, it's gonna take place of that protein.
00:41I'm making smashed beans with some onions, garlic,
00:45serrano, epazote, and a little bit of cilantro.
00:48We're gonna start with some neutral oil.
00:50A little bit of cebolla.
00:53I'm gonna add a little bit of salt.
00:54What salt is gonna do to the onions, they're gonna sweat.
00:58It's gonna help to speed the process of cooking.
01:03And it's gonna add flavor.
01:04I'm gonna add garlic, which I love.
01:06Remember, grandma says to eat a lot of garlic.
01:09I love beans.
01:10They're meaty, they are creamy, they're soft,
01:13they are savory, they're delicious.
01:15If you wanna eat meat, you know,
01:17I highly suggest to put some chorizo,
01:19carne asada, or cecina.
01:21Cecina is a salty beef.
01:23I'm gonna blitz the epazote a little bit in the serrano,
01:25just to get the aromas out of the air.
01:28Epazote, it's a better green,
01:30that adds a lot of aromas and flavor.
01:33I would say it's a little bit licorice,
01:37and I would say a little bit minty.
01:40The aroma is unbelievable.
01:41The serrano is gonna add a little bit of heat,
01:43but I'm not cutting it.
01:44I'm just blitzing the paper a little bit
01:46to get the spicy oils out of the serrano,
01:49so they get married with the onion and garlic,
01:51and they can all live happy together.
01:53Now I'm gonna add the frijoles.
01:55I'm gonna add a little bit of water.
01:57Once this cooks, it's gonna get thick.
02:00We want that texture that you can actually spread the beans
02:02all over the place without being so thick.
02:05These are store-bought beans, they're canned beans,
02:07and that's why I add the serrano,
02:09the pasote, the onions, and the garlic,
02:11because I feel like it needs more love.
02:13The best time to season beans after they're cooked.
02:16If you season the beans before,
02:17it breaks the skin of the beans.
02:20I'm gonna throw some cilantro in here, too.
02:22I'm gonna start smashing them.
02:24The reason why I'm smashing them
02:25is because I want this to be a sauce,
02:27like a thick, rich sauce.
02:30So my beans, they look phenomenal.
02:32I just need to remove the aromatics.
02:35So this is the consistency that I want.
02:38You still see the beans, still a sauce,
02:40and you can actually spread it all over the nachos.
02:44And it's not pureed, and it's not refried.
02:46It's actually a nice, thick, rich sauce for the nachos.
02:52Now that my beans are ready, my chips are ready,
02:55I'm gonna do the cheese.
02:56And this is why I don't bake this,
02:58because this step is different from the others.
03:01And I feel like this will help you make the best nachos
03:05without baking it.
03:05So we're going back to basics.
03:07I'm just gonna do a quick fundido,
03:09put it on top of the nachos, and have the best nachos.
03:12A fundido is a melted cheese.
03:14I don't like bake, because I feel like you struggle
03:17to put the tray in the oven.
03:19You always worry about where you're gonna put that,
03:21lift, put it on what part of the table you're gonna put it.
03:24And also you burn the tips of the tortillas,
03:27and I feel like they dried out, they get soggy,
03:30the ones in the middle.
03:31I feel like you don't have a quality,
03:33crispy tortilla chips.
03:35This is how you can avoid all that.
03:37So I'm gonna start with a little bit of oil.
03:38We're gonna put some queso.
03:41I use queso quesadilla.
03:42It's on the mozzarella Monterreyac cheese family.
03:45It's a couch meal cheese.
03:47Look at this, it's just easy to work with.
03:50It's a quickly melted cheese, a little bit of heavy cream.
03:53It's gonna keep this cheese nice and runny,
03:56because we don't want this to be so thick.
03:58The reason why you bake nachos is to melt the cheese.
04:00And this, you don't need to do that.
04:02So this is melting right now.
04:03I'm gonna go and start plating.
04:07So that's two base layers of nachos.
04:10Then on top of that, a couple of more chips,
04:13and all the fresh toppings and sauces.
04:15Why the toppings on top?
04:16Because those are cold, are fresh,
04:19and if we put it underneath, they will get more saggy.
04:21So that's why they need to be on top.
04:23These chips that I have today,
04:24I bought a store-bought tortilla and I fried them.
04:27That's why they're so crunchy.
04:29Look, this is how crispy they are.
04:32You can hear the noise.
04:33That's it, you have a really good nachos.
04:35Now I'm gonna start assembling my nachos.
04:37I'm gonna take a beautiful bed of nachos.
04:41That's one.
04:42Now I'm gonna do a little bit of beans right here.
04:46Now when I say I want it to have like a sausage beans,
04:49this is the reason why.
04:50Because every single chip is gonna have
04:53a little bit of this delicious beans.
04:56Now you can put more, but I'm not gonna do that.
04:58Because I don't want my nachos to get so wet.
05:01I want them to be crispy.
05:02The beans is just an ingredient to add to the chip.
05:05It's not the main thing.
05:06So now, I'm gonna wait for this to get hot.
05:10See?
05:12You don't see this when you bake your nachos.
05:14When the cheese is dancing,
05:16that's when the cheese is ready.
05:17See, it's dancing.
05:18And I'm gonna do this right here.
05:22Make sure that every single chip gets some cheese.
05:27Now we're gonna do more cheese,
05:29because you know me.
05:30If you know me, you know me.
05:31And then I'm gonna do more chips.
05:35This is my second layer.
05:36And why I do layers?
05:37Because I want every single chip
05:40to get the same amount of love.
05:41I feel like when people make nachos,
05:43they just put a pile of nachos.
05:46And then when you get to the middle,
05:47there's no cheese.
05:49There is dry chips.
05:51And with this, you will make sure you have enough
05:54of everything in every layer.
05:56A little bit of cream.
05:58Don't overcook your cheese.
05:59Fondidas really fast, as you can tell.
06:01And keep it warm when you serve it.
06:03And now, here's the second layer of cheese.
06:10I'm just gonna put a little bit more chips.
06:13I'm gonna do a little bit of beans.
06:14It's like making a cake.
06:16So when we talk about nachos,
06:17you're supposed to have layers of ingredients
06:19and make sure they're all evenly
06:21to get the perfect nachos.
06:23It's not about just pile of food throwing in there.
06:26So this is why I do this this way.
06:29Cause I'm a professional.
06:30Now I'm gonna do salsa.
06:31This is chile de arbol salsa.
06:33It's spicy.
06:34It's made out of tomatoes, onions, garlic,
06:36and a little bit of cumin and oregano.
06:38It's always good to put the sauce in a squeeze bottle
06:40because like that, you can spread the sauce
06:43in every single nacho.
06:44This is an avocado sauce.
06:46It's avocado, onion, cilantro, lime, but it's raw.
06:50So this is a cooked sauce, spicy sauce,
06:53and this is a creamy raw sauce.
06:55And the reason why I put two sauces
06:57is because one compliments the other.
07:00It's like marriage.
07:01So when you take a bite, you know, it's spicy,
07:04it's creamy, it's little mild, but it has the heat,
07:07and it's crispy because of the nachos,
07:10and it has the saltiness from the beans.
07:12Now I'm going to add la crema.
07:15So crema, and just in case if it gets too spicy,
07:18also it adds a fresh element to it.
07:20Okay, and here I have some pico de gallo.
07:22We made this just now.
07:24Just diced tomatoes, cilantro, onion, lime, and salt.
07:28This is gonna add a freshness element
07:32because everything is cooked, everything is sauce.
07:34This is gonna have like a fresh kick.
07:36I'm going for a lot of balance in flavor here and texture.
07:40Everything has to be creamy, fresh, spicy,
07:44just like Mexicans, you know, we're full of surprises.
07:46And then I'm gonna do queso fresco.
07:48Queso fresco has salt element.
07:50It's fresh, scrambling, and it adds a really good taste.
07:55And then I'm gonna add some pico jalapenos.
07:58These add the pico spiciness.
08:01It's like a surprise element.
08:04It's like, whoa, where is this came from?
08:05It's sweet, spicy, sour.
08:07Cilantro is gonna add presentation,
08:09but it's also gonna add some aroma and more freshness.
08:13Look how pretty this looks.
08:16Meatless nachos.
08:17And this is how I make my non-baked nachos.
08:20You don't need to bake it.
08:21You just need to make sure you do it right.
08:24You have to make sure you have layers,
08:26consistency of layers.
08:28So every single bite has the same amount of love.
08:32It looks like the best nachos I've ever seen in my whole life.
08:35Ha!
08:39Every single bite is crispy, and it has the perfect amount of cheese and queso crema.
08:46So it's salty, it's creamy, it's hot, and it's fresh, and it's spicy, and it has a lot of acidity from the jalapenos.
08:55It's just so many flavors and textures going on into one bite.
09:00So these nachos, you don't need to bake them.
09:03You don't need any meat.
09:04You just need to have the right ingredients and enjoy the ride.
09:08Lower it'll warm, appeared to be free
09:18paree.
09:19Phoenix?
09:21I'd love for you...
09:25fifth section of «Hangara 3»,
09:26fifth section from «Hangara 4»
09:28I'd love for you and ingredients.
09:30So very Ganga 3
09:31beats a influencing quality from your His name no 1 you can hear.
Comments

Recommended