Feed a crowd and your hunger for loaded nachos all in one fell swoop. This Sheetpan Nachos recipe will have you set for success! Pepper Jack cheese melted over crisp chips and topped with pinto beans, tender chicken, tomatoes, jalapeños, olives, cilantro, and sour cream? What’s not to love?!
Take sheetpan nachos over the top by serving bowls of Easy 4-Ingredient Guacamole and Homemade Salsa. If there are any leftovers, they work great added into Lawnmower Taco Casserole.
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Nachos have been a favorite dinner or snack of mine since high school. Trust me, that’s a long time. Back in the day, my best friend Stephanie and I would make a goopy cheese sauce from a dry packet mix. We loaded on the toppings and had a feast.
Since then I’ve simplified my nacho making process. When I’m not serving a DIY Nacho Bar, I load up a sheetpan with chips, cheese, and toppings. Nachos make a quick and easy dinner or appetizer with very little work.
And what a Cheap & Easy Summer Lunch Idea!
Why Make This
Sheetpan Nachos easily feed a crowd. If you want to share nachos with a large group of people with little mess, this is the way to go. You can easily assemble different varieties of Sheetpan Nachos in minutes to serve many.
You can easily scale this recipe for one or two. Not feeding a crowd, but still want easy nachos? Use a pie plate instead of a sheetpan to assemble chips, cheese, and toppings for a solo diner or just a few people.
It’s delicious! Do you really need an excuse to have this tasty snack for dinner? I think not!
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need for Sheetpan Nachos:
tortilla chips – This might seem like an obvious ingredient but of course nachos wouldn’t be complete without a bag of tortilla chips. You can use your favorite brand here or if you’ve got the time, prep a few batches of Air Fryer Tortilla Chips.
pinto beans – You can make your own homemade pinto beans or a can of beans works well if you are pressed on time.
chicken – You can go ahead and cook your own chicken for recipes or use a rotisserie chicken to fast work of these nachos. In a pinch, Skillet Chicken Tenderloins cook quickly.
cheese – I use pepper jack cheese for a little heat, but cheddar or Monterey Jack would also work. Can you freeze cheese? Yes! And you should if you buy more than you’ll use right away.
toppings – Toppings make things fun. Include nacho toppings such as black olives, sliced jalapeños, tomatoes, and sour cream. Note that fresh jalapeños will be cheaper than the jarred kind, but may be spicier.
You may have some picky eaters who prefer not to have all the toppings. Consider leaving a section of the sheetpan “plain” for those folks or simply let them add their own toppings after you pull the dish from the oven.
The colorful toppings really do make a difference when it comes to presentation. The fresh veggies and aromatics add a great pop of flavor, too.
Variations
Instead of chicken, you can use Slow Cooker Carnitas, taco meat (ground beef, turkey, or plant-based) or Shredded Beef.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s how to make Sheetpan Nachos:
So we make our chicken nachos in the oven on a sheet pan. It feeds a crowd and is super easy to throw together. Making these sheetpan nachos is all about layering. Layer, layer, layer.
- Preheat. You want to start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.
- Chips first. Spread the chips on a large sheet pan.
- Baked toppings first. Layer on the beans, chicken, and cheese. Bake the nachos until the cheese is melted and the toppings are warm, about 15 minutes.
- Cold toppings last. Layer on the olives, chopped tomatoes, and cilantro. Place the sour cream in a small ziptop bag. Trim off a corner and drizzle the sour cream over the nachos. Serve immediately.
FAQs & Recipe Costs
Nachos that aren’t soggy is all about that layering. You want to bake the nachos without the topping first. So bake the nachos with the chicken, beans, and cheese first. Then before serving top with the toppings – olives, jalapenos, tomatoes, and sour cream.
We used pepper jack because of the extra little kick. But any melting cheese works well here. You could also use colby, cheddar, or monterey jack.
Use cooked toppings on your nachos so that baking them is just a matter of melting the cheese and getting everything nice and hot. Depending on how big your pan of nachos is, bake them for 8 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
If you’re making nachos for just one person, use a pie plate to assemble your nachos. It’s a more personal size. Adjust the bake time, checking at 8 minutes to see if the cheese is melted and everything is hot.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- tortilla chips – $1.50
- pinto beans – $0.55
- chicken – $1.00
- cheese – $2.00
- black olives – $0.25
- tomato – $0.50
- cilantro – $0.25
- sour cream – $0.25
- jalapeño – $0.15
While your costs may vary depending on where and how you shop, you can expect to pay about $6.45 for a big batch of Sheetpan Nachos, about $0.81/serving.
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on the prices of chips, cheese, chicken, and beans can help keep the price down.
- Cooking beans from scratch. Cooking dry pinto beans can save you a significant amount of money in comparison to buying canned. Recently, I discovered that beans cook really quickly in a pressure cooker, making that a game changer for me since the soaking and slow cooking process have been deterrents for me in the past.
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Sheetpan Nachos
Equipment
- heavy duty sheet pan
Ingredients
- 1 13-ounce bag tortilla chips
- 1 15-ounce can pinto beans rinsed and drained (2 cups homemade)
- 1 cup chicken (cooked and cubed)
- 8 to 12 oz pepper jack cheese (shredded ) (2-3 cups)
- ¼ cup sliced black olives
- 1 to 2 roma tomato chopped
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro (chopped)
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 jalapeno sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Spread the chips on a large sheet pan. Layer on the beans, chicken, and cheese. Bake the nachos until the cheese is melted and the toppings are warm, about 15 minutes.
- Layer on the olives, chopped tomatoes, and cilantro. Place the sour cream in a small ziptop bag. Trim off a corner and drizzle the sour cream over the nachos. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on February 26, 2017. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Vanessa
I just made it.It was great. Everyone loved it ?.