Loaded Mexican Nachos – Paleo Style

Loaded Mexican Nachos – Paleo Style

I am quite obsessed with Mexican food and flavors. If I was forced to pick one type of cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, hands down, I would pick Mexican. Let me tell you just how much I love Mexican food: I would seriously pick loaded cheesy nachos as a treat/cheat food over a double fudge chocolate cake with whipped cream any day of the week. I know. Ridiculous. I heart you Mexico and your wonderful, amazing food.

Anyway, my husband and I love nachos (who doesn’t?!), but we don’t like to eat corn for a number of reasons – GMO’s, hard for the body to digest, high glycemic, insulin spike, etc.

So as a substitute for one of our favorite things, I’ve been making these paleo-fied nachos using peppers for the tortilla chips for quite some time. To be honest, it’s kind of my throw-something-together-quick, I-don’t-feel-like-thinking dinner, so I never thought it was anything special.

And then the other day, some non-Paleo friends were over as I was making these and they thought it was genius. Then they tasted them and said they liked them better than regular nachos and insisted that I share my recipe on this site for the whole world to see.

Well okay, if you insist.

We like to eat a whole tray of these for dinner, but they also make great appetizers for parties.

I pile the chicken sky high and then go crazy with veggies. You can customize these really easily and throw whatever you like on them. Taco beef made in the skillet (using the same ingredients as the chicken recipe part, minus the chicken) is also really, really good on these and what I usually use when I need a quick dinner and forgot to put the chicken in the crockpot that morning. Chicken, beef or pork – you really can’t go wrong here, trust me.

You can also use any type of peppers that are cut to the size of a tortilla chip for the nachos. I like to use a mix of red, yellow and orange bell peppers because my husband can’t handle the heat, we like them, but banana peppers, jalapenos, and poblanos are amazing as nachos if you like things a little spicier.

Just remember this golden rule when making nachos: If some is good, more is better.

So load those babies up and go to town!

Loaded Mexican Nachos Recipe – Paleo Style

Makes 1 tray of nachos, serves 2-3 as a meal or 4-6 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

For the crockpot chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts, fresh or frozen

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper, to taste

1 T fresh cilantro

1 cup chicken stock or broth

For the nachos:

Peppers (I usually use a mix of red, yellow and orange bell peppers, but you can use poblanos, jalapenos, banana peppers, or a mix etc.)

Toppings (here’s my favs, but you can mix and match or use your imagination!)

1-2 tomatoes, diced

4 green onions, chopped

1-2 avocados, diced

1 -2 cups romaine lettuce, shredded

¼ cup fresh cilantro

black olives, sliced

jalapenos, sliced

½ cup cheese, if you eat dairy (we do a raw milk cheddar)

sour cream or greek yogurt, if you eat dairy

DIRECTIONS:

For the crockpot chicken:

Place your chicken in the crockpot. Mix all the spices together in a small bowl and pour over the chicken. Next add your chicken stock. Give it a good stir and then add in your cilantro. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. After the chicken is done cooking, take it out of the crockpot and shred it with 2 forks. You can add about ¼ cup of the liquid to the chicken if you like your chicken juicier.

For the nachos:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut your peppers into the size of a tortilla chip and remove any seeds. If they are small peppers like jalapeno or banana, they just need to be cut in half. If they are larger peppers like bell peppers, they will need to be cut a few times. Place the peppers on a baking tray. Add your chicken on top of the peppers. If you are using cheese, add the cheese on top of the chicken. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Add any toppings you wish and enjoy!