If you’ve taken a look at your calendar lately, you might be shocked to realize that January is almost over and that could only mean one thing (well, besides the fact that winter just seems to never end and the bitter cold is here to stay). It means the SUPER BOWL is almost here!
What a great day to watch football with friends and eat an endless amount of food from the all the Super Bowl food groups – chicken wings, nachos, assorted chips and dips and don’t forget the 3 different types of cookies and brownies. So here’s an idea. What about combining nachos AND chips all in one? Sort of a nacho-in-a-bite kind of deal, so basically, the perfect chip.
Here’s the kicker – nachos are my jam. If I could eat one snack food for the rest of my life, I’d have to go with nachos. There are endless possibilities here – fake meat, no fake meat, different types of cheeses, green onions, salsa, guac (duh), sour cream, cilantro (an absolute must-have in my book), pickled jalapenos, maybe some chopped onion, tomato – a little pico de gallo action? You could get creative and do a Korean BBQ style nacho, or “sweet” nachos (not my thing truthfully) – it’s just a great baseline for showing off your creativity!
The Perfect Nacho Bite
My mission? Create the perfect “nacho bite” in one chip, and then of course, feel free to dunk in giant bowls of guacamole and salsa (or just eat them plain, because you know, they’re THAT good). Oh and in case you’re thinking this is going to be super complicated, like rolling out a dough to create the chips – oh please!
All you need is a muffin pan, shredded cheese, jalapeno slices (you can use plain, or pickled or use whatever hot peppers you like), green onion and spices. And maybe some fresh cilantro to top it off. But that’s it. The muffin tin basically does all of the work for you. And depending on the size of your muffin pan, you may have to make more batches (my dairy muffin tin is only 6 individual cups, so I had to make 4 batches to make 24 chips, but it’s so worth it)!
Happy Super Bowling!
Recipe: Nacho Jalapeño Cheese Crisps
- 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- 1 Jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced (or any type of pepper to the heat level of your liking) You can use pickled jalapenos, but it'll make the "chips" a bit soggy, so you may have to bake them for a bit longer to crisp up
- 1 Green Onion, sliced thin
- 1/4 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp Cumin
- 1/4 tsp Trader Joe's onion salt Optional, but I like the extra onion flavor!
- 1 bunch Cilantro, chopped
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Pre-heat oven to 375F.
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Spray a non-stick muffin tin with cooking spray (I like to use avocado oil spray for a mild flavor)
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Mix the cheese, green onion, garlic powder, cumin, and onion salt (if using) in a large bowl.
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Measure about 1-2 tbsp. of the cheese mixture and place in each muffin cavity. You don't want to overflow it, just really cover the bottom. The trick to making thin, crispy chips is to just cover the bottom of each muffin tin with a thin layer of cheese, otherwise it won't crisp up, it'll just be a blob. You can, however, use the cheese to place up the sides of the muffin pan to create a "nacho chip cup" that you can fill with toppings, so feel free to experiment with that.
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Take a thinly sliced piece of jalapeno (or whatever pepper you want to use, Serrano would be good too, and remove the seeds and ribs for less heat), and place on the top of the cheese. Depending on the size of your muffin tin, you may have to make this in double batches. My toaster is my dairy "oven" so I can only make 6 at a time.
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Bake for 10-12 minutes or until bubbling and crispy golden brown, but not burnt.
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Let the chips cool for about 10-15 minutes until you can easily "pop" them out of the muffin tin and they're nice and crispy!
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Serve on a platter sprinkled with chopped cilantro and enjoy with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, OR make a big pile of nachos using these as the chips!!
Don’t forget to check out Daniel’s Super Bowl Nachos dish: Steak and Eggs Tot-Chos (Tater Tot Nachos) or check out some of our other great Super Bowl recipes:
Cheddar Stuffed Jalapeno Hush Puppies
Almond Butter Snickerdoodle Cookies
And hey, thank you for reading this post! We’d love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or even write us a testimonial here!
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