I’m pretty sure my grandmother never ate nachos, much less made them. And I’d be willing to bet she never saw a whole mango. But this recipe hits all the important points: it’s all from scratch, with fresh ingredients, and it tastes at least as good as it looks.
As I said in the mango salsa recipe, this dish was inspired by the Leftover Queen’s Royal Foodie Joust for May 2008. Next time I make it, it’ll just be because it’s so darn good.
Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups mango salsa
¼ pound extra sharp cheddar cheese
tortilla chips
red onion (optional, whatever is left over after making the salsa)
1 tablespoon rendered bacon fat or olive oil
Directions
Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips across the grain. If you cut in the same direction as the fibers in the meat, it will get tough when you cook it.
If the breasts were especially thick, cut the slices in half lengthwise. You want the pieces to be bite-sized.
Combine the chicken with all the dry ingredients …
… and toss with tongs to combine.
Let the chicken rest for a few minutes while you heat a frying pan. The salt will draw out some moisture and dissolve the sugar, turning it into a light sauce. Melt the bacon fat in the frying pan and add the chicken.
Add the onion, if you are using any …
… and toss lightly to coat with the fat.
Keep stirring as you cook the chicken so the sugar doesn’t burn. It’s done when the sugar starts to caramelize and the chicken is cooked all the way through.
Fill a plate or shallow bowl with tortilla chips. Have the salsa and shredded cheese ready to assemble each plate.
Top the chips with half the cheese. One new thing I tried, which worked out really well, was to not melt the cheese.
Top the cheese with half the chicken.
(Notice that I’m using different tongs here than the ones I used to handle the raw chicken. People have been getting the point that you can’t use the same plate to hold cooked meat that you used for the raw meat. This is true for the rest of the tools, too.)
The heat from the chicken will partially melt the cheese. The part-melted/part-unmelted cheese gave a great contrast of textures.
Top the chicken with some salsa.
Serve immediately, while the chicken is still hot and the salsa is still cool.
And that’s it.
Bonus:
This mango salsa goes great with black cherry soda, especially one made with real sugar.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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10 Comments
I love nachos. Chicken and mango nachos, I love the idea of them even better. I’m originally from Philly and a black cherry soda there is called a wishniak. I’m going home this weekend and your post reminded me I need to bring some back to North Carolina. Thanks.
I’m originally from Philly, too. I still remember Frank’s being the best. Of course that was in the early 80s before they ruined everything with corn syrup. [sigh]
This looks great. Of course, anything with mangoes gets my attention! It looks like something great to eat while watching the game.
I did not try the salsa, but I made the chicken and put it in burritos. They were wonderful.
A must keep recipe!
this looks tasty!
It is mango season? My man-go(es) away for a week.
I love mango salsa!
These nachos look stunning. Best of luck in the Joust!
This look delicious, but I wouldn’t consider “tortilla chips” a food item from scratch. You could put home cooked rice under the goodies instead?! What does it mean to you to be “from scratch”?
Good point. I’m a big fan of the idea, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Sure, it would be perfect if I made my own tortillas, cut them, and fried the chips myself. Actually, you can see where I did make my own chips from store-bought tortillas right here. So I’m halfway there. (That post turns into a rant about industrial vegetable oil, by the way.)
But doing your own toppings is better than dumping something out of a can. And better is, well … better.
This recipe is AWESOME! I prepared all of it with an extra spritz of lime on the tortilla chips, and popped it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Delicious!
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