Brilliant Bacon & Blue Cheese Nachos - Food for Freshers

We love a classic nacho, with Guacamole & cheddar (see our Guacamole recipe here). But these bacon & blue cheese nachos are a fabulous twist. Savoury bacon, earthy blue cheese and crispy nachos meet juicy jalapeños, and take the humble nacho to a whole other level. Blue corn tortillas add another flavour & colour contrast, but are a nice to have, not a must have.

We decided to save time & effort for this one, using some pre-made ingredients. We used blue Stilton as it is so nicely nutty and melts well. But we also added some pre-grated cheddar & mozzarella mix for maximum ease & melt. And today, for a Simple Supper nacho, we used pre-cooked bacon. We’d normally crisp our own bacon – see how in our Bacon Tip here – but for nachos the pre-cooked bacon worked very well! We topped with sweet pickled jalapeños, kindly gifted to us by our friends at Peppadew, for a gentle hit of spice. Plus we added a little chopped red onion for bite.

First peel & chop the red onion, fairly fine. See our onion Tip. You won’t need much. Today we used one very small onion.

Now crumble the blue cheese. We love blue cheese so use a lot. For nachos for four people we used most of one small block. We find it easiest to slice the cheese first, then crumble by hand into a small bowl.

If your jalapeños are not already chopped or sliced – ours today were halves – chop them into medium pieces. The slightly sweet jalapeños, kindly gifted to us by Peppadew, work really well with the bitterness of the blue cheese. But if you like more spice you can use hot peppers, or a mixture.

We make our bacon & clue cheese nachos in a large, flat casserole dish. But you can use any oven-proof dish or a baking tray. We like to line the dish with some baking paper to prevent the nachos from sticking (or you could use foil). It also makes cleaning the dish a little easier! Measure the lining to size by drawing round the dish, and cut out.

Pre-heat your oven to about 190C (170C fan). Next line your dish generously with the tortilla chips. If you are using two colours, mix them up well for the best colour effect.

We like to bake our tortilla chips briefly before topping for maximum crispiness and to help prevent them going soggy. This is particularly helpful if you are adding wetter toppings, though ours weren’t today. Place the tortilla chips into the hot oven for a few minutes – less than 5 minutes will do. Remove using oven gloves onto a heatproof surface or board.

You are now ready to build your bacon & blue cheese nachos!

You now have a choice. Remove some of the tortilla chips, and build your tortillas in two layers. This maximises the number of chips covered in filling & cheese. Or keep it simple and just top the whole lot. This will leave you with quite a few plain chips. Today we kept our nachos in one layer for ease, and we also quite like the contrast of having some chips loaded with topping, and some chips plain. But opinions differ, so do it your way!

Whether making in one or two layers, first sprinkle over the mixed grated cheese. Be generous! Also sprinkle over the onion.

Jake sticks his nose in

Only add the toppings you want to be cooked / hot at this stage. We don’t add the jalapeños, for example, any more than we would add guacamole or salsa.

Next add the bacon, breaking it up into bite-sized pieces, in an even layer.

Now add the blue cheese, to taste. We like a lot!

Your bacon & blue cheese nachos are ready for the oven.

Place the nachos into the hot oven, and bake until the cheese is melted and everything is heated through – about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove using oven gloves.