These are the BEST homemade ground beef nachos. Made with seasoned ground beef, black beans, cheese, and your favorite toppings. Perfect for game day!
Loaded Ground Beef Nachos are the ultimate game day food. There’s just something about loading crispy tortilla chips with your favorite toppings and then putting them in the oven to bake. The flavor of the seasoned ground beef and melty cheese come together for something special — the ultimate party appetizer!
Best Chips for Ground Beef Nachos
Chips can make or break your nachos. Look for the thickest, sturdiest chips you can find. These are the base of your nachos and you will layer all other ingredients on top of the chips. Thin chips get soggy and limp, and can break when you lift them.
Best Ground Beef for Loaded Nachos
The best ground beef for nachos is 85-90% lean. The reason for this is because the fat gives the ground beef juicy flavor, without all the grease.
If you’re purchasing the beef from your local market, it will say 85/15 or 90/10. This ratio is the lean-to-fat ratio. The top number of the ratio indicates the leanness and the bottom number is the fat. For example, beef with a label that says 85/15 is 85% lean beef and 15% fat in the package.
Best Cheese for Loaded Nachos
Typically, nachos either have grated cheese or a cheese sauce on them. We prefer grated cheese where we take 2-3 different types of cheese and shred it from a block of cheese. You can use any flavor combination of shredded cheese that you like. Some of our favorites are Sharp Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack and Colby Cheese.
How to Season Ground Beef for Nachos
To season the ground beef, you’ll make a homemade taco seasoning with a mixture of chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder and salt. If you’re in a time crunch, you could also use store-bought taco seasoning, but it’s not the same flavor and you will notice a difference.
If you’re trying to prep these nachos in advance, the ground beef can be made up to 3-days ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Ingredients for the Loaded Ground Beef Nachos
- Ground Beef seasoned with chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, salt
- Tortilla Chips
- Shredded Cheese (pick your favorite: cheddar cheese, monterey jack, pepper jack cheese, etc)
- Corn
- Black Beans
- Green Onions
- Cilantro
- Peppers (mini peppers for mild, jalapeno for hot)
- Other favorite nacho toppings: sour cream, tomatoes, black olives, refried beans, diced avocado, guacamole, etc.
Beef Nachos Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Brown Ground beef in a skillet on the stove and drain any excess fat. Once cooked through, make the seasoned ground beef and stir in all the seasonings (see recipe). Mix corn and black beans with the beef.
Step 2: Cover a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Layer a large amount of tortilla chips on top of the parchment paper. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the chips.
Step 3: Layer on the ground beef, corn and bean mixture. Top the ground beef mixture with more cheese.
Step 4: Bake for about 7-8 minutes at 375 until you have wonderful, ooey-gooey, melty cheese on top. Remove from oven.
Step 5: Add your favorite toppings – sour cream, tomatoes, black olives, green onions, peppers, diced avocado, guacamole, any sauces, etc.
Step 6: Dig in!
Best Nacho Toppings
If you’re prepping nachos in advance of game day, you can prep all toppings (except guacamole) 2 days in advance and store in an airtight container.
- sour cream
- tomatoes
- black olives
- refried beans
- lime or lime juice
- diced avocado or guacamole (avocado and guac needs to prepped the day of)
- nacho cheese sauce
- pico de gallo
How to avoid soggy nachos
Soggy nachos are so disappointing! To avoid having this happen to you, here are a few tips:
1. Use sturdy chips. Get the thickest, sturdiest chips you can buy. We’ve had great success with the Simply Nature gluten free corn tortilla chips from Aldi. If you’re concerned about your chips holding up, you can toast them in the oven for a few minutes in advance. Simply spread the nachos on two large baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them while they’re in the oven so they only crisp up more and don’t burn.
2. Prepare all your toppings in advance. When you pull the chips out of the oven, you want to garnish the homemade nachos quickly so that you’re eating them when they’re hot.
Can Nachos be Made in Advance?
Yes and no. You can prepare portions of the ingredients for the nachos in advance and then assemble them on game day when you’re ready to serve.
For example, the seasoned ground beef can be fully prepared, and once cooled store it in an airtight container in the fridge for several days. The toppings can also be prepared several days in advance.
Ground Beef Nachos
Ingredients
Seasoned Ground Beef Mixture
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup corn fresh or frozen
- 1/3 cup black beans drained and rinsed
Nachos
- 2 bags tortilla chips
- 2 cups cheese (choose 2-3 of your your favorites and mix together such as Monterrey Jack, Pepper Jack, Colby, Sharp Cheddar, or Habañero cheese) divided. More if desired
- 4 green onions chopped
- 1/2 cup sliced peppers (choose your favorite such as sweet mini peppers, jalapeno peppers)
- Additional toppings as desired such as cilantro, pico de gallo, guacamole, black olives, radish, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat until cooked through; breaking apart with a spatula into crumbles; drain grease. Stir in all the spices/seasonings and water; stir until well-combined. Add the corn and black beans and stir until incorporated. Reduce hit and simmer until the liquid mostly evaporates.
- While the beef mixture is cooking, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and top with a generous layer of chips. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of the shredded cheese on top of the chips.
- Spoon the beef, bean and corn mixture onto the chips. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese.
- Bake for 7-8 minutes until the cheese has melted.
- Remove from oven and finish assembling the nachos with your favorite toppings such as cilantro, green onions, guacamole, sour cream, diced avocado, tomatoes, etc.
- Dig in!
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Sounds extremily good !!!!