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.