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Loaded Mexican Nachos – Paleo Style

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Loaded Mexican Nachos – Paleo Style

I am quite obsessed with Mexican food and flavors. If I was forced to pick one type of cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, hands down, I would pick Mexican. Let me tell you just how much I love Mexican food: I would seriously pick loaded cheesy nachos as a treat/cheat food over a double fudge chocolate cake with whipped cream any day of the week. I know. Ridiculous. I heart you Mexico and your wonderful, amazing food.

Anyway, my husband and I love nachos (who doesn’t?!), but we don’t like to eat corn for a number of reasons – GMO’s, hard for the body to digest, high glycemic, insulin spike, etc.

So as a substitute for one of our favorite things, I’ve been making these paleo-fied nachos using peppers for the tortilla chips for quite some time. To be honest, it’s kind of my throw-something-together-quick, I-don’t-feel-like-thinking dinner, so I never thought it was anything special.

And then the other day, some non-Paleo friends were over as I was making these and they thought it was genius. Then they tasted them and said they liked them better than regular nachos and insisted that I share my recipe on this site for the whole world to see.

Well okay, if you insist.

We like to eat a whole tray of these for dinner, but they also make great appetizers for parties.

I pile the chicken sky high and then go crazy with veggies. You can customize these really easily and throw whatever you like on them. Taco beef made in the skillet (using the same ingredients as the chicken recipe part, minus the chicken) is also really, really good on these and what I usually use when I need a quick dinner and forgot to put the chicken in the crockpot that morning. Chicken, beef or pork – you really can’t go wrong here, trust me.

You can also use any type of peppers that are cut to the size of a tortilla chip for the nachos. I like to use a mix of red, yellow and orange bell peppers because my husband can’t handle the heat, we like them, but banana peppers, jalapenos, and poblanos are amazing as nachos if you like things a little spicier.

Just remember this golden rule when making nachos: If some is good, more is better.

So load those babies up and go to town!

peppers

Loaded Mexican Nachos Recipe – Paleo Style

Makes 1 tray of nachos, serves 2-3 as a meal or 4-6 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

For the crockpot chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts, fresh or frozen

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper, to taste

1 T fresh cilantro

1 cup chicken stock or broth

For the nachos:

Peppers (I usually use a mix of red, yellow and orange bell peppers, but you can use poblanos, jalapenos, banana peppers, or a mix etc.)

Toppings (here’s my favs, but you can mix and match or use your imagination!)

1-2 tomatoes, diced

4 green onions, chopped

1-2 avocados, diced

1 -2 cups romaine lettuce, shredded

¼ cup fresh cilantro

black olives, sliced

jalapenos, sliced

½ cup cheese, if you eat dairy (we do a raw milk cheddar)

sour cream or greek yogurt, if you eat dairy

DIRECTIONS:

For the crockpot chicken:

Place your chicken in the crockpot. Mix all the spices together in a small bowl and pour over the chicken. Next add your chicken stock. Give it a good stir and then add in your cilantro. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. After the chicken is done cooking, take it out of the crockpot and shred it with 2 forks. You can add about ¼ cup of the liquid to the chicken if you like your chicken juicier.

For the nachos:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut your peppers into the size of a tortilla chip and remove any seeds. If they are small peppers like jalapeno or banana, they just need to be cut in half. If they are larger peppers like bell peppers, they will need to be cut a few times. Place the peppers on a baking tray. Add your chicken on top of the peppers. If you are using cheese, add the cheese on top of the chicken. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Add any toppings you wish and enjoy!

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47 comments

  1. Avatar

    Great Idea. I was using Bell Peppers and Onions to eat salsa in Mexico. I can’t have corn, but love the salsa and have found that Red, Yellow and Sweet Onions make great chips to dip in Salsa.

  2. Avatar

    I’m with you…I’d have nachos over cake any day of the week! These look awesome. I’ll be trying these for dinner very soon!

  3. Avatar

    yay this is amazing! thanks for what you do!

  4. Avatar

    You can also use thinly sliced fried green plantains as chips. YUMMY! (Do you eat plantains?)

  5. Avatar
    Sharon Gallentine

    I use raw cauliflower to scoop up and eat guacamole. I never considered using peppers. I love Mexican food and am looking forward to trying this.

  6. Avatar

    Preppped the chicken today, and will have these tomorrow. Can’t wait! Braces and expander at 55 sucks, but ah, I am so happy I have an alternative to chips – I DID try them, before going paleo, and it hurt like hell. I’ll post pics tomorrow!! Thanks!

  7. Avatar

    How do the peppers cook. I mean are they still crunchy? My husband only likes them fully soft so I am not sure how he would like this. I know I most likely would

    • Primally Inspired

      Trisha – they are slightly cooked – not fully soft but not totally crisp. Kind of perfect in my eyes, but that’s me! If he likes them fully soft, maybe cook them by themselves for about 5 or 10 minutes, pull them out and put the chicken/cheese on and cook as directed. If they still aren’t as soft as he likes (although I think by this time, they should be) you can always pop some foil over everything and keep cooking until they are as soft as he likes. Hope that helps!

  8. Avatar

    Yup my husband liked these better than regular nachos!!!! Couldn’t believe it!!!

  9. Avatar

    I just want you to know this has become one of my family’s favorite meals! My kids (I have 3 young boys) won’t eat peppers, but I get them non-GMO corn chips. They just rave over the chicken! Thanks, so much, for this idea!!

  10. Avatar

    I have stupid food intolerances, and can’t eat peppers, or indeed any of the chilli family, or garlic – all cause me excruciating pain. Can anyone think of anything else I could use? I love nachos.

  11. Avatar

    OK now I officially love you!! We are starting our paleo lifestyle change this weekend and I was all worried about not being able to enjoy all my mexican love affair foods and you have shown me the light!!

  12. Avatar

    I just made this and the whole family thought it was delicious. Keeping it permamently on the menu plan!

  13. Avatar

    What a clever idea! I agree! Nachos over pretty much anything else! LOL so as Superbowl was approaching… I began to hyperventilate! How does one survive a Superbowl with NO nachos?! I can’t! I simply can’t! LOL…. so I Googled Paleo Nachos, found your recipe and a few others. I’m also swapping in some sweet potato chips, and beet chips for variety along with the red, orange & yellow peppers. Thanks for the great idea. Question: I’m new to this, so is raw milk cheddar still Paleo or is that part of the “I’m not doing 100%” thing?

    • Primally Inspired

      Hi Laurie! I love your idea of adding sweet potato and beet chips – yum!! High quality dairy is somewhat of a grey area in the Paleo world. True paleo purists say no dairy, but many paleo people, including myself feel that high quality raw milk dairy can be very beneficial and contains so many wonderful nutrients if your body can tolerate it well. My husband thrives on raw dairy, but unfortunately, I do not 🙁 My suggestion to many are to cut it out for a period of time (3-4 weeks), add it back in and see what your body is telling you! Hope that helps!

  14. Avatar

    How many peppers do you usually use for the recipe?

  15. Avatar

    OMG. I made this last night with seasoned ground beef…it is simply amazing! Thank you for the recipe!

  16. Primally Inspired

    So happy to hear!! And I agree 🙂

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