Chicken Nachos Recipe

This easy Chicken Nachos Recipe makes the perfect quick dinner or game-day appetizer that you’ll want to make again and again. You can never go wrong with crisp tortilla chips, shredded BBQ chicken, cheese, and all the delicious toppings! It might just become your favorite easy dinner!

These loaded chicken nachos are the answer when you get asked that all-important question, “What’s for dinner?” You want something quick and easy, but you also want something healthy that you know the whole family will eat.

That’s where these delicious shredded chicken nachos come in!

How do I cook the chicken for sheet pan nachos?

You can cook the chicken you use in various ways. Use whichever is easiest for you!

Grilled Chicken: I like to grill about 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts once a week on my George Foreman Grill. That way, I’ve got all the pre-cooked chicken I need for an easy lunch, dinner, or just nibbling on when I need some protein. Anything I don’t use up goes straight into the freezer!

Shredded Rotisserie Chicken: On your way home from work, head to the store and pick up everything you need, including a rotisserie chicken. I LOVE the versatility and ease of using a rotisserie chicken, not to mention the delicious flavor!

Poached Chicken: Poaching is the process of cooking the chicken by boiling it in a small amount of water or chicken broth. It’s super easy and doesn’t require a lot of hands-on attention.

Slow Cooker Chicken: If I don’t grill the chicken, I’ll fix it up in my Crock Pot or Slow Cooker. Cooking the chicken this way is the best way to prepare it for the week or freeze it for future recipes. 

Ingredients for Chicken Nachos

Feel free to top your loaded nachos with your favorite toppings. Here’s what you need to make them 365 Days- style:

Shredded Chicken

Your favorite BBQ sauce: I often use Sweet Baby Ray’s

Your favorite Tortilla Chips: use sturdy chips that hold up well under toppings.

Roma tomatoes

Black beans

Corn

Red Onions

Jalapenos

Shredded Cheese (I use a Mexican cheese blend)

Make sure to use the easy recipe card below for the correct amounts and directions!

How do you make this Chicken Nacho Recipe? 

Preheat your oven to 350°F. I know some people use the broiler, but I like to use the oven to bake them because that warms the nachos all the way through instead of just the top layer.

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a sheet of aluminum foil. This will allow for easy cleanup.

Mix the shredded chicken with your favorite barbecue sauce. Now, let’s assemble the nachos!

The key to perfect nachos is LAYERS! Instead of dumping the whole bag of tortilla chips onto the baking sheet, put about ⅔ of the bag down to create a thick layer of chips. Then add about ⅔ of each ingredient, saving the rest to layer over the top. 

By doing it this way, I’ve found that there’s better distribution of everything and I’m much less likely to find chips with nothing on them. Because face it–there’s nothing more disappointing than reaching for a delicious-looking nacho chip only to pull it and find there’s not much on it!

Also, when opening the tortilla chips, open the bag from the bottom. That way, the smaller, broken ones will be the on the bottom of the baking sheet and the larger, prettier ones will be on the top!

Bake for 7-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Chicken Nachos Topping Suggestions

One of the best things about this easy Loaded Nachos Recipe is that you can decrease or increase any of the listed ingredients to your liking. Also, you can make these your own by adding your favorite fresh ingredients! Here are some more ideas:

Feel free to use cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack, or a Taco cheese mixture.

Add fresh corn or make it easy by using canned corn (drained) or thawing a cup of frozen corn.

Use as much or as little jalapeño as you and the people you’re feeding it to desire. I don’t like a lot of spice on my food–ok, hardly any spice in my food– so I’ll generally go easy. I serve about half of the diced jalapeño on the side so that others can spice it up to their heart’s content or put it on half of the sheet like when you order a pizza.

Drizzle a little lime juice for a refreshing citrus flavor!

I prefer using a can of black beans, but you could also use refried beans or pinto beans in this recipe.

Use green onions instead of red ones.

Top baked sheet pan chicken nachos with sour cream, guacamole, pico de Gallo, black olives, fresh cilantro, or whatever else your heart desires!

Can I save leftover Nachos?

I hope you eat them all because leftover nachos tend to get quite soggy! I don’t recommend saving them. These are best eaten fresh.

Game Day Snacks

One of my favorite times to serve these delicious nachos is while we’re watching the football games. Football and finger foods go hand in hand, don’t they?

Whether it’s pepperoni bread, stuffed mushrooms, guacamole, or pretzel bites, you can bet we’ll be eating some kind of food that’s finger-lickin’ good!

I love to serve these Chicken Enchilada Bites and if I’m not serving a crowd, I’ll make a salad with the leftover chicken or roll the meat up into some tortillas and serve it that way.

Enjoy these Easy Chicken Recipes

Chicken isn’t just popular when served on nachos. It’s great in dips as well!

For Buffalo sauce lovers, this slow cooker Buffalo chicken dip or Buffalo chicken cheese ball are recipes they’re sure to enjoy.
You can make this chicken taco dip, too!

What are you serving for your football party? Let us know!

I used to rate everything I baked on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best and this Chicken Nachos recipe earned 4 rolling pins!!
This easy chicken recipe is a keeper, that’s for sure!
This post, recipe, and pictures have been updated and improved as of 1/31/21.
I changed the ingredients, added more of them, and improved the recipe.
I think the family was pleased when I served them because after one bite, I heard Mr. 365 exclaim, “this is the best chicken nachos recipe EVER!” #micdrop

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