Sheet Pan Nachos

Baked in the oven in under 10 minutes, these loaded sheet pan nachos are the ultimate crowd-pleaser!  Layer on your toppings (pulled pork, shredded chicken, or extra beans, plus all the standard nacho fare), bake on a sheet pan, and serve.  Perfect for parties… or a quick and easy dinner!

How can we talk all week about Super Bowl party foods, and not address my personal favorite football party food?  Or really, my personal favorite anytime food.  Heck, everyone’s favorite anytime food!  NACHOS!

Seriously, does anyone not like nachos? You can not like certain types of nachos, like super spicy nachos or beef nachos, but I’m going to guess that everyone loves nachos in some form or another.

People ask me all the time how I cope with having so many desserts in the house.  Really, it’s no issue.

I give away 90% of what I bake, between my coworkers, neighbors, and neighborhood Buy Nothing Group.  I make things, I take pictures, and I pass them along.

Honestly, I like to bake desserts more than I like to eat desserts.

But you’d better believe I would never give away my nachos.  Mine.  Alllll miiiine.

Fortunately, I only make nachos maybe once a year, so it’s not a big temptation.  But if I wanted to, I could make them all the time, because they are so. dang. easy.

Do you own a sheet pan and an oven?  Congratulations!  You have all the tools necessary to make sheet pan nachos.

I usually prefer to make my sheet pan nachos with pulled pork or chicken, rather than beef.  But the great thing about nachos is how easy they are to customize to your personal taste!

For this batch, I actually used some leftover frozen pulled pork from these crockpot BBQ pulled pork sliders.  Whenever I make the BBQ pulled pork, I store any excess in a freezer bag and use as a topping for sweet potatoes, Mexican couscous bowls, etc.  Also perfect for nachos!

Don’t let the BBQ sauce hold you back: the slightly sweeter barbecue sauce is a delicious complement to the spicy jalapeños on the nachos!

Or you can pull out some of the pulled pork before adding barbecue sauce.  Or use a spicy barbecue sauce.

If you’re starting from scratch, you can easily shred a rotisserie chicken.

Don’t eat meat?  No problem!  Add in a can of pinto beans and serve them vegetarian, instead.  Sheet pan nachos, perfect to fit any tastes.

Here’s my favorite trick for sheet pan nachos: bake them first, then broil.

If you only broil your nachos, the cheese has to be right on the surface to melt, and you run the risk of burning the chips.

If you only bake the nachos, the cheese melts, but you don’t get those nice little brown bits.

Do both, and everyone wins!

(In fact, I like to bake them, add the toppings, add more cheese, and then broil.  It’s not as pretty, per se, because the guacamole and sour cream goes back into the oven.  But it’s the best way to get that super gooey, melted cheese, short of using some sort of gross nacho cheese in a can.  Evidence above. ↑↑↑)

Nachos are always best served right out of the oven, but because these taken less than 10 minutes to make, it’s easy to make repeat pans during your Super Bowl party.

Having a huge crowd?  No problem!  Just keep rotating those sheet pans in and out of the oven to make everyone happy all night.

Sheet pan nachos: the true Super Bowl MVP.