Steve's Especiales - The Perfect Nachos

Steve's Nachos Especiales in preparation

Nachos are an ideal comfort food and they are very easy to prepare. All one requires to make the original version invented by Ignacio "El Nacho" Anaya (1895-1975) – "Nacho's Especiales" – in the early 1940s is a pile of crispy fried tortilla chips, some shredded cheese, and slices of jalapeños peppers. Nachos are actually just a smaller variant of the tostada, a traditional Mexican dish using a flat corn or flour tortilla that has been either fried or "toasted" [baked] and then topped with melted cheese, peppers, and a variety of other toppings. 

Other variations of the dish prepared over the years – the so-called Nachos Grande - might add any variety of cheeses and peppers, pico de gallo, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream, red or refried beans, black beans, cooked spicy grounded beef, diced chicken, pork, carne-asada, bacon, olives, chick peas, onions or scallions, mushrooms, herbs such as cilantro or sage, corn, and potatoes. Nachos are whatever you choose to make them. Stick whatever combination one chooses into an oven for a few minutes at 400 degrees and everything is ready to eat as a treat or an appetizer. 

Although this now "traditional" Tex-Mex offering originated in the Texas-Coahuila borderlands along the Rio Grande River in the early 1940s, it did not become popular throughout the USA until the mid 1970s. I tried nachos for the first time when I moved to Tucson, Arizona in early 1974. This was the original Nachos Especiales – chips, cheese and jalapeños – that were served in the small Mexican bistro in the old student union at the University of Arizona. This was before nachos became popular as an appetizer in Mexican restaurants, and later as a meal in itself in just about every sports bar in the country. 

I enjoyed nachos so much that I quickly figured out a way I might prepare them easily in the toaster oven I had in my graduate student dormitory room. Because of the toaster oven’s small size, it was not practical to spread the shredded cheese and peppers over a pile of chips. Instead, I took to arranging each chip individually on the oven tray and then placing a single cube of cheese and a slice of jalapeños on each chip . . much like a cocktail canape. Perhaps a bit more labor intensive in the preparation, but little or no fuss or mess to clean up afterwards. And they tasted just as good, if not better.

And this is the way I have been preparing "Steve’s Nachos Especiales for almost five decades, seldom varying from the basic trinity of ingredients. Moving out of the dormitory to my first apartment I gave up preparing nachos in the toaster oven in order to prepare larger patches on cooking sheets in a kitchen oven. What’s even better? There was no need to dirty a serving dish or plates. You eat them right off the pan.

A cooking sheet facilitates easy preparation, serving, and clean up. As I perfected my personal technique I opted for a thicker style tortilla chip to minimize breaking when handling individual chips during preparation. Once the Tostitos Scoops hit the market in 2003, I tend to use them more often. They are baked rather than fried and contain far less fat. Some nacho afficionados shy away from the scooped chips complaining that toppings do not adhere to them as well as a flat chip. For my version I find them idea for securing the individual cheese cubes and slice jalapeños and there is less melted cheese to scrape off the cooking sheet when all is said and done.

Don’t get me wrong. Just because the aforementioned has become the traditional manner in which I prepare and serve nachos at home, I am more than happy to order them elsewhere and I have enjoyed the many varieties I have come across over the years. I have had nachos served with anchovies, and even a Canadian version in Montréal – Nachos Poutine – made with cheese curds and terrine du porc, a style of paté. I do, however, prefer those varieties that have been prepared on a cooking sheet rather than the pile of chips over which the topping have been poured. Unfortunately they seldom make it down to the bottom layer of chips and this seems to defeat the whole purpose of making nachos in the first place.

Just last night my wife and I prepared a batch to enjoy while watching television. A simple, quick, and tasty repast to help us shelter in place during this current COVID-19 pandemic. An ideal comfort food when we are in desperate need of comforting. I can certainly think of many worst ways to spend an evening. And no mess to deal with come morning.