{Healthier} Restaurant Style Nachos Recipe (2024)

These homemade nachos hit the spot when you are craving a big plate of cheesy nachos from your favorite restaurant. They are packed with white meat chicken and lots of veggies to pump up the fiber and nutrients!

If there is one thing I have a weakness for when I am pregnant it is nachos. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of them even when I am not pregnant, but being pregnant I search them out and plan our dining options around who has the best nachos! I have probably eaten my body weight in them in the past few months.

Nachos aren’t always the healthiest option you could choose, but when you make them at home, you really can pack them full of good for you stuff. And as much as I love nachos, what I love even more is making a meal my kids scarf down with no coaxing, bribing, or outright begging. These nachos aren’t your average melted cheese on a chip. They are packed with nutrient rich veggies, fresh ingredients and lots of good-for-you stuff so even though your kids think they are getting the ultimate comfort food for dinner, you are still winning when it comes to getting them to eat their veggies!

The other thing that I love about these nachos are that they make the perfect dish to repurpose left over chicken with. To make the nachos pictured here, I used the left overs from the Fajita Chicken Bake I shared a few days ago. A little chicken will go a long way AND it definitely doesn’t taste like eating leftovers! You can really use any plain or mexican style chicken leftovers for this dish and even crock pot left overs likethe Creamy Taco Chicken or Chicken Verde earlier this year.

Making these nachos is all about layering. I am not including quantities because really this is all up to how much you want to make. Just make a bigger pan to make more or a smaller pan to serve less. It is so easily scaled to feed 2 or 20 with no extra work! Start by getting a cookie sheet that you think will be big enough to serve your crowd. Spread your chips over the sheet in a thin layer. You want them covering as much of the sheet as possible, and can overlap but should mostly be a single layer to make sure all of your chips get yummy toppings on them.

Layer the chips with a small amount of cheese, then sprinkle black beans and corn to taste on them. Next chop your left over chicken into small bite sized pieces. Since I used the left over fajita chicken I also chopped the roasted bell pepper and onion and sprinkled both on the chips.

Use a fork to add Rotel tomatoes on over the chicken. You can choose the spice level your family likes. If I am making for just the hubby and I then I like to use original, but if the kids are sharing with us I tend to choose mild.

Last, sprinkle a generous layer of mexican blend shredded cheese over the top. If you want to make the nachos even lighter, you can use fat-free cheese or a little less cheese here.

Then just pop your nachos into an oven preheated to 400˚F for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and everything is heated though.

Once you pull them out of the oven add a nice scoop of light (or fat-free) sour cream, another scoop of Rotel, and a generous scoop guacamole (check out my restaurant copycat guacamole recipe here!)

Serve them up hot and enjoy! Oh and for easy clean up, line your pan with foil before you start making the nachos! It makes the clean up take seconds!

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You can seeall of our recipes here, or check out some of my favorites by clicking the pictures below!

Easy Fajita Chicken Bake

Ravioli Lasagna Casserole

Easy Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole