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!
SAVE THIS BBQ CHICKEN NACHOS RECIPE TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!
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 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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Loaded BBQ Chicken Nachos Recipe
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cooked shredded chicken about 2 chicken breasts
- ¾ cup your favorite BBQ sauce I often use Sweet Baby Ray's
- 13 oz favorite tortilla chips
- 2 Roma tomatoes diced small
- 15 oz black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn thawed
- ⅓ cup finely chopped red onion
- 1 jalapeño, seeds removed and diced small can add more to your liking
- 2 ½ cups shredded Mexican Style cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F and prepare a rimmed baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mix the shredded chicken with the barbecue sauce. Mix to coat chicken completely.
- Place 2/3 of the tortilla chips onto the prepared sheet, spreading to the edges.
- Spread 2/3 of the BBQ chicken evenly over tortilla chips. Follow with ⅔ each of the tomatoes, black beans, corn, red onion, and jalapeño.
- Sprinkle 1 ½ cups of the shredded cheese over the entire baking sheet.
- Place the rest of the chips on top and layer with the remaining ingredients, topping it with the cheese and jalapeños.
- Bake for 7 – 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Nutrition
Comments & Reviews
Not being a huge beef eater, I absolutely love this recipe. Funny how my eyes search for the rolling pin count!
Are there directions missing? Do you put it back in the oven after adding second layer or does it just melt and on its own from the other layer?
Oh, my goodness, Hol, thank you so much for catching that!
Putting the chips into the oven should be the last step in the directions. I’ve corrected the recipe to show that.
Whoops! Very happy that you brought it to my attention.
Oh, how fabulous! I used to eat chicken nachos for dinner ALL the time when I was in college (and had faster metabolism!). Love your version~
Mmm, I love chicken nachos. My kids were just asking for them again the other day. I have them on the lunch menu for this week. 🙂
We made this for dinner last night and the boys loved it, and this morning we were asked if we could have it again for dinner tonight. It was very easy to make. We used boneless breast of chicken and poached it first. Then we put it in out Kitchen Aide Stand of mixer and with the wire whisk beater shredded the chicken and then put the hot sauce in that mixing bowl to marinate. We were having a guest for dinner so I did use a 9×13 stoneware baking dish with sides simply for presentation to go from oven to table. It was a big hit. The only thing we didn’t do was use foil and spray it with oil because my stoneware is nonstick. Our guest commented they would of sprayed the chips with cooking spray or put a little water in the pan to soften the chips. The rest of the family enjoyed the crunch. I will think about spraying the the bottom of the stoneware next time because it may soften the chips. But like I said….we enjoyed the crunch, it was a change.
I never would have thought of using my Kitchenaid stand up mixer to shred chicken….I’ve been doing it the old-fashioned way. Thank you for that comment, which has turned in to a suggestion for me!
Susan, haha I’d completely forgotten about that until you’d mentioned it! Funny how some things just slip the mind.
Hope it makes things a little easier for you!
I would like to print this recipe, how can I do that without all the pics?
Thank you
Donna, go to http://www.printfriendly.com/ and then paste the url of the recipe you want to print. You can choose to print without the images.
VERY DELICIOSO.
Can’t wait to try this version. I will probably do individual pie plates for the four of us, since one of my step-sons doesn’t like BBQ sauce. That’s what I do with our regular nachos, so everyone gets to dress up their own with their favourite toppings and decide how much or how little of each. Looks delish!
Great idea, thanks Janet! The kids will be psyched to have their own helpings, too, I’m sure!
I really want to make these, but unfortunately they don’t make Frank’s Red Hot Wings Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce anymore. What have you been using in place of it?
Thank you!
Melissa, thanks for bringing that up! I would use the Frank’s Red Hot Kickin’ BBQ Sauce instead.
So happy to find this one! I just made a crock pot full of pulled chicken…dinner tonight!!
Thanks so much, Gail! I hope you enjoyed them!
My sister and I totally enjoyed these nachos! I subbed refried beans for the black beans and instead of bbq I used my nephews salsa. They are so delish! Thanks much for the idea!😘
Marabeth, thank you so much, I’m so happy to hear that! These nachos are definitely a favorite around here, too, and SO easy to make. Every time I make them (which isn’t often haha), I think, “WHY don’t I make them more??!!
So glad you and your sister enjoyed them and I love the refried beans and that you used your nephew’s salsa, too!