Breakfast Nachos Are The Fun Way To Feed A Crowd

If you've ever made a great big tray of nachos for your assembled game day crew, taco Tuesday team, or movie night group without considering the classic app's morning merits, it is time to expand your culinary worldview. The same great snack that can sometimes serve as a meal is as efficient, crowd pleasing, and delicious earlier in the day as it is at any other time.

But, first things first: Although they are best friends, breakfast nachos are not just chilaquiles by another name. While you can scale them up, chilaquiles are often served in individual portions and nachos are prepared in larger batches (though we have been known to Garfield a few). And, even more disparately, chilaquiles' tortilla chips will typically simmer in sauce to soften to your desired degree, while those intended for nachos start out crunchy with an aim to ideally stay that way. You'd also really have to give into the former's potential messiness in order to eschew the fork, while nachos are a classic handheld food, topping acrobatics notwithstanding. But that doesn't mean that chilaquiles can't inform your breakfast nachos, particularly via one key protein: the egg.

The most obvious way to give your nachos a breakfast spin is with eggs. Fried eggs, with their perfectly runny yolks, are common for chilaquiles. But they'll diminish nachos' manageability as their sunny, runny centers, well, run. If you want some of that moisture, just not in liquid form, you can make poached scrambled eggs, or just a soft scramble, stirred low and slow for a nice creaminess. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay's take on the latter adds crème fraîche to achieve peak soft scramble form. Whichever preparation you pick, make the eggs last while the rest of your ingredients finish mingling in the oven. If you toss them in with everything else instead, the second cook will dry them out.

You can build your breakfast nachos the same way you would at any old hour of the day. But a sheet pan is crucial when you're making them for a group. Line it with parchment paper so any stray bits of cheese won't be able to stick. Then evenly layer your tortilla chips with cheddar, Monterey jack, or some combination of cheeses; minced or diced alliums; seasonings; and any pre-cooked meat you might be using, always crowning the chips with one last snowfall of shredded dairy. Heat your nachos at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit until melted. It's best to add most produce like lettuce, tomatoes, jalapeños, and leafy herbs after baking to keep them fresh. This is particularly important with avocados, whether chopped or guac'd, as their taste and texture will degrade when baked. Finish the dish with scrambled eggs and a complement of hot sauces.