Swap The Tortilla Chips In Your Nachos For A Huge Flavor Blast

A classic nachos recipe can consist of just about anything you want. Maybe it's nothing more than tortilla chips and cheese sauce, or maybe you load it with your favorite meat, vegetables, and hot peppers. The base of choice, though, is almost always tortilla chips — but what if you swapped them for something else? Enter pork rinds, sometimes referred to as chicharrónes (though chicharrónes can be meatier and fattier), which are the nacho base your taste buds have been missing. Plus, they're hearty enough to help you avoid soggy nachos entirely.

Pork rinds are made from the skin of a pig. They're salty and crispy, sort of like potato chips, but have a distinctly crunchy texture that's obtained from a multi-step process. First, the skin is cut and boiled, then it's refrigerated — this helps solidify the fat, so it can be easily removed from the skin. After the middle step, the skin is fried into the chip-like "pellets" we know and love. While seasoned pork rinds are a popular snack on their own, they bring a crunchy, savory boost to nachos. Plus, they can be paired with just about any nacho toppings, so the options are endless. Pulled pork is a great meat add-on, plus the usual cheese sauce and veggies.

If you like the puffy, fried texture of pork rinds but don't love the idea of how they're made, you can achieve a similar texture by frying wonton wrappers. The wrappers bubble and puff as they deep fry, leaving you with an airy, crispy, chip-like texture that mimics the pork rind — minus the pig skin.

As long as you have a desire to deep fry, the options extend even further beyond basic tortilla chips. For hearty, dense chips that can withstand just about any number of toppings, try frying up some pita. They crisp into a tough chip that's much heavier than a tortilla chip or a pork rind, allowing them to hold all that cheese sauce, meat, and even heavier toppings like refried beans. Pita chips are best for loaded nachos. You can use plenty of other tortilla chip alternatives, too, such as kettle-cooked potato chips, sweet potato chips, or even waffle fries — as long as you know how to cut them.