The 37 Best Nachos Recipes to Make for the Super Bowl (and Fixings, Too!)
If you're inviting friends over for the Super Bowl, a few things are non-negotiable, and a good nachos recipe is one of them. Here, we'll get you started with a few complete recipes, plus our favorite plays when it comes to toppings. Get out your sheet pan: we've got pulled pork, black beans, creamy cheese sauce, guacamole, and more. Below, you'll find all the inspiration you need to riff on this classic Super Bowl appetizer before kickoff.
Photo by Christina Holmes1/37Nachos With All the Fixings
This recipe will give you everything you need for seriously good Super Bowl nachos: chips, carnitas, beans, and onion, salsas, and extra toppings to add to your heart's delight.
3/37Ultimate Nachos
Photo by Lauren Volo4/37Chicken and Black Bean Nachos
This easy recipe for nachos from Lucinda Scala Quinn's Mad Hungry: Game Day Food starts with a layer of tortilla chips, piled with cumin-scented black beans and shredded cooked chicken. Then you'll repeat the layers two more times before dolloping with sour cream and topping with avocado. Game on!
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Rhoda Boone5/373-Ingredient Microwave Cheese Sauce
This velvety-smooth sauce uses real cheddar (not the processed stuff) and comes together in less than 10 minutes. It's perfect for drizzling over any of our nacho recipes. Pro tip: Skip the aged cheddar from the fancy cheese counter—the sauce will be even creamier with a block of no-frills cheddar from the dairy aisle of the supermarket.
Photo by Charles Masters, prop styling by Sarah Cave, food styling by Chelsea Zimmer6/37Instant Pot Refried Black Beans
Romulo Yanes7/37Carnitas
This pork recipe is the key to the ultimate porky nachos. Many restaurants and stalls put a whole butchered pig in a huge copper pot and let it simmer away until any liquid has evaporated. That's when the pork goes from being braised to being fried, browning in its own luscious fat. Here, you'll use pork shoulder, and brown it in the oven instead of on your stovetop.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Alex Brannian, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks9/37Easy Guacamole
Photo by Alex Lau, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich10/37Pickled Hot Chiles
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Erika Joyce11/37Chipotle-Grilled Pork Shoulder Steaks with Corn Salsa
15/37Cuban-Style Picadillo
Top your nachos with this savory mix of ground beef, chili powder, diced tomatoes, raisins, green olives, and red wine vinegar. Prefer a meatless take? You could use one of these plant-based meats instead.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio, Food Styling by Michelle Gatton19/373-Ingredient Tomatillo Guacamole
Photo by Alex Lau, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich20/37The Only Salsa You Need
Photo by Alex Lau21/37Charro Beans
Cooking the beans with all the dried spices leaves you with an intensely flavorful broth that’s just as delicious as the beans themselves. Keep the beans submerged in the broth in the refrigerator so they won’t dry out; plus, they’ll continue to soak up all that flavor. Then use a slotted spoon to add them to your nachos before they hit the oven.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio, Food Styling by Michelle Gatton22/373-Ingredient Grilled and Fresh Tomato Salsa
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio, Food Styling by Michelle Gatton25/37Big Red Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork
The pairing of barbecue and Big Red Soda is super-popular throughout the South, so why not combine the two in one killer dish? The sweet, cult-favorite cream soda, originally from Texas, is often compared to cinnamon bubble gum, but also has notes of lemon, orange, and vanilla. Here, it's combined with barbecue sauce as a cooking liquid for slow-cooked, spice-rubbed pork shoulder, with results that are sweet, spicy, and as uniquely flavored as Big Red itself.
