Holy comfortfoodness! As I have quite a few Mexican friends, I’ve learned to appreciate real Mexican food over Tex-Mex crap. I’ll never forget going to one of these Tex-Mex restaurants a few years ago with a good (Mexican) friend. We sat down at our colorful table, our waiter said ‘Hola’ withOUT the silent ‘H’ and gave us the menu. As we stared at the list of dishes, my friend suddenly frowned and (slightly frustrated) said: “I don’t understand, how can you feed people chips & cheese from the oven and actually charge them money for eating a ‘Mexican dinner’?”. Considering the overload of margaritas, a looping CD player with a mariachi remix and all the waiters wearing sombrero’s while obviously being super uncomfortable, I couldn’t help but wonder: is Tex-Mex really just an easy and cheap way to make people believe they’re having a ‘Mexican dining experience’? And if so, are people too ignorant to understand they just entered a big building of stereotypes or is there a chance that Tex-Mex food maybe isn’t that bad after all?
Final verdict: my friend said ‘ugh’ and as for me…I loved it! Yes, tortilla chips with some veggies, chicken and cheese are dumped in the oven and served straight after. Not traditional Mexican food, but not that bad at all, really. The key to making Tex-Mex dishes fabulous: simply use fresh ingredients! Like any other die-hard foodie I jumped into my kitchen and created this homemade nacho dish with a perfect combination of fresh ingredients. Oh and there’s that one bad-ass secret ingredient that really brings all flavors together. Hint: it’s on the recipe to buy list and the only way you’ll know which one it is…well, you’ll just have to try it out yourself! 🙂
Happy Monday and happy cooking!
BUY:
- 100 gr kidney beans (canned, leaked)
- 100 gr corn (canned, leaked)
- 100 gr smoked (sliced) chicken
- 1 (red) bell pepper
- 200 gr cherry tomatoes
- 100 gr grated cheese; whichever kind you prefer
- 1 red onion
- 1 red pepper
- ½ lime
- Olive oil
- a bunch of cilantro
- Lettuce, cucumber and a scoop of sour cream for fresh garnish
- Taco shelves to stuff…as many as you like
- For Guacamole:
- 2 avocado’s
- ½ lime
- a bunch of cilantro
- ½ red pepper
DO:
- Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F
- Slice & dice all veggies and the smoked chicken in small cubes. Mix well in a bowl with lime juice and some olive oil
- Get a bunch of taco shelves ready in an oven dish, sprinkle them with some breadcrumbs (to soak up some of the moist coming from the salad) and stuff them with the salad mixture
- Sprinkle grated cheese all over the dish and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes (until golden)
- Meanwhile, mash the avocado's with chopped cilantro and red pepper (see pictures below) into a homemade, delicious guacamole
- Grab a big chopboard and present your Dishtales signature nacho dish!
Mouthwatering! Nacho’s it is tonight! 🙂
It is indeed Tessa! Hope that…no actually I’m SURE you’ll enjoy! 🙂