Nachos can be so much more than just chips and cheese. For example this recipe for spicy chorizo nachos is piled high with layers of corn tortilla chips, cheese, spicy Spanish chorizo, pickles, and an assortment of garnishes. Not to mention you can whip them up very quickly.

I’ve been on a bit of a spicy chorizo kick recently after finding a really delicious one at my local grocery. In fact, I’ve used this spicy chorizo to make my Spicy Chorizo Guacamole and my Chorizo Avocado Tacos. This is a Spanish chorizo, so it is hard unlike the soft Mexican chorizo. I find this gives these spicy chorizo nachos a good bite to them to complement the crunchy chips.
Like with any nachos the base is some good quality corn tortilla chips. You can use your preferred brand. For the cheese I used a good white cheddar. I know cheddar isn’t the most popular nachos cheese, but I quite prefer it over things like Monterrey or Colby Jack. However, if you don’t want to use cheddar, no one is forcing you to.
My main gripe with getting nachos in restaurants is that most places just seem to lay down all the chips and then put the toppings on top. No. The toppings need to be everywhere. In between all the chip layers. It is a little bit more work, but the end result is for a much more balanced meal. Okay, maybe these spicy chorizo nachos aren’t a balanced meal to begin with. Let’s just say they are a well balanced sharing appetizer.
How To Make Spicy Chorizo Nachos
Ingredients
- 200 grams Corn Tortilla Chips, salted
- 100 grams Spanish Chorizo, finely diced
- 150 grams White Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup Pickled Cucumber, diced
- 1/3 cup Sour Cream
- 1/3 cup Guacamole, or just mashed avocado with garlic if that’s easier
- 2 tsp Red Chili Flakes
- 2 tsp Black Pepper, freshly cracked
- plus a variety of optional toppings to suit your preferences

The cold toppings are of course sour cream, guacamole, and chopped pickled cucumber. If I had some pickled peppers I would chop those up and put them on instead of the pickled cucumber, but alas I was all out. I think any pickle will do the trick however, so get creative.

When making homemade nachos, I don’t expect people to make their own tortilla chips. So store bought is totally fine. The questions is to get a version with salt or without. I get the chips with salt and then just don’t add salt later. This is a better way to keep the salt content balanced as there is no liquid to spread the salt content evenly other than the guac and sour cream. Of course you could add some pico de gallo or black bean salsa for more liquid, but those are toppings in my opinion.

The best part is these spicy chorizo nachos only take 15 minutes to bake. You only need to melt the cheese and soften the fat in the chorizo sausage. Make sure your serving plate is oven safe. Most ceramic plates will be perfectly fine in the oven for the temperature needed to make these nachos. Feel free to kick your nachos up another notch by adding some hot sauce. I make my own hot sauce from dried chilies so I always have bottles on hand.

Spicy Chorizo Nachos
Equipment
- Oven Safe Serving Plate
Ingredients
- 200 grams Corn Tortilla Chips salted
- 100 grams Spanish Chorizo finely diced
- 150 grams White Cheddar Cheese shredded
- 1/4 cup Pickled Cucumber diced
- 1/3 cup Sour Cream
- 1/3 cup Guacamole or just mashed avocado with garlic if that's easier
- 2 tsp Red Chili Flakes
- 2 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 210 Celsius
- Place a layer of the chips down on the plate, then add some chopped chorizo and shredded cheese. Layer with more chips and repeat until all the chips, chorizo, and cheese are used up.
- Place in the oven for 15 minutes. During this time you can make the guacamole if you are making it from scratch, or chop the pickles.
- Remove the nachos from the oven. Add the sour cream and guacamole on top. Sprinkle over the chopped pickles along with the red chili flakes and black pepper. Serve hot.
Notes
