How can you possibly prepare for the coming of Super Bowl 50? If you're like the editors at Epicurious and Bon Appetit, you express your feelings in melted-cheese form. This year, Epi and BA teams embarked on a 50-ingredient nacho battle . To the death. Or at least, until one of the teams keeled over due to coronary blockage. Here's how the Epi team made their play for #nachobowl50; click here for BA's saga.
Epi's food director Rhoda Boone is no stranger to nachos. In fact, her mother Julie Boone is known amongst her friends as "The Nacho Queen," and Rhoda proved that she inherited her mother's talent when she created her "Ultimate Nachos". But 50-ingredient nachos posed a unique challenge. Sure, you could pile on 50 delicious toppings on your nachos. But how do you make sure they won't turn into a mess of soggy ingredients and muddled flavors?
For Boone, the answer was to get into the zone. The nacho zone.
Epi's 50-ingredient nacho platter is essentially divided into 5 sub-nachos, each one featuring toppings inspired by iconic Super Bowl foods. There are spinach-artichoke dip nachos. Buffalo chicken nachos. Meat-lover's pizza nachos. Loaded potato skin nachos. And baby back rib nachos. "For each nacho zone, I made sure to combine spicy, salty, cheesy, and pickle-y flavors," says Rhoda. Lesson learned: Even in the midst of sheer nacho gluttony, a certain logic must be maintained.
The first step to 50-ingredient nachos is finding a massive full-sheet pan (or two half-sheet pans). Line the pan with a generous layer of tortilla chips, then start piling on the cheese and each zone's warm toppings (spinach-artichoke dip, BBQ pork, etc.). Now do it all again, starting with another layer of chips. Alternating several layers of chips and toppings ensures even melting—and guarantees that each chip has a good share of toppings. When you have your desired number of layers, slide your nachos in the oven to bake.
Once the molten nachos emerge from the oven, the second phase of nacho construction can commence. To create maximum contrast, pile on crisp and creamy toppings that are customized to each and every nacho zone. The spinach dip section gets finished with chopped cherry tomatoes. The Buffalo-wing area gets doused with hot sauce and fresh sliced celery. The BBQ-pork zone gets topped with shredded red cabbage, cilantro, and, naturally, more BBQ sauce. (Building 50-ingredient nachos isn't the time to be subtle.)
There's only one thing that can finish off nachos of this caliber: More cheese. Molten cheese, to be specific. A taco-salad shell provides the perfect receptacle for a lava-like queso cheese dip. Set the queso in the middle of the nachos, giving everyone an equal opportunity to score a championship bite.
Feel free to memorize them and impress your friends and neighbors.
- 50 ingredients (obvs)
- 6 9-ounce bags tortilla chips
- 3 cups ridged potato chips
- 1 crispy tostada bowl or taco salad shell
- 5 pounds cheese
- 6 1/2 pounds meat
- 6 types of meat
- 4 varieties of onion
- 9 kinds of cheese
Checked out BA's 50-ingredient nachos, too? Great. Now it's time to choose a #nachobowl50 favorite. Visit us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to vote for #TeamEPI or #TeamBA. (On second thought, just vote for #TeamEpi.)
