Spicy Baked Black Bean Nachos Recipe - Budget Bytes (2024)

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It’s Monday and I’m throwing caution to the wind. Sometimes you have to start the week out with a bang to make the weight of the long week ahead a little more bearable, you know? 😅 I had a couple leftover jalapeños in my fridge as well as a small batch of pickled red onions, so I thought that was a great excuse to make some nachos(naturally). Anyway, ever since discovering how a few minutes in a hot oven can elevate crunchy tacos to a heavenly level, I’ve wanted to try the same with nachos. These Spicy Baked Black Bean Nachos proved my suspicions correct and today I’m in nacho heaven. Watch out Tuesday, I’m comin’ for ya!

Nacho Topping Options

Obviously you can put whatever toppings on your nachos that you like, but if you haven’t tried pickled red onions yet, you’re missing out. Their sweet-tart-salty flavor really adds zing to the nachos.

A light drizzle or dollop of creamy sour cream balances the pickled red onions and the heat of the black bean mixture. If you’re feeling extra extravagant, I highly suggest turning your sour cream into lime crema for even more flavor (lime crema recipe here).

Oh, and if you do fresh jalapeños like I did below, the trick is to slice them super-SUPER thinly. That way you get flavor and heat without burning your mouth off.

Tips for Success with Baked Black Bean Nachos

When it comes to baking nachos, there are three main tips to success:

• Use really thick, hearty chips. No “thin and crispy” for this dish. They need to stand up to layers of toppings and oven baking without burning.
• Line your baking sheet or suffer the consequences (difficult clean-up). I like parchment because it doesn’t reflect heat and reduces the chance of burning, but foil will also work.
• It’s all about the layers. Layer your chips, bean mixture, and cheese for the best chip-to-topping ratio. No one likes getting a chip with no toppings or so many toppings that you can’t lift your chip.

Let’s go start this week off right, shall we?

How to Make Baked Nachos – Step by Step Photos

Start by preparing the spicy black bean mixture. Finely dice one small onion and sauté it in a large skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil until the onions are soft and transparent (about 5 minutes).

Add one 15 oz. can black beans (mostly drained, not rinsed), one 10 oz. can petite diced tomatoes with green chiles (not drained), 1/2 tsp chipotle powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp salt.

Rotel is probably the most popular brand of diced tomatoes with chiles, but I found these Red Gold tomatoes that were less expensive. If you can’t find diced tomatoes with chiles, you can either do plain petite diced tomatoes, or get a can of petite diced tomatoes and a small 4 oz. can of diced green chiles separately. Just make sure they’re PETITE diced so that you don’t have large chunks of tomatoes.

Simmer the mixture until the liquid thickens and no longer pools on the bottom of the skillet. You want it to be thick and goopy and not too wet because that can soften your chips.

Begin preheating your oven to 350ºF and prepare your cold toppings so that they’re ready to go on top immediately when the nachos come out of the oven. Thinly slice one jalapeño, finely dice one Roma tomato, and chop a handful of cilantro. Also shred 4 oz. of cheddar cheese. (The pickled red onions and sour cream don’t need any prep).

Begin to layer the nachos. Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil (preferably parchment) and then spread out one layer of chips over the sheet so that they are touching but not overlapping too much.

Spoon half of the bean mixture over the first layer of chips, then sprinkle half of the shredded cheese over top. Follow that up with one more single layer of chips, the second half of the bean mixture, and the second half of the cheese. Perfect chip-to-topping ratio! :)

Bake the nachos in the preheated oven for 5-7 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted and the tips of the chips are just barely starting to turn golden.

Immediately top the baked chips with a little sour cream, the sliced jalapeños, diced tomatoes, chipped cilantro, and pickled red onions. Perfect!

And that’s it!! Super fast and easy, and guaranteed to make your Monday a little better. ;)

Love baked nachos? Check out our Breakfast Nachos!