BBQ Chicken Nachos is the perfect game day appetizer or easy chicken nachos main dish. It’s filled with the flavors of shredded bbq chicken, guacamole, fresh onions, and cheese. Make this if you want a twist on your typical loaded nachos.
Why Make These:
- Quick and easy: this sheet pan bbq chicken nachos recipe uses leftover chicken and other toppings that you can pick-up from your local grocery store. Plus, since I line the sheet pan with foil, it is an easy cleanup.
- Great for groups and families: you can use this recipe as a base for your own nachos topping bar. Allow the whole family to pick and choose how to customize these bbq chicken nachos to their tastes.
- Perfect for game day: add this delicious bbq chicken nachos recipe to your football season or other game day menus.
Ingredients Needed
Making sheet pan chicken nachos requires just a few ingredients.
Be sure to check out the recipe card at the end of the post for the full instructions and exact ingredient amounts.
- BBQ Shredded Chicken: I’m using my Instant Pot Shredded BBQ Chicken. If you don’t want to make your own, you can also use any cooked chicken like shredded rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and add bbq sauce.
- Crispy Tortilla Chips: I like sea salt or sea salt and lime flavors.
- Shredded Cheese: different types of cheese work well in this recipe. Some of my favorites are cheddar cheese, sharp cheddar, mild cheddar, pepper jack, and Monterey jack cheese.
- Pickled Jalapeños: your favorite brand works. I have also tried this with sweet and spicy pickled jalapeños that is available at Trader Joe’s
- Red Onion: I dice these very small as if I am making a salsa
- Guacamole: You can make guacamole from scratch or you can buy this prepared from the refrigerated section of most grocery stores. When I get it from the store, I tend to add things to it like salt, black pepper and garlic powder.
- BBQ Sauce: I use a hickory or Kansas-city style sauce, but your favorite store-bought bbq sauce works.
Additional BBQ Chicken Nacho Toppings Ideas
I kept this recipe simple, but you can also add the following to this dish or create a toppings bar so that everyone can add their favorite nacho toppings to the dish.
- Black Beans: be sure to rinse and drain these.
- Sour Cream
- Black Olives
- Crispy Bacon: you can click for my air fryer bacon recipe
- Fresh Jalapeños: this adds the perfect balance of fresh flavors to the pickled jalapeños
- Cilantro
- Ranch Dressing
- Green Onions
How to Make BBQ Chicken Nachos
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the tortilla chips in a flat layer to a rimmed baking sheet. I line my baking sheet with foil or parchment paper to make clean-up easier.
- Top the tortillas with shredded bbq chicken, shredded cheese, and pickled jalapenos. If you are adding things like black beans, bacon, and olives, I recommend adding them in this step too!
- Add the large baking sheet to the oven. Cook for 10-15 minutes. This allows the cheese to melt & allows the chicken to warm if it is cold.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Drizzle bbq sauce on top of the nachos. Then, add the guacamole, red onions, and cilantro.
Cooking Tips and Tricks
- Use an oven or air fryer: I have made this dish using my oven or air fryer oven. If you opt to use a regular basket-style oven, you will need to cook this in batches. I’d also be sure to check in for doneness at the 10 minute mark.
- Layer the chips in a single layer: this ensures that most of the nachos have toppings.
FAQs
I put bbq sauce on the chicken before and after baking. But, this depends on your preference as too much bbq sauce can take over the dish. My husbands tends to try things in a small corner first before committing to a topping on the entire dish.
The proper layers for nachos are as follows: a layer of tortilla chips, a layer of shredded cheese, a layer of toppings (such as cooked ground beef, beans, shredded chicken, and jalapeños), and then repeat until all ingredients are used up. I save cold toppings like guacamole and sour cream until the end.
I personally buy sturdy, thick dipping chips as to thin chips. I also do not put a lot of liquids (ex: from salsa) on the chips before baking. You can also try to place the tortilla chips on a baking sheet and bake them in the oven for a few minutes before adding the toppings. This will make them crispy and sturdy enough to hold up to the toppings.
Chicken nachos are typically made with cooked shredded chicken, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and toppings such as diced tomatoes, jalapeños, and black beans. You can also add salsa, guacamole, and sour cream to finish them off.
More BBQ Chicken Recipes
Here are some other easy dinner ideas using bbq chicken.
BBQ Chicken Nachos
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups BBQ Shredded Chicken click for the recipe
- 10 oz Tortilla Chips I used Late July Sea Salt and Lime
- ½ cup Shredded Cheese I used a white sharp cheddar or this Italian Cheese Blend
- ¼ cup Pickled Jalapeños
- ¼ cup Red Onions diced small as if for salsa
- 4 oz Guacamole this comes prepared – I used this one
- BBQ Sauce for drizzling at the end
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the tortilla chips in a flat layer to a baking sheet. I line my baking sheet with foil to make clean-up easier.
- Top the tortillas with shredded bbq chicken, shredded cheese, and pickled jalapenos
- Add the baking sheet to the oven. Cook for 10-15 minutes. This allows the cheese to melt & allows the chicken to warm if it was cold.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Drizzle bbq sauce. Then, add the guacamole, red onions, and cilantro.