Tara & Mark's Grilled Chicken Nachos

Well, it's a new year and time for some new recipes. One of my many new year's resolutions is to create more original recipes to add to my collection. I want to take this year and really dig deep into my imagination and see what I can come up with. I'm sure there will be some failures, but I hope there are more successes. Some recipes will be more involved than others; some will be a cinch to throw together. But hopefully they'll all be recipes that people want to make and will have fun making. Oh yeah, and hopefully they'll taste good!

These grilled chicken nachos are what Mark and I like to pull out when we're having people over for something casual like a football game or a quick pit stop before a concert to get some much needed food into our beer-seeking bellies. Everyone seems to really like them and I think they're delicious. They're also fairly healthy. I would rather have these nachos over most restaurant plates of nachos any day.

Here's how we make them:

We start by grilling up three medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts seasoned with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, and guajillo chili powder. Let the chicken cool, then either cut it into small cubes or pull the meat - whichever you prefer. Next, chop up some green bell pepper, onion, tomato, and black olives. Open a can of black beans and rinse them off. Shred up about 2 cups of cheddar cheese.

Now, if you're anything like us, you have a few different kinds of tortilla chips on hand most of the time. If this is the case, then go ahead and use a mixture of different chips on the platter. It gives the nachos more color and a more diverse flavor.

Now it's time to assemble the nachos. Find a platter that you can safely put into the oven, but looks good enough for serving too. Start with a layer of chips, then half of each of the topping ingredients. Then put down another layer of chips and the rest of all the topping ingredients. Layering your nachos like this ensures that each chip you grab will be loaded with what I like to call "cheesy goodness".

Pop your platter of nachos into a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes. To serve, top the nachos with some cool sour cream. Avocado or prepared guacamole would be good on these, too. The Superbowl isn't too far away, so keep these in mind!