Maya-Ik Pulled Chicken Nachos
I must admit, I can be hard to motivate. Oh, sure, I’m great at starting things. But once the initial shininess wears off, I often have trouble following through to the end. Yes, I know this is a common malady, and as a part of the internet generation I am hardly alone in having the attention span of a particularly intelligent goldfish. So when something needs doing, something that requires a long investment without immediate payoff, each of us needs to find ways to motivate ourselves.
Personally, I am motivated by food. I can get myself to do pretty much anything if there’s a delicious meal at the end of it. So when I decided to start running, going to the gym, and just trying to get into shape for the first time of my life, food became a useful tool towards accomplishing my goals.
This takes many forms. Sometimes it’s as simple as glass of chocolate protein milk as a reward for getting my ass to the gym. Seriously, I would have started working out a long time ago if I knew it could be used as an excuse for adults to regularly drink chocolate milk. Other times it means a greasy burger from Shake Shack or Five Guys. But frequently it means cooking myself something tasty.
Usually this happens on the weekend. I go for a late afternoon run, build up a solid appetite, then cook something and ravenously devour it. But when I run after work on a weeknight, I don’t have time to cook something complicated. Last night I went for a great six mile run, while my good friend Ira Glass whispered stories in my ear. During the run, my hunger increasing, I thought about what I could quickly assemble when I got home.
Luckily, I had just received some inspiration earlier that day. A certain friend of mine who shares my love for very flavorful hot sauces had tipped me off to a US distributor of Maya-Ik, a thick green hot sauce from Guatemala that goes great on eggs and pretty much everything. Its tag line is “Make your food come alive!”, which I assume is a reference to some kind of Mayan zombie apocalypse. I immediately ordered 4 bottles of it, and that afternoon the package arrived with my spicy bounty.
So I knew my dish had to include Maya-Ik, and I didn’t want it to be complicated or time-consuming. Obviously I had to make nachos.
Keep in mind that speed and simplicity were top priorities here. Prep was 15 minutes, then another 15 in the oven, then nachos. If I really went all-out, I would make fresh salsa, and include other toppings like beans, sour cream, and green onions. But that can wait for the weekend, on this night I included only the essentials.
Since I didn’t have time for salsa, I went with the next best thing: grape tomatoes. Cut into halves or quarters, they are easily scoopable. Sliced jalapenos are a nachos staple, although you may want to remove the seeds, depending on how masochistic you are. And of course I got a shredded Mexican cheese blend, although cheddar works just as well.
I believe all nachos should include a protein, whether it’s pork, chicken, or beans. I went with chicken, which I cooked on the stove top while prepping the veggies. All it needed was a little bit of salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil.
Once done, I put it in a bowl and shredded it with two forks.
With my veggies chopped and my chicken shredded, the only thing left was to layer everything and heat it up.
I don’t know about you, but I find the worst part of eating nachos is when the top layer is gone, and you’re down to pretty much a plate of chips. You try to find that one chip with a drop of cheese that managed to escape to the second tier. To avoid this, I double-layered the nachos.
One chicken breast was only enough chicken for the top layer, but the veggies, cheese, and hot sauce were put in both layers.
I slathered these chips in Maya-Ik. No, really, I went through a third of a bottle on this one dish. Depending on what hot sauce you have and how much of a capsaisin connoisseur you are, you may want to use less.
I’m happy to say these chips (along with a cold beer) provided me with quite a bit of motivation to continue getting into shape. Of course, I may have to run a bit further to make up for all that cheese, but one step at a time…
Ingredients
- 1 boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 bag tortilla chips
- 1/2 container grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
- 2-3 jalapenos, thinly sliced into rounds (optionally with seeds removed)
- 4 oz (1/2 bag) shredded Mexican cheese blend (or cheddar)
- Maya-Ik hot sauce, or another flavorful hot sauce, to taste (I used around 2 tbsp)
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil
Directions
- Put a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Fully cook the chicken breast (approx 10 minutes). Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder on both sides.
- While the chicken cooks, slice the tomatoes and jalapenos, and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- When the chicken is done, put it in a bowl and pull it to shreds with two forks.
- Layer the ingredients in a square glass baking dish: chips, tomatoes/jalapenos, chicken, hot sauce, cheese. Repeat the layers.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Eat delicious nachos!
