🧀🫑 Loaded Shredded Chicken Nachos are made with juicy enchilada sauce, soaked chicken, black beans, corn, peppers, cilantro, and more. Inspired by chicken enchiladas, they’re gooey deliciousness, they’re ready in 5 minutes, and perfect for parties, game day, tailgating, or any time you need an easy nacho fix!
Easiest Shredded Chicken Nachos Recipe
I love enchiladas of all kinds, like my zucchini chicken enchiladas, salsa verde chicken enchiladas, and ground beef enchiladas. But I don’t always have the patience to roll tortillas and wait for everything to bake. So, I make these loaded chicken nachos with enchilada sauce instead!
- Loaded with every Mexican-inspired ingredient I could find in my kitchen, there’s SO much flavor and texture in every bite!
- You can easily customize the nachos with all your favorite toppings.
- With minimal prep, these nachos are dangerously fast to make and ready in 5 minutes. They’re perfect for Memorial Day parties, Fourth of July, Labor Day, tailgating, or Super Bowl parties. No one can resist fresh nachos!
Love enchilada flavors?
My loaded chicken enchilada zucchini boats are a lightened-up recipe with all the classic enchilada flavor you love and extra nutrients!
And my chicken enchilada sliders are another crowd-pleasing appetizer that can easily double as a meal!
Ingredients and Notes
To make these pulled chicken nachos, you’ll need:
- Cooked shredded chicken: To make your life easier, buy a rotisserie chicken at the store, and shred it to make the nachos. Or, for even more flavor, you could prepare my Baked Cilantro Lime Chicken Breasts in advance and use those to make the pulled chicken nachos. Otherwise, cook boneless skinless chicken thighs or boneless skinless chicken breasts, and shred them with a fork before you begin
- Red enchilada sauce: Use store-bought or homemade enchilada sauce. Or, you can use a good-quality salsa instead, or use BBQ sauce to make BBQ chicken nachos
- Corn tortilla chips
- Black beans
- Bell pepper, corn, and pico de gallo
- Mexican shredded cheese blend: Feel free to substitute cheddar cheese, Colby Jack cheese, pepper jack cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, or a combination of cheeses
- Fresh cilantro
- Optional toppings: Guacamole, sour cream, salsa, diced tomatoes, lime juice, avocado, guacamole, etc.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make This Easy Shredded Chicken Nachos Recipe
Unlike sheet pan nachos, these shredded chicken nachos “cook” in the microwave, eliminating the need for a baking sheet or turning on the oven!
Here’s an overview of the process:
- Coat the shredded chicken with enchilada sauce.
- Arrange the chips in a single layer on a microwave-safe plate or shallow bowl.
- Top the chips with the chicken mixture and all your toppings. Tip: Save any leftover chicken and toppings to make quesadillas, tacos, or burritos!
- Microwave on high in 30-second increments until the cheese is melted.
- Garnish with your favorite toppings such as pico de Gallo, black olives, and cilantro, and enjoy!
Oven Option
I don’t find there’s much of a difference in taste between microwaved nachos and baked nachos, but bake them if you prefer. For sheet pan chicken nachos, arrange the chips on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Then, add your toppings, and bake at 375F for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese has melted
What to Serve with Shredded Chicken Enchilada Nachos
Loaded Chicken Enchilada Nachos
Equipment
- 1 Medium Bowl
- 1 Microwave-Safe Plate
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked shredded chicken, use storebought rotisserie chicken to save time
- ½ cup red enchilada sauce
- about 8 ounces corn tortilla chips
- ½ cup cooked black beans
- ½ cup bell peppers, diced small (I used red and yellow)
- ½ cup corn, I used frozen; thaw before using
- 2 cups Mexican shredded cheese blend
- ¼ cup pico de gallo
- 1 teaspoon fresh cilantro, finely minced
- guacamole, sour cream, or your other favorite Mexican-inspired fixings, optional
Instructions
- To a medium bowl add the shredded chicken, enchilada sauce, and stir to combine; set aside.
- To a large microwave-safe plate or shallow bowl, add the chips in a flat layer or without too much overlap so each chip gets its share of toppings.
- To the chips, evenly top with the chicken, black beans, bell peppers, corn, cheese, and microwave on high for about 2 minutes (all microwaves vary), stopping every 30 seconds to check, or until cheese has melted.
- Evenly garnish with pico de gallo, cilantro, any optional toppings, and serve immediately. Nachos are best warm and fresh.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Mexican Appetizers:
Loaded Guacamole Nachos — Fresh, easy homemade guac on top of cheesy chips is totally irresistible! These disappear fast – so good!
Loaded BBQ Chicken Nugget Nachos (with vegan/GF option) – Chicken nuggets coated in BBQ sauce with loads of cheese! Perfect and easy party food!
Loaded Nachos with Beef — EASY, ready in 15 minutes, and LOADED with taco-seasoned ground beef, black beans, corn, cilantro, and lots of CHEESE!
Easy Restaurant-Style Blender Salsa – Make your own salsa in minutes! Fast, easy, goofproof and tastes 1000x better than anything you’d buy!
Do-It-Yourself Guacamole Bar – Make your own guacamole bar and have fun taste-testing the options! Great party idea that everyone loves!
Baked Triple Cheese and Salsa Tortilla Chip Dip — Loaded with 3 kinds of cheese and baked to browned, bubbly, golden perfection! Always a hit at parties!
Easy Six-Layer Baked Taco Cups – Fast, easy, and accidentally healthy! Your favorite taco fixings in individually-portioned cups!
Beef Tater Tot-Chos – Crispy tater tots topped with taco-seasoned ground beef and melted cheese is a DELICIOUS and fun twist on nachos! EASY, ready in no time, and perfect for PARTIES!
great
great
I had a nachos phase a couple of years ago where I think I was making nachos 2 to 3 times a week :P I still like to make them from time-to-time as a quick dinner. Definitely need to give these nachos a try!!
That sounds like a great phase to have been in :)
hey girl this is right up my alley! Yummy!
Whenever I make nachos they’re always dry.
These aren’t dry at all!
Thanks Averie. Your recipes are always so nice.
Thanks, Liz! Hope you have a nice Memorial Day weekend!
THIS is the dinner of my dreams. I need a plate of this right now, even though I just finished dinner!
Some nights nachos for dinner are perfectly acceptable :)
Now I want enchiladas!!! I never make nachos or even regular enchiladas because I am WAY too lazy for all that prep work! I do enchilada casseroles or bowls of stuff with enchilada sauce on them I’m all about the easiest way to prep food, which ends up looking gross of course. You food bloggers have it rough!
These were so easy! I opt to make recipes like this after I’ve made things that require me to test, trial, and stand on my feet for hours. These were the opposite of that!
Ooh, you’ve given me my dinner idea for Friday. I need something fast and fun that night. Thanks for posting this!
Easiest dinner ever!
What could be easier?! My co workers would love something like this for our “Fiesta Friday” and we haven’t had one in quite some time. This would be easy to assemble and finish in the microwave at work.
Your office sounds like they do a lot of fun stuff which is so nice! This is perfect for Fiesta Friday and an office microwave!