4cupsshredded cooked chicken breast(from about 2 large chicken breasts)
12ouncescorn tortilla chips
1 to 2stalks celery,trimmed and sliced
2cups(8 ounces / 227 grams) shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
½cup(2 ounces / 56 grams) crumbled blue cheese
2scallions,thinly sliced (optional garnish)
Instructions
Place a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 475°F. Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment paper for easy cleanup.
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the hot sauce and butter. Heat and stir until the butter emulsifies into the hot sauce and the mixture heats through, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the shredded chicken and stir to coat with the sauce and heat the chicken through, another 2 minutes. Remove the chicken from the sauce with a slotted spoon and reserve the chicken and Buffalo sauce separately.
Arrange the tortilla chips in the prepared sheet pan and top with the shredded Buffalo chicken. Add the sliced celery and about ½ the shredded cheddar, making sure to distribute the toppings evenly over the chips. Drizzle the reserved Buffalo sauce over the top of the nachos. It will infuse more flavor into the cheese and soak into some of the chips. Finish with the crumbled blue cheese and the remaining shredded cheddar.
Bake in the top third of the oven for 5 to 7 minutes until the the nachos are hot and the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown at the edges. Top with sliced scallions, if desired, and serve immediately.
Notes
Reduce or multiply the recipe to feed a small group or a large crowd. The photos in this post are of a half recipe.
I strongly recommend grating your own cheddar cheese rather than using pre-shredded cheese. Bags of shredded cheese contain anti-caking agents which prevent them from melting as smoothly as regular grated cheese. Nachos will always be better if you grate the cheese yourself.
There will be a fair amount of Buffalo sauce to pour over the nachos. A few of the chips will soften a bit but most will simply infuse with the sauce and get crunchy in the oven. The sacrifice is totally worth it to infuse all that extra Buffalo flavor into the remaining chips.
You can definitely omit the blue cheese crumbles if you aren't a fan, and may also finish with a drizzle of ranch dressing if you prefer.