Sour cream chicken nachos with poblano salsa verde

Let’s talk about nachos, shall we? Now, I’ve gone on record stating my preference, which is for the traditional type of nacho where all the ingredients are on one chip. While this is how all nachos were served when I was young, I find this style more and more a rarity. I also realize that sometimes I am in the minority.

Take another Texan friend of mine in New York, for instance. He’s a Tex-Mex purist through and through and like myself loves his nachos made the correct way. That said, the other day he mentioned to me a place that served pile nachos and conceded that they had been delicious. “You should try them,” he said. “I think you’ll like them.”

Well, long story short, the nachos were sampled and while as a pile of chips topped with meat, beans, and cheese they were good. But it was a frustrating eating experience as many chips were either soggy from too much topping, or sadly bereft of any toppings, which wasn’t ideal either. It was a mess and ultimately didn’t satisfy all of us as we started fighting over who got what. It wasn’t fun and dare I say it, this pile of chips was not how nachos were intended to be.



I won’t continue down this path because I’ve made my preferences known before, but I thought it was important to share because as I was explaining to my friends why proper nachos are indeed better, one gave me steely look and said I needed to open my mind a bit and get beyond the traditional nacho made with cheese, jalapeños, and refried beans.

To defend myself, I first pointed towards my new book, which has a plate of Crazy Nachos on the cover, a popular Dallas dish that is so named because beyond the usual cheese, beans, and jalapeños there are also taco meat, guacamole, and sour cream on each chip. Crazy indeed! And not only do you get a mess of toppings but every chips has all of them, so everyone is happy.
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Sausage, potato, and cabbage skillet fry

When I was growing up, you could count on several suppers happening that week—our weekly visit to the cafeteria, a trip to our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, a concoction my mom made called bean salad, and a skillet dish made up of fried sausage, potatoes, and cabbage.

Eating out at both the cafeteria and for Tex-Mex were always good fun—you’ll get no complaints from me here. The bean salad, however, was a bit more traumatizing, as it was essentially Frito salad without the Fritos and a whole lot more healthy. I was not a fan. (That said, in my new book I do include an updated Frito salad that does pay homage to my mom’s old favorite.)



But of all our family’s mainstays, I’d say the one I adored the most was the skillet dish of sausage, cabbage and potatoes. It’s so simple and yet comforting, it’s curious that as an adult that I seldom make it for myself.
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