Snacks · Wings & party bites

Loaded nachos

Name: Loaded nachos
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 9 oz bag baked tortilla chips; 14 oz 90% lean ground beef; 1 tbsp chili powder; 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin; 3/4 tsp salt; 1 can black beans, drained; 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded; 2 Roma tomatoes, diced; 1 jalapeño, sliced; 1 avocado, diced; 6 tbsp sour cream; a handful fresh cilantro; 1/2 lime

Game-day architecture: chips layered — not piled — with seasoned beef, beans and real melted cheese, then dressed cold. The layering is the difference between nachos and a mistake.

Time: 30 min (15 prep + 15 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 585 kcal
Protein: 30 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

9 oz bag baked tortilla chips250 g
14 oz 90% lean ground beef400 g
1 tbsp chili powder8 g
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin3 g
3/4 tsp salt4 g
1 can black beans, drained240 g
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded200 g

After the oven

2 Roma tomatoes, diced150 g
1 jalapeño, sliced20 g
1 avocado, diced150 g
6 tbsp sour cream90 g
a handful fresh cilantro8 g
1/2 lime15 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Brown the beef with the spices and salt.
On an oven tray: HALF the chips, half the beef, beans and cheese — then repeat. Two thin layers beat one deep one; that's how every chip gets cheese.
200°C for 8–10 minutes until the cheese is fully melted.
The cold things go on after the oven, never in it: tomato, jalapeño, avocado, sour cream, cilantro, lime. Serve on the tray.

Why this score

easy to overeat

Dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

21% of kcal

52% water

13 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 3512 kcal goes into the pot, 1538 g of ingredients comes out as ~1350 g of food → 260 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 260
Protein: (21%); 13 g
Fat: (46%); 13 g
Carbohydrates: (33%); 21 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 3 g
Sodium: 387 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More snacks

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.