Cafe Lula

I have a confession. I’m not great at cutlery. I hold my fork in my right hand. I hold my knife in my left hand. When I have to cut things, I kind of just saw at them a bit and then try to drag them apart. It’s not classy. But this doesn’t need cutlery! No! You can just pick up the nachos, scoop up some chicken and cheese, straight in your mouth. Yes. You might need a fork for stray bits of chicken, but I can totally do fork only meals.

While I love my meals smothered in cheese, I appreciate that you may not. Here is a picture for you, you crazy person.

Mexican chicken nachos

Adapted from Good Food magazine

Serves 2

Ingredients:

olive oil, for frying

2 shallots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

100g mushrooms, sliced

1/4 tsp dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp chipotle paste

300g tomato passata (you can use good quality tinned chopped/crushed tomatoes if you cannot find passata)

2 chicken breasts

black pepper and salt, to season

a pinch of dried oregano

nachos and cheddar or other cheese , to serve

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over a medium-high heat and fry the shallots for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the mushrooms and garlic and fry for a minute, then add the sugar, chipotle paste and passata, stirring well. Add the salt, pepper and oregano.

When the passata has heated through, add the chicken breasts to the pan, spoon some sauce over the top and simmer gently for about 20 minutes to cook the chicken through. If the sauce becomes dry, add more passata and give it a good stir.

Put the grill (broiler) on high heat.

Once the chicken has cooked, use two forks to shred the chicken into long, thin strips (you can remove to a plate to do this if you like, I just did it in the pan).

Divide the nachos between two plates and top with the chicken stew. Grate some cheddar on top (I used about 15g per plate) and grill until the cheese has melted (this doesn’t take long at all). Enjoy!