When I was a kid, one of my go-to fend-for-myself meals was nachos. Heap tortilla chips, refried beans, olives, meats, cheeses and whatever else struck me onto a giant dinner plate. Sprinkle a most liberal amount of cheese over everything, then pop the whole thing in the microwave for a minute. Done! And delicious.
It didn’t occur to me until I was an adult that there was any other way to make nachos. And I was blown away by the difference between nuking my nachos and baking them in the oven. Texture alone was improved. No more soggy chips that turned rubbery by the end of the meal. And that says nothing of the browning of the cheese no microwave ever could achieve.
And it didn’t occur to me until this summer that I could take my nacho evolution even further by moving them out of the oven and onto… the grill.
The point of course is not merely to use the grill as an outdoor oven, though in summer sometimes that is justification enough. But rather to use the power of the grill to impart a delicious smokiness to the nachos.
