Nachos on a barbecue menu? Pile ’em on
As Texans continue to seek comfort food in the form of burgers, tacos and barbecue, a new entrant in the evolving menu of smoked meats has emerged: the venerable plate of nachos.
Nachos are a natural addition to the Texas barbecue oeuvre; they have been on Houston barbecue menus for a while at places including Harris County Smokehouse, Stockyard Bar-B-Q, Pappa Charlies Barbeque and Daddy Duncan’s BBQ, among others.
As someone who eats a lot of barbecue, I find such tangential menu items often escape my notice. I’ll admit that when visiting and evaluating new spots, I mostly stick to the Texas trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage.
Fortunately, I have adventurous friends and family to snap me out of my occasional smoked-meat rut.
On a recent family gathering before this past week’s deep freeze, we sat on the patio at Tejas Chocolate & BBQ for an expansive lunch. Yes, even when I’m off the clock, barbecue is on the menu.
Tejas is known for its creative offerings, and as we stood in line to order my usual trio, I asked my niece and nephew if anything stood out to them on the menu. The response, in unison, was “Nachos!”
Nachos? Sure, I’d seen and occasionally ordered nachos at a barbecue joint, but I never considered it something worth ordering. Do nachos really belong on a barbecue menu? I was dubious. Call it barbecue confirmation bias.
But oh, how times have changed. It’s open season when it comes to the evolution of barbecue menus, with smoked burgers and tacos leading the charge.
So I threw caution to the wind and ordered the “Nacho Plate,” along with the requisite Texas trinity, barbacoa tacos, turkey and boudin.
I can report that the nachos were the star of the show for my nonbarbecue-obsessed family members.
Why? First, a nachos backgrounder. The general anatomy of nachos is a base of corn chips topped with ingredients such as beans, meat and cheese, at a minimum. The concoction is placed under a broiler to melt the cheese and warm up the whole dish. Cold ingredients such as pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole may also be added.
According to Houston Chronicle restaurant critic Alison Cook, there are two genres of nachos: composed and piled. Composed nachos are the kind you find at upscale Tex-Mex or Mex-Mex restaurants in which each corn chip is carefully topped with its own individual serving of beans, meat and cheese.
However, the more prevalent version is the piled nacho in which the toppings are stacked haphazardly on a layer of corn chips. The ratio of toppings is something of a free-for-all, and the coverage of toppings can be sporadic. Take too long to finish the tray, and you’ll have a soggy, gloppy mess left over.
That was not a problem on this day at Tejas, as my family scooped up this prodigious tray of piled tacos with abandon.
The Tejas Nachos Plate is unreservedly piled-style. There is a base layer of thick, crunchy, house-fried corn chips seasoned with the outfit’s spicy pork rub, topped with chopped fatty brisket and then drenched in a roasted poblano queso. Accoutrements
Tejas Chocolate & BBQ
200 N. Elm, Tomball 832-761-0670
including sour cream, guacamole and fresno chiles are also available.
As restaurants continue to fight a yearlong pandemic and, more recently, a power-zapping deep freeze, the need for creative and profitable menu offerings takes on even more urgency. Slicing and dicing superior craft barbecue with familiar menu items is one way to do that. Add nachos to the mix.