By Grocery List Plus Editorial Staff | Published on June 9, 2026
Serves 4
440 cal · 255 min
Budget-Friendly BBQ Chicken Nachos
Recipe GLPRf0d4517da609ca
Tender, slow-cooked BBQ chicken piled high on crispy tortilla chips with a creamy nacho cheese sauce, fresh salsa, and served alongside a crisp romaine salad. An easy, crowd-pleasing meal that's perfect for lunch or dinner with minimal hands-on prep.
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Ingredients
1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast
½ cup BBQ sauce
1 package nacho cheese dinner kit (with noodles and cheese sauce packet)
2 cups water
3 cups tortilla chips
½ cup salsa (included with dinner kit)
4 cups fresh romaine lettuce, chopped
¼ cup zesty Italian dressing
Directions
Place the chicken breast in a slow cooker and pour the BBQ sauce over it. Cook on high heat for 4 hours until the chicken is very tender and shreds easily with a fork. Transfer the cooked chicken to a cutting board and shred it into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
While the chicken finishes cooking, prepare the nacho cheese mixture. Pour 2 cups of water into a large skillet and bring to a boil. Add the noodles from the dinner kit and cook according to package directions, stirring occasionally, until the noodles are tender (usually 6–8 minutes). Drain if needed.
Stir the cheese sauce packet from the dinner kit into the cooked noodles until fully combined and creamy. Add the shredded BBQ chicken to the cheese and noodle mixture and stir well to coat everything evenly.
Arrange the tortilla chips on a serving platter or individual plates. Spoon the BBQ chicken and cheese mixture generously over the chips. Drizzle the salsa included in the dinner kit on top.
In a separate bowl, toss the chopped romaine lettuce with the zesty Italian dressing. Serve the salad alongside the nachos as a fresh, crisp complement to the main dish.
Comments
The 255-minute stated time is misleading—most of that is passive cooking or cooling, and actual hands-on work runs closer to 30 minutes, which matters for weeknight reality. Ingredients are widely available at Charlotte chains, but the nacho cheese dinner kit (a Kraft product found at most stores) plus barbecue sauce and salsa add up to roughly $12–14 total, or about $3–3.50 per serving, which is reasonable but not exceptional; the cost driver is the processed cheese product and sauces rather than fresh protein. This is a casual crowd-pleaser that doesn't need constant attention and reheats adequately as a cold or room-temperature leftover, making it forgiving for families. The caveat is that nachos are inherently a same-night, best-served-fresh dish—the chips soften overnight—so plan to eat it the day you make it.
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