Big Mac Tater Tot Nachos

What makes a nacho? I’ve been thinking about this question a lot lately. If it’s the nacho chips, then what I made for the Super Bowl is most certainly not nachos.

But these kind of felt like nachos, so I think the answer isn’t all that simple.

Perhaps nachos can be defined by their construction. A base of something crisp and salty, topped with meat, cheese, vegetables, and sauce. Apparently, I’m not the only one who struggles with this concept, because after the fact I discovered an entire category of snacks called “totchos”.

Officially, totchos sounds much more ridiculous than simply calling the dish tater tot nachos. AA who was visiting with Raf yesterday for the big game, suggested calling them “Not-Chos” since without the chips these still aren’t quite nachos.

What surprised me was that these food loving friends were skeptical about the potential deliciousness of the Big Mac Tater Tot Nachos I was making. Yes. It happened. I went through with my crazy plan. And I’ve got the pictures to prove it.

Here’s the full platter.

And here’s a close up to show detail.

For those who can’t figure out the build here, that’s:
A platter full of Trader Joe’s Tater Tots
A pound of deeply browned ground beef from Whole Foods
The contents of bottle #153/10,000 McDonald’s Special Sauce
Organic iceberg lettuce
Organic American cheese
Puckers fire habanero pickles
Diced onion
Sesame seeds

I really really thought that I had created a brand new dish that the world had never seen. But last night after a quick Google search, a woman in Canada had this idea first. She has a blog called The Girl on the Bloor, but there are some important and meaningful differences in our two takes on this comfort food treat.

Maybe in Canada if you order a Bic Mac it comes with tomatoes and cheddar cheese. I have no idea. But I was trying to stay as true to the classic sandwich as I could.

And perhaps, it’s cheating a bit to have one of the few official bottles of special sauce. As it turns out, the special sauce doesn’t have any ketchup in it at all. The sweetness comes from sugar, and the color comes from a combination of paprika and turmeric. Really, it’s a thick mayonnaise flavored with sweet relish, onion, and garlic.

But since the experience of eating a Big Mac is all about the special sauce, it’s critical to get it right.

Damn, this was good. The Big Mac tater tot nachos even made converts of Raf and AA, who approached this project with a healthy dose of skepticism. The only problem was that a platter of these beefy, cheesy, and saucy potatoes was more food than I actually expected. So I didn’t get to make a round of buffalo tots with blue cheese.

I still have the blue cheese dressing that I made from the smoked blue cheese I picked up at Chester’s Smokehouse. Maybe that will have to be a midweek thing, Because somehow I expected to go through three bags of frozen tots, and we barely ate our way through one. I think this is part of getting older.

Regardless, last night’s game was a ton of fun, and it was great to have old friends swing by to help celebrate the annual rites.