Irish nachos with homemade beer cheese is the ultimate St. Patrick's Day recipe! This delightfully messy party food features baked potato slices, corned beef and a creamy homemade beer cheese. The nachos are then topped with jalapeños, tomatoes, and thousand island dressing.
Irish Nachos with Homemade Beer Cheese Recipe
Oh yes, I am SO TOTALLY going there. Happily so. Today, we're serving up nachos made in the spirit of the Irish. It's a nod toward the typical nachos you might find at your favorite pub, but we're swapping out some ingredients and subbing in others for something that is decadent and crazy delicious.
Don't get me wrong - this is pub fare at it's finest, so don't go thinking you'll be serving up fine dining here. Forget the candles, OK? Or hey, perhaps this COULD make for a wonderful date night meal. I won't judge! Regardless, it's AWESOME. What we have is a base of seasoned and baked potato slices instead of tortilla chips. Our meat is cubed corned beef instead of taco meat.
Ingredients for Irish Nachos and Beer Cheese Sauce
- Yellow Potatoes
- Olive Oil
- Granulated Garlic
- Cracked Black Pepper
- Paprika (or Cajun seasoning)
- Cooked and Cubed Corned Beef
For the beer cheese sauce:
- Butter
- Flour
- Guinness Blonde Beer
- Cream Cheese
- Shredded White Cheddar Cheese
For serving:
- Jalapeños
- Tomato
- Green Onions
- Homemade Thousand Island Dressing
How to Make Irish Nachos
First! Slice the potatoes very thin to about 1/8 inch. Toss them in a bowl with olive oil, granulated garlic, black pepper and paprika. Feel free to vary up the seasonings to your personal tastes.
Bake them at 350°F until they just start to crisp up and the edges brown, about 15 minutes or so, perhaps a bit longer. Just keep an eye on them.
When they are done, layer them on a small baking sheet, and top them with your cubed corned beef, like so.
Next, make your crazy awesome cheese sauce.
Basically, melt the butter and make a roux with flour. Brown that a bit, then swirl in your beer. I used Guinness Blonde for this, which worked perfectly, though can use other beer to your preference.
Swirl in your cream cheese and shredded Irish cheddar cheese and what you have is a super creamy DELISH cheese sauce. Yeah. SO GOOD.
Truly. I mean, you see this, right?
Drizzle the cheese over the top of your Irish Nachos, like so.
Drizzle Drizzle! Just keep drizzling it around. Use as much as you'd like. If you have leftover cheese, save it in a container in the fridge and use it later as a dip or a base for something else.
At the end, it should look something like this...
Dang, I could almost eat this the way it is right now.
But wait! It gets even better.
Toss on a bit more shredded Irish cheddar cheese. Oh yes!
Now! Bake this up about 10 minutes at 350°F to warm it up just right.
Oh baby. Then! Top it off with diced jalapeno peppers, diced tomato, green onion and then drizzle on your homemade thousand island dressing. Of course you can use a store bought brand, but I can guarantee it won't be as good.
Here you go. I want to dig in again so bad. Bummer! I will make this again very soon. Please let me know how it turns out for you!
I hope you enjoy it.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Feel free to use leftovers. You can totally use leftover corned beef, which is what we did from our Corned Beef Tacos Recipe. Leftovers rule!
- Use homemade dressing. Yes, you can use store-bought if you're in a pinch. However, using your very own Homemade Thousand Island Dressing is SO satisfying. Truly, I can't even. I just... want... more of this.
- Enjoy it fresh. These Irish nachos don't stay fresh for long, so don't try to make them ahead of time or store for later. Dig in, enjoy, and pair them with a Guinness this St. Patrick's Day. Cheers!
Try Some of My Other Popular Nacho Recipes
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #ChiliPepperMadness on Instagram so we can take a look. I always love to see all of your spicy inspirations. Thanks! -- Mike H.
Irish Nachos with Homemade Beer Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 pound yellow potatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil + more as needed
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika – Or use a nice blend of your favorite Cajun seasonings
- 1 pound cooked corned beef cubed
FOR THE CHEESE
- ½ stick butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 8 ounces Guinness Blonde beer
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- 8 ounces shredded white cheddar cheese – bonus points for a good Irish cheddar
FOR SERVING
- 2 jalapeno peppers diced
- 1 medium firm tomato diced
- Chopped green onion
- Homemade Thousand Island Dressing for serving
Instructions
- Slice the potatoes to 1/8 inch slices. I used a mandolin. Add them to a large bowl and toss them with olive oil, garlic, black pepper and paprika or Cajun seasonings.
- Set them onto baking sheets and bake them for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees, or until they are nicely browned. Remove from heat and layer them together onto a small baking sheet.
- Make your cheese by melting the butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the flour and stir. Cook for 10 minutes while continually stirring, until the roux begins to brown a bit.
- Stir in the Guinness Blonde beer, still stirring continually, until the mixture thickens a bit, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the cream cheese until melted.
- Stir in most of the shredded cheddar cheese a bit at a time, continually stirring, until it melts through and becomes an AMAZING CHEESE SAUCE. Reserve a bit for later.
- Next, spread the cooked corned beef over the layered potatoes, then drizzle with the awesome beer cheese. Sprinkle on the remaining shredded cheese.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- Remove from the oven and top with jalapeno, tomato, green onion, and your Homemade Thousand Island Dressing as desired. So good!
Notes
Nutrition Information
Susan says
What a great idea! Sounds delicious! I know what I'm doing with our leftover corned beef next week! Thanks for sharing!