Yield: Serves 8 | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes
What makes a nacho cheese chip so good? Is it the color? The orange powder that packs a punch of flavor, or that triangle shape? I would argue it’s all of that. I did my fair share of salty snack eating and chip designing when I worked at gravitytank, an innovation consulting firm. I was a culinary designer, so my job was to come up with new snack ideas for companies, large and small, and create edible prototypes of these concepts for people to taste. You’d think by now I would have had enough! But when given the opportunity to try these cheesy chips on top of a ground beef skillet casserole it was too tempting not to, and I am sure glad that I did.
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces rigatoni
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (1-ounce) packet taco seasoning
1 onion, diced
1 cup canned whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup prepared salsa
½ cup water
1 (15.5-ounce) bag nacho cheese chips, all but ½ cup crushed
1½ cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly coat a 9 × 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the rigatoni and the salt, and cook until al dente. Drain and reserve.
3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, add the beef and the taco seasoning, and cook for 4 minutes. Stir in the onion and continue to cook for another 3 minutes, until the meat is completely cooked. Add the corn, salsa, and water and continue to cook until hot and bubbling. Add the cooked rigatoni and remove from heat.
4. Set aside ½ cup of the uncrushed chips, then spread about half of the remaining chips in the bottom of the baking dish and top with half of the meat mixture. Add half of the cheese. Repeat with the remaining crushed chips, meat mixture, and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes to heat through and melt the cheese. Sprinkle the reserved uncrushed chips over the top and serve.