National Nachos Day: Build a Nacho Bar for a Crowd

National Nachos Day is November 6. My first question for a nacho bar is who gets the chip with all the good stuff on it. Give everyone a little plate and suddenly that’s a decision each person gets to make for themselves.

What is National Nachos Day?

National Nachos Day on November 6 celebrates the crunchy, cheesy dish made for sharing. It is a fine excuse to turn a few favorite toppings into a build-your-own snack or a pretend restaurant game.

The cook behind the name

Nachos are named for Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, who is credited with creating the dish in Piedras Negras, Mexico, in 1943. The early combination of tortilla chips, cheese, and jalapeños grew into a dish with countless variations. Its story begins with making something appealing from a small set of ingredients. Google’s Ignacio Anaya García tribute.

A simple way to enjoy the day

Keep your topping lineup short and offer heat separately. Let each person build a small portion and give it a menu name. Beans, vegetables, and different cheeses make it easy to compare combinations.

Holiday dates for planning

National Nachos Day date reference

How many chips and toppings do you need?

For snack plates, I’d start with 2 ounces of tortilla chips and 2 ounces of warm queso per person. That’s 20 ounces of each for ten people, or 40 ounces of each for twenty. Multiply by the number of guests and round up to whole packages. For dinner, add beans or another filling and allow for seconds.

Give people room to scoop. Put plates and chips first, warm beans and queso next, then small bowls of salsa, corn or sliced olives. Keep jalapeños at the very end with their own spoon. Have an adult handle hot bowls. Put a handful of chips on each plate at a time so the last bite still crunches.

Play the last-chip challenge

Set aside about 15 minutes. Draw a card from the printable and build a small plate to match. For “Three Colors,” somebody might choose black beans, yellow corn and red salsa. For “The Last Chip,” choose exactly one chip and build the bite you’d save until the end.

Give everyone a vote for one topping to bring back next time. Let the cook who used it describe their combination before you count the votes. If you’re playing with kids who like plain chips, let them be crunch judges. A person can have very strong opinions about a tortilla chip.

Free printable activity sheets

The Nacho Bar Activity Sheets set comes with three pages: set up the nacho bar, nacho challenge cards and the topping tally. Print the challenge cards once and a tally for the whole group.