Thai Chicken Nachos

Who would imagine that something crazy sounding like Thai Chicken Nachos was SO good? This is kind of a wacky sounding dish... but I had this recently at a California bar during happy hour while on vacation.  I wasn't sure we should order it, but when it arrived I could not believe how good it was.  All those amazing Thai flavors on top of nachos... amazingly good!

It is so simple, I consider this more of assembly instructions than actual cooking instructions.  Nevertheless, I have given you a recipe for the chicken if you want to do it the way I did, but you could easily use some leftover cooked chicken breasts, or shredded rotisserie chicken.

I've added a couple things to the original dish that I had, and I would recommend that you add, and subtract, things that you like, and what you have.  I think that bean sprouts would also be good on this, but I didn't have any on hand, so I skipped it.  I used some black and white sesame seeds on mine, but any sesame seeds would be tasty. I would suggest plain tortilla chips so that the seasoning doesn't compete with the topping flavors.

Serves about 4
Ingredients:
1-2 chicken breasts, pre-cooked and thinly sliced (idea for marinade below)
Tortilla chips, about 1/2 bag
1-2 Green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/4 Red Bell Pepper, cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 cup English or Persian cucumbers, cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 jalapeno, minced
10-15 Cilantro sprigs
2-3 Tbsp Chopped peanuts
1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds, toasted
8 oz. cheese, Mexican blend or Pepper Jack

Sauce:
1/4 cup Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Sriracha, for serving

Chop your veggies and set aside.  Grate cheese and set aside.  Combine sauce ingredients in a small , and reduce a bit to get back to the original consistency of the chili sauce and keep warm over low heat. 

Toast sesame seeds and chopped peanuts briefly under the broiler, keep on eye on these, they burn quickly. Heat chicken briefly in the microwave if using leftover chicken, otherwise, grill chicken and slice in thin 1/4" slices.

On a large oven proof platter, add your tortilla's and cheese, being sure to get cheese on most of the chips.  Pleace platter under broiler and melt cheese.  Immediately remove and top with the following:

1. Chicken
2. Veggies, sprinkled throughout
3. Warm sauce drizzled over entire dish.  Don''t drench them with sauce, just a little drizzle on each one.
4. Top with cilantro sprigs, sesame seeds and peanuts and serve!

Chicken Marinade:
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 Tbsp. chili garlic paste
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sesame oil.

Pound the chicken to uniform thickness, about 1/2" thick.  In a ziploc bag, add the chicken and the ingredients for the marinade.  Let sit about 1 hour, but longer should be okay too.  Grill until cooked, but take care to not over cook the chicken as it's best to have the chicken moist.

Here's a close up of the finished dish!