When you’ve grown up with nachos as a frequent snack, it’s not easy to forego them when those darn corn chips are just loaded with carbohydrates. Finding a good substitute for corn in recipes isn’t easy, no matter what you do. But I have found a work around when it comes to corn chips and nachos. This isn’t a recipe, but really just a quick substitution… use chicarrones (pork rinds or bacon curls) in place of the corn chips. I know I’m not the first person to stumble on this but I wanted to share it with anyone else who might be looking for a way to have your gooey cheese and salsa without blowing the carbs!

I tried it with melting the cheese over the pork rinds, then putting the salsa on top and that works if you eat quickly otherwise the rinds get mushy. My preferred method, as pictured above, it to put the salsa and a dollop of guacamole in a separate container and dip the rinds. I still melted the cheese on the rinds by covering them with cheese and popping them in the microwave for about 25 seconds, give or take a few. Just watch until you see the cheese melting, then take them out.

I used Lowry’s Microwave Pork Rinds (hot & spicy) for this batch and they worked wonderfully. Just cook them as directed, then pour the hot rinds onto a plate, cover with cheese and zap them back in the microwave until the cheese melts. One tip if you are not familiar with the microwave rinds, they look hard as a brick if you under-cook them, small hard pieces of pork that you think you’ve ruined. It takes up to two minutes to puff them up and those little bricks have not reached the puffed stage yet. I threw away three or four packets thinking they were bad.

If you don’t want to use the microwave variety, there are several brands of chicaronnes on the market, including Bacon-ets, Guerrero and Kroger. I think Kroger has one of the best ones I’ve tasted, but the Guerrero are right behind. They are crunchier and may hold up to salsa being splashed on the top better.

So, try a plate and even if it isn’t corn chips, it’s still a tasty nacho treat and – the best part – it’s really low carb’d at less than 1 carb for the pork rinds, less than 1 carb for cheese and around 2 carbs for the salsa. Happy snacking!

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 11/14/2012 5:19 PM