Football Food: Tortilla Chips, Salsa, Guacamole and Queso

During the 2011 season we started this series so that the community would have a place to talk about something that is near and dear to all of us on each and every college football Saturday. Food. Whether you are having a get together at your house, tailgating, or watching the game at your favorite watering hole chances are high that you are going to want some good food.

I wanted to kick the 2013 Football Food series off by recycling this recipe from 2011 for two primary reasons. One chips and dips are easy to incorporate into any college football gathering. Two, these recipes will re-appear in later installments from me as they are a great compliment to multiple main courses.

Going forward our hope is that you, the commentariat, will participate in submitting your recipes to us to share with the rest of the community. More on that at the bottom.

Without further ado let's get to this one. Be sure to have plenty of your favorite tortilla chips on hand before you get started here. If you really want to be a baller order some Julio's Tortilla Chips. The nice folks at Julio's will send them to you in the mail!

Now for the dips.

Salsa

Salsa is the old tortilla chip standby. This recipe stands alone and is also an ingredient in the next two recipes. Hence, it is the cornerstone of all the goodness I am about to expose you to. There are a million versions of salsa out there but I am a firm believer that any prepackaged salsa that you can buy at the grocery store is inadequate for human consumption. I have played around with assorted salsa recipes and found this one to be the best. As an added bonus this recipe is quick, easy and primarily utilizes prepackaged ingredients.

Ingredients

1/4 medium sized white onion

2 oz diced Hot green chiles (these come in little 4oz cans)

2 oz diced Hot jalapenos (these come in little 4oz cans)

1 garlic clove

1 can Original RoTel

1 14.5 oz can steamed and peeled tomatoes

1 pinch sugar

Directions

Throw the onion, green chiles, jalapenos, and garlic clove into a food processor and puree. If you don't have a food processor a blender works too it just takes a little longer. Once the puree is done add a pinch of sugar to take the edge off and puree it for another couple of seconds. We want this salsa to be relatively smooth not chunky.

Add all of the Tomatoes and RoTel. Puree until all of the lumps are gone. This is going to give you a nice smooth texture with great flavor and medium heat. For a heat reference I have young kids and they crush this stuff. To adjust the heat simply adjust the amount of the green chiles and jalapenos that you use in the initial puree.

Once this salsa is done it will keep in your refrigerator for a couple of weeks. The preservatives in the prepackaged ingredients come in handy there.

Guacamole

This one is all about the avocados. If you live in SoCal you are in business. If not you might have to cough up a couple of bucks a piece at an upscale grocery store. Even if that's the case it is worth it.

Ingredients

4 medium sized avocados

1 heaping tablespoon of Miracle Whip OR Sour Cream OR Plain Yogurt (Pick your flavor).

4-5 heaping tablespoons of the salsa mentioned above

1 splash lemon juice

Salt to taste

1 whole beefsteak tomato

Directions

Cut the 4 avocados in half, remove the pits and scoop out the meat. Save the pits! More on that in a minute. Put the meat of the avocado in your food processor with the scoop of Miracle Whip/ Sour Cream/ Plain Yogurt. These three ingredients all add a little volume and give you a creamy texture. All three obviously give you a slightly different slant on the flavor. I prefer Miracle Whip, the wife prefers Sour Cream, we often compromise with Plain Yogurt. Run your food processor until this mixture has a relatively smooth texture.

Add in the salsa, a splash of lemon juice and salt to taste. Don't go too big on the salt, you can always add more later. Run the food processor for another few seconds to mix the everything together evenly.

Your guacamole is all but finished at this point and can be served as is. I like to take the additional step of dicing a tomato and mixing that in with the guacamole after moving the guacamole from the food processor into a bowl. The tomato will add some more volume and an added complimentary taste. Once your guacamole is done, take those avocado pits that you saved, put them in the bowl with the guacamole and just push them to the bottom with a spoon. The pits will keep your guacamole green and fresh for a couple of days. This gives you the option of making it the night prior and packing it up on Saturday morning to take to your tailgate.

Hearty Queso

This is not your average cheese dip. Chunky Soup stole their tagline from this concoction as it definitely eats like a meal. Just be sure to have plenty of people around when you whip up a batch of this stuff because you won't be able to peel yourself away from it until it is all gone.

Ingredients

Velveeta (Standard 16oz package)

1 Can RoTel

4-5 Heaping Tablespoons of the salsa above

1lb hamburger meat

2 oz taco seasoning

1 white onion

2 oz Milk

Directions

Bust out your crock pot and put a splash of milk in the bottom. 2 oz is a rough swag for the splash. This will help the initial cheese melt down. Cut the Velveeta into cubes and dump it in the crock pot. Dump the can of RoTel on top and turn the crock pot up on high. Stir this periodically as the Velveeta melts.

While that is melting down dice the white onion and set it to the side. Brown the hamburger meat and add in the taco seasoning. When the hamburger meat is almost done mix in the white onion and cook it in until the onions start to get translucent and soft. When it is done drain the hamburger to taste and set it to the side. The onion and the taco seasoning give this hamburger meat some serious flavor.

Once your Velveeta is fully melted and hot add the salsa and stir that in. This will give you a little extra kick. To keep it closer to the mild side forego the salsa addition. Finally double check that the Velveeta is completely melted and stir in the hamburger meat.

*The onion, taco seasoning and salsa are all optional. They add great flavor with relatively minimal spice, but if you are a milder type or walk around all the time with a bottle of Tums you might want to tone these three ingredients down a bit.

So there you have it. Tortilla chips and dips. The better the tortilla chips the better all of this stuff tastes, but all three of these recipes are good enough to make even the average Tostito a hit. Enjoy!

**If you have a recipe that you want to share with the rest of the community at some point this season email me the recipe with a photo. It will have to be a photo that you took and give us permission to use!