Bottom Line: The Chile Verde sauce adds a nice twist with a bit of kick to the already familiar flavors of Taco Bell’s loaded Nacho Fries.
Big news! Taco Bell has a brand new item on its menu! It is unlike anything you have ever seen from the chain and it is sure to have people lining up around the block to try it and . . . well . . . okay . . . you’re probably not believing a word I am saying anyway. Yes, the Bell has a new item on the menu, but “new” is always a relative term with those guys.
The Chile Verde Nacho Fries are made up of a remix of items you have had before:
Nacho Fries: Some of the best fries in the drive thru and Taco Bell needs to put them on the permanent menu.
Steak or chicken or black beans: All good choices for your protein.
Nacho cheese sauce: Nothing fancy, but still good.
Three cheese blend: The more cheese the better.
Reduced-fat sour cream: Completely unnecessary and feel free to have them leave it off.
Fiesta Strips: Now this is something different and rather good.
Chile Verde sauce: This is what the “new” is all about, so read on.
Since you have probably had some variation of the combination above if you have ordered one of their loaded Nacho Fries meals, this all comes down to the Chile Verde sauce and whether that makes it worth the effort. For those who don’t know, Verde is Spanish for green and the “chili” in the name refers to chili peppers (though they go with the chile spelling, more on that here). It is a sauce that includes jalapenos, lime, and “zesty herbs”.
The sauce has a nice creaminess with some citrusy tang and hints of cilantro. Some don’t care for that herb, but I believe they will still find this sauce tolerable as the flavor does not dominate. It is a nice change of pace from some of their tangier sauces, and I believe it would go really well with some of their breakfast selection. They were quite generous with the sauce in my order and it worked well with the other ingredients, though the sour cream was overkill (I forgot to ask them to leave that off). It brings some heat, maybe a little above the Mild level on my scale, but nothing like the bolder sauces they have put out lately such as the Yellowbird sauce or the White Hot Ranch.
I got chicken as my protein and that was tender and well-seasoned but it ultimately got lost in the mix. I see why they push the steak with these loaded fries because it stands out better. Those Fiesta Strips are seasoned nicely and bring some crunch with a bit of a kick, but there were far too few of them. I added jalapenos (for an extra charge), and that bumped the heat up to a little above Medium. It would have been better if they diced the jalapenos so that would distribute more evenly across the dish, but that’s just a nitpick.
Calorie-wise, this totals up to 540 cals (the steak version adds 10 more) which is not bad for the drive thru. But you know that you are probably going to add at least one taco to your order (170 cals) if not a second. The order of fries is pretty filling by itself, but this is a fast food joint and you are always tempted to pile on while looking at all the tasty choices on the menu. The Enchirito is also back (for a limited time of course), but that adds 350 cals. (You can read my review of that one here.) Tread wisely with your additions lest you spend extra time on the treadmill.
The Chile Verde Fries are around for the dreaded limited-time-only duration, so get them while you can. Taco Bell is also notorious for running out of ingredients, so don’t be surprised if you pull up and they tell you they don’t have them. If you are driving by, they are worth picking up, but you already know the basic blueprint. And I expect these will be gone by the end of June because that is when the Volcano Menu is scheduled to return (more on that here).
Nutrition Info:
Calories: 540
Fat: 33g (5g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 10g
Carbs: 50g
Sodium: 1080mg