State Fair of Texas, 2026 Big Tex Choice Awards Savory Finalist
Nachos are a fair food. Wings are a fair food. Loaded fries are a fair food.
Somebody looked at three separate menu categories and refused to pick just one.
What This Thing Actually Is
Crispy chicken wings get tossed in zesty taco seasoning, then smothered in nacho cheese. On top: cilantro, green onions, cotija cheese, tomatoes, pickled red onions, and jalapenos, the same lineup you’d expect piled onto a plate of nachos.
Then the whole thing gets set down on a bed of hot, golden fries and finished with a ranch drizzle.
Three fair food staples, nachos, wings, and loaded fries, stacked into a single order instead of three separate ones.
Cody and Lauren Hays built it.
The Part That’s Actually Funny
Fairgoers already stand in line trying to decide between the wing stand and the nacho stand and the fry truck. That’s the whole rhythm of walking a midway: pick one, keep moving, maybe circle back later for the other two.
This entry deletes the decision. It doesn’t ask you to choose between nachos, wings, and fries. It hands you all three toppings on one plate and calls the indecision a feature.
It made the cut as one of five 2026 savory finalists, out of a record 77 entries from 46 concessionaires this year. It didn’t win. Burger Chop Tater Tacos did.
Losing to a tater tot taco is not the same as losing to a bad idea. Both dishes are just chasing crunch from a different direction.
Why Texas Keeps Doing This
Everything is bigger in Texas, and here that means bigger than a single food category.
A basket of wings would have been enough. Nachos alone would have been enough.
Texas built the plate that refuses to pick a lane. A fairgoer walking past three separate booths would rather stop at the one that already combined the decision for them.
The Honest Version
The ingredients, the finalist standing, and the loss to Burger Chop Tater Tacos are all confirmed straight from the Fair’s own finalist and winner announcements.
What’s missing: any real background on Cody and Lauren Hays, how long they’ve worked the Fair, or what got them combining three fair staples into one plate this year.
Nobody covering this year’s finalists interviewed them. If a source turns up, this gets rewritten with it.
Right now, the plate is doing more explaining than the people behind it.
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