Heather in Paradise

Chilaquiles is a traditional Mexican dish invented to make use of leftovers, consisting of fried tortillas or tortilla chips with sauce (red or green), and either chicken or eggs (fried or scrambled) added. Mexican cooks are genius for coming up with ways to avoid wasting food and in my opinion, the “leftover” dishes are often better than their original incarnation. I have eaten chilaquiles in restaurants countless times, in many different variations, but I had never made them at home.

This dish tends to be considered a breakfast dish, and many Mexicans I have met insist that it is great for curing hangovers. I’m such a glutton that I eat it even when I’m not hungover.

I had a bunch of leftover corn tortillas and sundry other ingredients so I decided to try my hand at making chilaquiles this morning, with excellent results. I was so happy with them, in fact, I’m going to try to give you the recipe. Please bear in mind that I am one of those people who does not follow recipes, so the amounts won’t be exact, but this is so simple that you cannot screw it up. Trust me.

I didn’t take a picture of them, I was too busy scarfing, but this photo on View from the Couch is sort of similar to how mine looked.  Except mine were way more fattening and yummy-looking, of course.

Chipotle Chilaquiles with Fried Eggs

For 2 people who don’t eat huge breakfasts

Ingredients:

• 1-2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce (I used just one big one and 2 spoons of the adobo sauce and it was perfectly spicy)
• 2 cloves of garlic (or so)
• Chopped onion (some, not much…like 1 thick-ish slice of a medium onion)
• Can of tomatoes or tomato sauce (I used about 12 oz of seasoned tomato sauce)
• 1 cup or so of water
• 1 TBS. Chicken bouillon granules (could substitute veggie granules or leave out entirely)
• 2-3 TBS. of some cooking oil (I used Canola)
• 4-5 slightly stale corn tortillas, cut or torn into pieces (I cut mine into neat, 2” long strips, but I am Virgo so do whatever roasts your toast)
• 2 or 4 Large eggs (I just used 2)
  
• Salt and Pepper
• Media-Crema, grated cheese (queso fresco preferably, but I only had cheddar), green onions for garnish

1. Puree the chipotle/adobo sauce, garlic, chopped onion, tomatoes or tomato sauce, water and bouillon granules in a blender until relatively smooth. I added water to taste to get the right “heat” level from the chiles. Pour into a sauce pan and cook on med heat until it boils, then turn it down to simmer on low.
2. As the sauce is heating up, heat cooking oil in a skillet until hot, then add the tortilla strips. Fry these, turning often, until fairly crispy. Just before they’re at the consistency you want, fry your eggs in butter, sunnyside up, in another skillet. When the bottoms are set, take a tablespoon of the hot chipotle/tomato sauce and put it on top of the eggs to cook the tops/yolks.
   
3. Add some sauce to the crispy tortillas, you want them to be coated but not to get soggy. You will have a lot of sauce leftover, which is good, because you are going to want to eat this every single day for the rest of your life.
4. Stir the sauce into the tortillas and then plate them right away. Top with a fried egg, sprinkle with pepper and salt, drizzle with crema (or slightly thinned sour cream), and sprinkle with grated cheese and minced green onions (cilantro is a nice touch, too, but I didn’t have any). Good sides include refried beans and bacon. Unless you are all crazy and don’t eat bacon. Which is a gift from God. And He doesn’t like it when you scorn His gifts.

OMFG it was good, y’all.