Chilaquiles

Mother’s Day in our family is always celebrated with a homemade breakfast. That’s been the tradition since I’ve been old enough to make scrambled eggs. Every year, I try to create something new and unique and this Mother’s Day I’ve decided to do a Cinco de Mayo inspired breakfast and give chilaquiles a try. Chilaquiles are a traditional Mexican dish of fried tortillas covered in chile sauce. They’re often topped with eggs and queso fresco (one of my favorite cheeses) and Mexican creama. There are so many different varieties and if you want the low-down on all the different types check Yes, More Please’s recipe (which I used here, slightly adapted). Chilaquiles are so simple and delicious but take quite a bit of prep work to make the red and green sauce and fry the tortillas. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t go through so much work for breakfast but for a special occasion like Mother’s Day this is the perfect dish. You can prep the sauces the night before as well and heat them up so that all you need to do is fry the tortillas and eggs in the morning. Serve these immediately after saucing for the perfect tortilla texture. If you wait too long, the tortillas will get too soggy.

CHILAQUILES

Chilaquiles ingredients:

• 12 corn tortillas
• grapeseed oil for frying (enough to cover the bottom of a pan with about 1/3 inch of oil)
• eggs
• queso fresco
• Mexican crema
• red onions, thinly sliced

Red sauce ingredients:

• 4 tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 a white onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 8 dry chiles de Arbol
• 6 dry chiles Guajillos
• sea or kosher salt

Green sauce ingredients:

• 1 pound of tomatillos, husks removed and washed
• 1/2 a white onion
• 4 serrano chiles, deseeded
• 1 small bunch of cilantro
• sea or kosher salt

Red sauce directions:

• Toast the chiles on a pan over medium heat so that they start to become pliable, but careful not to burn them. Add the chiles, tomatoes and onion to a pot of water and fill with water so the water just covers the tomatoes.
• Bring to a boil and simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Remove the ingredients with a slotted spoon and split the chile with your fingers and remove the seeds and stems.
• Add ingredients to a blender and add the garlic cloves, a cup of the reserved water and a teaspoon of salt and blend until smooth.
• Add more water if needed. The consistency should be thick but runny so that it easily coats the fried tortillas. Add more salt if needed.

Green sauce directions:

• Cover the tomatillos, chiles, onion, cilantro with water so the water barely covers the ingredients.
• Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the ingredients with a slotted spoon.
• Add ingredients to a blender and a teaspoon of salt and blend until smooth. Add the reserved boiling liquid a little at a time if necessary so that the sauce is thick but runny. Add more salt if needed.

Chilaquiles directions:

• Cut the tortillas into wedges. Heat the grapeseed oil in a sautee pan over medium high heat and fry the tortillas a few at a time in one layer for a few seconds on each side until golden brown. Keep frying in batches and lower the heat if the tortillas brown too fast.
• Remove the tortillas to a paper towel lined tray.
• Add a handful of fried tortillas to a plate and pour the red or green sauce over the tortillas.
• Add a fried egg over the tortillas.
• Crumble queso freso over the egg and drizzle crema over the egg.
• Add a few slices of thinly sliced red onion

(images by HonestlyYUM)