Homemade Mexican Chilaquiles
This has been one of my most requested recipes lately – so we’re going to deliver! A homemade Mexican dish with rich traditional red sauce to pour over crispy tortillas and topped with a fried egg. You can have this dish any time of the day!
For those of you who have no idea what this recipe is, ’cause I was there once (heck, I couldn’t even say the word for a long time), it’s soft of like Mexican nachos mixed with huevos rancheros.
Let’s Start This Deal – Prepare the Sauce
To get started, I’ve invited some of my special friends over – chili cascavel, dried ancho chili, guajillo chilis, chili de arbol. I’m just using 1 chili de arbol, but if you don’t like the heat, leave it out. I love using dried Mexican peppers because they add so much flavor. You can find them in bags at the grocery store or you can check Amazon too.
I’m going take those dried peppers, slit ‘em, take the stems and seeds out, except for chili de arbol. Then preheat the skillet until it gets to smoking, then turn it off and add the peppers and garlic. We just want to toast them to bring out more flavor. Give them a stir around and then let them set in the skillet while you prep the sauce.
Toast the peppers and garlic to bring out the flavor.
Add 4 cored roma tomatoes to a pot of boiling water. Then turn the heat off. Toss in the onions, garlic and all the peppers and let it sit for 15 minutes and until those peppers soften.
Steam the roma tomatoes, onions, peppers and garlic until they get soft.
You’re not boiling them at this point because your heat is off – you just want them to sit in that water to soften.
Strain the tomatoes out and slice them in half and add to a blender. Strain the remaining ingredients in the pot and add to the blender. Give it a good blending.
Be sure to reserve about 1 cup of the broth because we’ll use it later.
Tortillas
Add about 3 tablespoons of corn oil to a large cast iron skillet and heat over medium-high heat.
We’ve got 8 (8 to 10-inch) flour tortillas that we laid out last night and let them set on the counter. That way they will crisp up faster. If you want to really impress you can make homemade tortillas: here’s how you can do it.
Cut your tortillas to the bite size you like.
Cut them up and add about half to the skillet. Toss them around until they get toasted and a light golden brown. Remove from the skillet and place on a paper towel, repeat with the remaining tortillas.
Set the tortillas aside while you will be cooking the red sauce.
The tortillas are going to start browning pretty fast, so make sure to shuffle them around all the time to make sure everyone gets evenly toasted.
Cooking the Sauce
Pour the sauce that you’ve blended into the skillet and we’ll need to warm it. It’s going to thicken as we cook it so I like to add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the reserved broth to it.
Cook it over medium/medium low heat until you get a little bubble and simmer. Make sure to constantly stir it ’cause we don’t want it to burn.
We’re gonna let the sauce simmer a little.
After simmering it for about 5 minutes, set it aside, ’cause we’re going to fry us some cackle berries.
Grease a skillet well and heat to medium and crack the eggs in. You can cook your eggs however you see fit, I like mine over easy or over medium because you want some of that good egg goo when you put a fork through them.
Fry some eggs over easy.
Let’s Mix the Chilaquiles Together
Get that sauce back on the fire and make sure it’s still warm. Toss in the tortillas and mix to coat well. Now, if you don’t like the sauce that thick, stir in a little more of that broth. But we don’t want this soupy because that sauce needs to stick to the chips without being soggy.
Mix the tortillas with the sauce and make sure each one is well basted.
I like to top the chips with some queso fresco, but you can use whatever cheese you like. Top with your fried cackle berries and then some sliced avocado. Doesn’t that look like such a colorful dish!
Add some cheese, the eggs and avocado on top.
So, folks, we hope you enjoy this traditional dish and share with friends and family.
Below, is our how-to video to see how we whip these up in camp. ¡Buen provecho!
Enjoy the Chilaquiles!
Chilaquiles - Cowboy Kent Rollins
Ingredients
- 3 dried Chili cascavel stemmed and seeded
- 3 dried Ancho chili stemmed and seeded
- 3 dried Guajillo chili stemmed and seeded
- 3 garlic cloves
- 4 Roma tomatoes cored
- 1 white onion sliced
- 1 to 2 Chile de arbol optional
- 3 tablespoons corn oil
- 8 (8 to 10-incflour tortillas dried
- 3 to 4 large eggs
- Queso fresco cheese crumbled for serving
- Avocado sliced for serving
Instructions
- Place a large cast iron skillet over high heat and heat to smoking then turn off. Add the chilies (except the chile de arbol the skillet with the garlic. Press the peppers down slightly to toast and stir. Leave in the skillet to toast slightly and release the flavors, about 5 minutes.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the tomatoes, onion, contents of the skillet and the chile de arbol to the pot, if using for more spice. Turn the heat off and let the contents sit for 15 minutes, until the peppers softened.
- Strain the tomatoes out and cut in half. Place in a blender. Strain the remaining ingredients out of the pot and place in the blender. Reserve 1 cup of the broth to use later. Blend the contents until smooth.
- In a large cast iron skillet, heat the corn oil over medium to medium high heat.
- Be sure you leave the tortillas out on the counter overnight so they can dry out, which will allow them to crisp up faster when frying. Cut the tortillas into chips sizes. Add the chips to the skillet and toss to lightly coast with the oil. Continue cooking until the chips have evenly toasted, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes. Remove the tortillas and place on a paper towel and set aside.
- Return to the skillet and pour the red sauce in to it. Stir in ¼ to ½ cup of the reserved broth and cook over medium heat until it comes to a hard simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and place in a warm spot.
- Grease a medium skillet and add the eggs. Cook over medium heat until they are over-easy to over medium. Set aside.
- Toss the tortillas chips into the skillet with the red sauce until evenly coated. If the sauce is too thick add a little more of the reserved broth, but you don’t want the sauce to be too soupy. Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes, don’t overcook to where the chips get soggy.
- Top the chips with Queso Fresco, the fried eggs and sliced avocados. Serve immediately.
