Photo by Fernanda Alvarez In Mexico, When you have corn tortillas that are starting to get a little stale, you make chilaquiles.
Basically, chilaquiles are baked or fried crunchy tortillas, drenched in spicy salsa – but just enough salsa so that the tortilla remains crispy. No soggy tortillas allowed!
We eat them a lot during breakfast but also at any time of the day because it’s an easy and quick recipe that a Mexican kitchen always has the ingredients for.
Plain chilaquiles are not made with a protein, but it is common to eat them with chicken, or egg – sunny side up or scrambled. But you can really add anything to the chilaquiles, you can even have chilaquiles with carnitas, pork, or even shrimp.
This recipe is for chilaquiles verdes, or green chilaquiles – with a tomatillo sauce. There are also chilaquiles rojos, or red chilaquiles, which are made with chipotle sauce or chile de arbol.
Ingredients
- Salsa Verde
- 8 medium tomatillos
- 2 jalapeño chiles seeded and devained
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- Chilaquiles
- 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
- 12 inch corn tortillas
- 1/2 cup queso frecso crumbled
- 3 tablespoons red onion finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro finely chopped
- Crema fresca or sour cream to garnish
Directions
- Put the tomatillos, chile, onion, garlic and salt in a medium pot and add water to cover all the ingredients. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the vegetables are soft and the tomatillos turn pale green, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool.
- Carefully transfer the boiled vegetables, along with the cooking water, to a blender. Puree for a few seconds; be sure to hold down the lid with a kitchen towel for safety since the water will be hot. This should yield about 1 cups of salsa verde.
- Place a wide pot or pan over medium-high heat and coat with 2 teaspoons oil for three minutes until the oil heats up. Pour in the salsa verde and reduce heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, for 10 to 15 minutes. Cover and reduce the heat to the lowest setting on your stove.
- Pour the vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed pot to a depth of about 2 inches over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. The oil must be very hot before you fry the tortillas.
- While the oil heats, stack the tortillas together and cut them into 8 wedges, like a pie.
- Working in batches, fry the tortilla chips, turning them with a skimmer or slotted spoon so they don't stick together. Fry until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the chips to a paper towel-lined baking pan to drain the excess oil and to allow them to cool.
- Serve the fried tortillas on a plate and top with 4 teaspoons salsa verde. Sprinkle with queso fresco, sliced onions, cilantro and sour cream, and serve immediately.
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