Recipe for chilaquiles

Say “chee la kee leiz”

This is a satisfying (read – not low fat) comfort food that Mexicans make sometimes several times a week because you get to use up your leftover corn tortillas. Think of it as the Mexican counterpart to fried rice – uses up the leftovers and is even better than the original food.

In a small saucepan cook three tomatoes and one pepper until the skin starts to break on the tomatoes. We like it hotter than this and really the pepper to tomato ratio depends on your family. One pepper to three tomatoes makes for a medium sauce, also depending on the size of the peppers and the size of the tomatoes. Let them sit on the stove in their water while you do the tortilla part.

Cut up 10 corn tortillas into 1” squares. Yes, they have to be the corn tortillas. Older (but not hard) tortillas work better than the fresh ones, although since mostly you guys get grocery store tortillas, they should be fine just out of the bag like that. (What can I say – nowhere close to a fresh one off of the griddle. Which is why gringos almost never like the corn tortillas)

In a good sized frying pan you're gonna fry those tortilla squares in about half an inch of oil. Yup, it will soak it all up so start with less instead of more and add more if you need to. They don't have to be so crispy as to be hard like a corn chip, just browned and kind of crispy around the edges but still soft in the middle is ok.

Once your tortillas are pretty much how you want them, leave them still on the stove on a low flame and you are going to make the sauce.

Put a half a small onion in your blender, along with your tomatoes and pepper(s) and a few ladlesful of the water they cooked in and salt to taste. Blend it all up. I put a dishcloth over the top of my blender because it could burst out if it's still really hot. You will want like half a blenderful of sauce, or even a little more. When you pour your sauce over the tortillas there should be enough to completely cover your tortillas. They should look soupy.

Let them simmer on the stove until the sauce is mostly consumed, but leave them still just a little soupy – as they cool down the tortillas will continue to absorb the sauce and they will get “drier”.

They're yummy just like that. You can serve them with a sprinkle of raw chopped onions, a sprinkle of grated cheese or a drizzle of sour cream or all three.

We eat them as a side at breakfast with scrambled eggs and refried beans (yes, beans for breakfast), or at the main meal as a side to a piece of beef, or in the evening just by themselves or again, as a side to eggs and beans.

  Note -- you can make these be green chilaquiles by substituting the little green tomatillos for the tomatoes.  Nice flavor.

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