The first time I had chilaquiles was when we went on our first vacation as a married couple to Cancun Mexico! It was seriously the best vacation ever, with a total food coma for both of us! We really ate our hearts out with some of the best Mexican food flair. Chilaquile became a common breakfast every morning, and ofcourse it was authentic and the best! I slowly started looking for brunch places that serve chilaquile in the Bay Area! My favorite spots in the Bay Area for good Mexican flair are Mijita in the Ferry Market Building and Flora too! Both have amazing food, and super delicious, and it is our go to spot in the city!
I realized Chilaquile is not hard to prepare. The sauce is the main component. It can be either red or green in color, using red tomatoes or green tomatillos. Another important component is freshly fried tortilla chips, and not store bought chips! The trick is to use a few days old tortillas, and dry them out by laying them on a baking sheet, in an oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes or so and let it sit out for a bit before frying them. They will turn out nicely crisped! America’s Test Kitchen has an amazing recipe using the red tomato sauce, that I have made many a times for my family. Yes my kids love chilaquiles too! What’s not to love 🙂
I found these beautiful tomatillos at the mexican grocery store, and I had to buy these beauties to make a roasted tomatillo sauce for the chilaquile. I make the roasted tomatillo salsa in the same way, and we love it with chips and over tacos! I used fresh pasilla chile for the heat in the sauce. The sauce is so simple to make, just put all the ingredients on a baking pan, with some oil, salt and pepper. Once roasted, grind it with cilantro and your sauce is done!
I simply toss the pan fried chips in this sauce, and then you serve it with your favorite condiments, be it fried eggs, scrambled eggs, avocado, lime wedges, cojita cheese, radish – anything! It is that simple to put it all together! It does not take time if you prepare the sauce and the chips a day in advance! Brunch the next morning is a freeze! My kids devoured these green chilaquiles heartily, and it has become a regular in my home.
If you do make this recipe, please do not forget to tag #thejamlab and/or leave a comment on my blog post! I would so appreciate it!
Hope you are having a beautiful weekend thus far! I am waiting for the kids school to come to an end, so we do not have to do homework anymore! It sure can get to be a drag by the end of the school year and we all need a break from waking up so early in the morning!
Have a wonderful weekend friends!
XO
Amisha
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs tomatillos (green tomatoes) cut into quarters.
- 1 pasilla chile(remove the seeds if you do not want your sauce to be spicy)
- 1 small white onion rough chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- ¼ cup washed cilantro leaves
- 20 corn tortillas cut into six triangle pieces
- Oil to fry
- Maldon salt for the fried tortillas
- Garnish:
- ½ cup queso fresco
- ½ cup white onion finely chopped(I did not have white onion so I used red onion instead)
- ½ cup finely chopped cilantro
- ½ cup chopped green onions
- Drizzle of sour cream ( I did not put sour cream )
- Fried eggs or scrambled eggs on the top.
- Hot sauce to drizzle
Instructions
- Set the oven to broiler mode. On a small baking tray, add in tomatillos, pasilla chille roughly chopped, white onion, garlic, vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Massage it all on the baking tray with your hands. Spread it out, and keep it in the oven in the middle or lower rack to not burn it. Stir the mixture every 3 minutes of broiling. Repeat 5 times for 15 minutes. If the mixture is not charred and soft, do it for 1-2 times more. Once it is soft and charred slightly, let it cool for 15 minutes. Once cooled, put it all in a high speed blender, and blend it till smooth for a minute or so.
- In a shallow frying pan about 10 inches in diameter, add in oil about 1 ½ inches in length. On medium heat, let it heat up for 5 minutes. Test by putting a tiny bit of the tortilla and it should immediately come up. That is when you know that the oil is hot enough to fry.
- Keep a baking tray with a paper towel ready to absorb excess oil. Fry the cut triangles a few at a time till very light brown in color for 40 seconds or so on each side. Remove it from the pan and put it on the baking tray. Sprinkle with maldon salt. Repeat with the remainder of the triangles. Let it cool to crisp up.
- Now in a large mixing bowl, add in the sauce. Add all the chips and toss with hands or a large spatula to roughly coat all the chips. Plate it on a platter. Garnish with the queso fresco, white onion, green onion, cilantro, sour cream drizzle if you want. Top it off with fried eggs or scrambled eggs!
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