Fried Tortilla Chips in Green Salsa with Crumbled Cheese (Chilaquiles)
Rick Stein's recipe for classic Chilaquiles, as seen on his BBC series, The Road to Mexico, is a brilliant brunch dish of fried tortilla, egg and salsa.
From the book
Rick Stein: The Road to Mexico
Classic dishes you'll fall in love with
All the recipes from Rick's TV series
Learn to make authentic Mexican food
Introduction
I doubt whether you would ever find a breakfast buffet in Mexico that didn’t contain chilaquiles. The reason is quite simple. They’re a perfect way of using up stale tortillas, which are cut into triangles, then fried or baked and known as totopos. Basic chilaquiles are then simmered with either salsa verde or salsa roja until they start to soften, but it’s important to serve them while still partly crisp. This recipe is for the green-sauce version, with a fried egg, some crumbled cheese and a little soured cream and chopped coriander. It would be normal and scrumptious to add a spoonful or two of refried beans as well.
Ingredients
| ¼ | onion, chopped |
| 1½ | green serrano or jalapeño chillies, stems removed, halved |
| 2 | cloves of garlic, chopped |
| 125ml | chicken stock or water |
| 380g | tin tomatillos |
| 2 tbsp | corn oil |
| ½ tsp | salt |
| 300ml | corn or vegetable oil, for frying |
| 12 x 15cm | corn tortillas, each cut into 8 wedges |
| 4 | eggs |
| 75g | Lancashire or feta cheese, crumbled |
| 1 | shallot, finely sliced |
| 1 tbsp | roughly chopped coriander |
| 4 tbsp | soured cream |
Essential kit
You will need: a blender.
Method
Put the onion, chillies, garlic, stock and tomatillos in a blender and blitz to make a sauce. Heat the 2 tablespoons of corn oil in a saucepan, add the sauce, then season to taste with salt and simmer for 5 minutes. Cook the sauce for longer if it’s too watery to reduce it a little, or add more stock if it’s too thick.
Next, heat the 300ml of oil to 190°C in a separate large pan. Fry the tortilla triangles until barely golden and crisp, then drain them on kitchen paper.
When the sauce is ready, fry the eggs. Stir the fried tortillas into the sauce, folding lightly to coat them but taking care not to break them up.
Divide the sauce and tortillas between 4 warm plates and top each one with a fried egg. Add crumbled cheese, sliced shallot, a sprinkle of coriander and some soured cream and serve immediately
