Chilaquiles is one of my favourite things to eat for breakfast. Seriously, what could be a better combination than tortilla chips, spicy sauce, and eggs? I could perhaps eat these everyday and be perfectly content (even though I would probably be the size of a house!).
This Chilaquiles al Guajillo recipe is from Rick Bayless, who sure knows his Mexican food and is perhaps one of the most passionate food show hosts out there. The chilaquiles feed 4 people at $1.79 per serving.
Start the sauce for the chilaquiles by stemming and seeding around 2 ounces of dried guajillo chiles. You can find these chiles at most grocery stores in the Mexican aisle. The recipe calls for the chiles to be toasted, but we normally skip this step and head straight to tearing up the chiles. Even though these chiles are dried, they still pack a spicy punch, so be careful about rubbing your eyes after tearing them up with your hands!
Put the torn chiles in a bowl and pour enough hot water over them to cover. The chiles will need around 20 minute to rehydrate and plump up.
Transfer the rehydrated chiles to a food processor and add 1 cup of water, a can of diced tomatoes, and garlic. Whiz everything up until it becomes a nice smooth puree. Take the puree and press it through a sieve into a bowl. Be sure to press down hard on the puree to get every last bit of spicy goodness from the chiles.
After you strain the puree, you end up with a nice base for your chilaquile sauce. Heat the sauce up over a medium heat and stir constantly until it is reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, around 7 or so minutes. Add chicken broth, and let it simmer partially covered for 20 minutes. Once it has simmered, stir in some sugar and salt to season.
The sauce is the most time consuming part of the recipe, and I know that when I want breakfast on a weekend morning, I don’t normally like to wait too long. To prevent a growling stomach, I usually make the sauce the night before, so the next morning all I have to do is reheat the sauce and only worry about frying some eggs.
Place some tortilla chips on each plate and then pour some of the chilaquile sauce over them. Fry up a couple of sunny side eggs and put them on top of the chips. Top with lots of thinly sliced red onions, cilantro, and Mexican crema. If you can’t find any crema or want a cheaper option, buy some sour cream and thin it out with a bit of milk to make a homemade crema–it tastes pretty much the same! Then sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor!
