Recipes: 30 Egg Challenge - Chilaquiles
Chilaquiles are one of my absolute favorite dishes. They're awesome because they're versatile in the way you serve and prepare them. And you can recycle ingredients! (If you haven't noticed its one of my favorite things to do...) This is the type of recipe that can take a while to prepare or you can take certain shortcuts and still end up with a great dish. Not to mention that a serving of chilaquiles is one of my go to hangover cures hehe.
Once again, this is my take on the recipe. The instructions I'll be giving are to make chilaquiles from scratch, but I'll mention the shortcuts you can take. Perhaps in a later recipe I will prepare a different version and a different way of serving them. So lets get started!
Ingredients
- 12 old tortillas, sliced into small strips. You can also use tortilla chips!
- 4 tomatoes
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 2 de-hydrated guajillo chiles
- spoonful of chipotles
- 1 onion, halved
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 chicken breasts, you can use any part of the chicken really, a rotisserie chicken or any leftover chicken that you might have
- 3 eggs
- 1 chicken stock cube
- salt and pepper
- vegetable oil
- mozzarella, edam, halloumi, all shredded. If you have Oaxaca cheese, even better!
Instructions
If you're using the old tortillas- Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan. Once its nice and hot fry the tortilla strips until they're golden. You should do this in small bunches so that you don't burn them. As you're frying them, set them on a paper towel-covered plate to absorb the extra oil. If you're using the tortilla chips you won't need them until later. Set aside.
If you're using raw chicken, place the pieces in a big pot along with the tomatoes, half the onion, bay leaves, chiles, and tomatoes. Barely cover the contents with water. Bring to a boil and cook everything for about 10 minutes. When the skin of the tomatoes starts to tear, take them out. Leave everything else in and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Once the chicken is cooked through, take it out and shred it. Be careful, its going to be hot! If you're using leftover chicken follow the previous instructions just without the chicken, but leave the chiles to cook for about 20 minutes more. Shred the rotisserie chicken.
In a blender, blend the tomatoes, the other (raw) onion half, garlic, chiles, chipotles, a bit of the water you used to cook the chicken, and the chicken stock cube. You should have a smooth sauce. If needed, add more water. Bring it to a simmer in a pan and cook for about 5 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk eggs and season with salt and pepper.
Time to layer!
Cover the bottom of a medium, deep pan with a layer of tortilla chips. Cover the chips with the shredded chicken, then some egg, then cheese, then sauce. Repeat until you've run out of ingredients, saving some of the cheese for the top layer. Bake in the over for 20 minutes and then broil for ten. Serve hot! You can also serve it with some avocado and sour cream! Yum!
