Chilaquiles – A Beautiful Mess

If you’ve never had chilaquiles before, you have to try this recipe! This traditional Mexican breakfast consists of fresh made tortilla chips that get quickly cooked in salsa. It’s a simple, affordable and super flavorful meal. While I love this as a savory breakfast, you could certainly serve it for lunch or dinner as well.

This chilaquiles recipe only requires 5 ingredients and one pan to cook. It’s pretty quick to make and requires no special skills. If you use a red salsa for this, you will make chilaquiles rojos (pictured here). Or you can use green salsa, salsa verde, to make chilaquiles verde.

Related: Looking for more savory breakfast ideas? Try our breakfast casserole, hashbrown casserole or biscuits and gravy casserole.

Ingredients

• Corn tortillas
• Oil
• Salt
• Salsa
• Chicken broth

To serve you may also want: fried eggs, queso fresco or cotija cheese, sour cream, cilantro, red onion.

How to make Chilaquiles

Start by making the fresh corn tortilla chips. Cut the tortillas into triangle wedges. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Place the tortilla pieces in and cook until toasted, 1-2 minutes on each side. I use tongs to easily move and flip the pieces. You will likely need to do this in batches, as they won’t all fit in even a super large skillet at once.

After they are cooked on both sides, remove to a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle salt over the tops.

In a blender or food processor, blend together the salsa and chicken broth (or chicken stock) until smooth. Back in the hot skillet toss the chips in the salsa mixture until everything is well coated and hot.

Top with whatever you want to serve these with: cilantro, red onion, sour cream and some type of cheese is the minimum, IMO. I also like to add a fried egg to make it a meal.

Tips, Substitutions and Additions

• Look for a fresh salsa, something sold in a refrigerated section of the grocery store. Or you can make your own homemade salsa to use in this. And keep in mind we will need a good amount of salsa for this recipe, so if you use something spicy make sure it’s not too much. You can always add some hot sauce to serve if you need more heat.
• I love chilaquiles as a breakfast or breakfast-for-dinner situation, so adding a fried egg is perfect to me. But if you aren’t feeling the fried or scrambled egg, other proteins are great too, like black beans, refried beans, chicken, beef or pork.
• Some other additions to top this with include garlic, tomatoes, crema, tomatillo salsa or hot sauce.
• You might be wondering, can I use store-bought tortilla chips instead of making them fresh for this recipe? I don’t recommend it. These fresh tortilla chips are going to cook differently and provide a completely different texture to the final dish.
• Chilaquiles are best the day they are made. If you are looking for a make ahead option, you could fry the tortilla chips ahead and then wait to follow the rest of the recipe until you are ready to serve and eat.

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