A Quick and Easy Breakfast
Chilaquiles is an all-time favorite Mexican breakfast dish. It’s a mixture of corn tortilla chips and shredded chicken or eggs bathed in green salsa and topped with salty ranchero cheese, Mexican cream, and thinly sliced red onion.
Mexican cooks rarely waste food. Making chilaquiles allows you to use up stale tortillas by preparing something delicious.
Check your fridge, you probably have all of the ingredients on hand to make them right now.
You should be getting hungry, right?
Ingredients for Chilaquiles
5 cups corn tortilla chips (totopos)
3 cups salsa verde or salsa roja
1 ⅓ cups shredded chicken or 1-2 eggs
½ cup Mexican cream or sour cream
½ small red onion
4 ounces ranchero cheese or queso fresco
Salt to taste
Homemade Tortilla Chips Make the Best Chilaquiles
Take the time to make your own tortilla chips. It’s not that difficult and the results are well worth the extra effort. The chips are lighter and crunchier than store-bought chips.
Go here for the full homemade tortilla chips tutorial with step-by-step pictures. If you don’t want to prepare tortilla chips from scratch, feel free to use store-bought. The results will still be delicious.
Homemade Salsa Does Too
You will need salsa verde. Homemade is best but bottled is tasty too. Go here for the full salsa verde tutorial with step-by-step pictures. We don’t always feel like making our own salsa so we used bottled too.
Shredded Chicken
To prepare the shredded chicken, place one chicken breast in a small saucepan, and cover with water. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook the chicken breast for 15 minutes or until fully cooked.
Remove the chicken breast from the cooking water and allow to cool. As soon as it is cool to the touch use your fingers to pull the chicken apart into thin 1″ long pieces.
How to Make Chilaquiles
Now it is time for the good part. In a large wide pan, bring the salsa to a boil then immediately reduce the heat to low.
Add the tortilla chips.
Stir the tortilla chips to coat with salsa.
Add the shredded chicken.
Stir to coat with salsa. Serve quickly. If the chips sit in the salsa too long they become soggy. You want the chips to retain a little crunch.
With a fried egg. Fry the eggs in oil and serve it with the chilaquiles.
To Serve
Divide the chilaquiles into four portions. To serve, top each serving with 2 tablespoons of Mexican cream or sour cream, 1 ounce of crumbled ranchero cheese and 3 thinly sliced onion rings. Serve immediately.
With chicken or eggs, both options are delicious!
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Notes
Preparation Notes
If you buy corn chips to make chilaquiles look for the unsalted ones. They are the better choice. You can use salted chips if the unsalted ones are unavailable. You can find them in the Hispanic section of the supermarket. Look for “totopos.”
Variations
You can also prepare chilaquiles topped with scrambled eggs or fried eggs.
It is common to serve chilaquiles with refried beans on the side.
Storage
We don’t recommend that you save chilaquiles for later. There’s a good chance that you won’t have any left because they are so tasty. When you store them in the fridge they get soggy and mushy and the texture is kind of unappealing.
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5 cups | Calories: 554kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 34g | Sodium: 952mg
Team Verde with eggs all the way!