chilaquiles & eggs with chipotle salsa

Stale tortilla chips on hand? Turn them into breakfast (or breakfast for dinner) Mexican-style. This calls for one chipotle from a small can of chipotles in adobo; to save the leftover chiles and sauce, put them in a small sealable bag and freeze. Next time you need chipotle in adobo, just slice off part of the frozen chiles. The original version of this recipe come my book The Art of Blending, which uses a high-powered Vitamix blender to make the sauce, but you don’t have to have one of those to make this version.

photo credit: Maren Caruso

ingredients

2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/2 onion, peeled
1 fresh poblano pepper
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
1 chipotle with adobo sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
about 6 oz tortilla chips
4 large eggs
1/2 cup crumbled cotija or feta cheese
1/2 cup Mexican crema or sour cream
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

directions

Place a 10- to 12-inch cast-iron or other heavy skillet (not nonstick) over medium-high heat. Place garlic, onion, and poblano in pan and roast, turning as needed with tongs, until charred all over; remove each vegetable from pan as it is done (the onion and garlic take less time than the poblano). When poblano is done, transfer it to a bowl and cover with a towel or plastic wrap and set aside. Peel garlic. Put tomatoes and juice, roasted onion, garlic, chipotle, cumin, oregano, and salt in a blender. Put lid on securely and blend until coarsely pureed, about 15 seconds.

Heat oil in same pan over medium-high heat until it starts to ripple. Carefully pour in sauce from blender (it will spatter) then set blender container aside, but do not rinse. Cook the puree, stirring, until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the tortilla chips a handful at a time, breaking them up slightly in your hand as you add them, until the mixture is thick but not dry.

Add 1 cup of water to the blender container, put lid on, and run machine for 15 seconds to blend water and remaining sauce in container. Pour this into pan and cook, stirring, until the chilaquiles are almost dry, about 2 minutes. Make four depressions in the surface of chilaquiles with the back of a large spoon and crack an egg into each depression. Cover the pan with a lid or foil and cook until egg whites are set and yolks are still runny, 3 to 5 minutes. While the eggs are cooking, peel the reserved poblano pepper, then cut off the stem, slit pepper open, and remove seeds and ribs with the back of a knife. Dice poblano.

Remove pan from heat and divide chilaquiles among 4 shallow bowls, spooning out each portion with an egg on top. Top each serving with diced poblano, crumbled cheese, crema, and cilantro and serve.