Chilaquiles
Chicken, mushroom, and eggs in ranchero sauce, with tortilla chips and accoutrements
This is the 13th recipe from Cooking Space.
Years ago when I was in Dallas interning for the great chef and innovator of modern Texas cuisine, Stephan Pyles, I was indoctrinated into the world of great Mexican cuisine. While I was there, one of my favorite dishes I learned how to make was chilaquiles.
For my version, we’ll use adobo chicken and wild mushrooms as the base proteins, and the foundation of the dish will lie in making a great ranchero sauce.
From there, we’ll add tortilla chips, Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs, three types of Mexican cheese, black beans, and more, then we’ll bake it in a cast iron pan, and top it all off with fresh cilantro and radishes, homemade crema, and a homemade chile de arbol sauce.
There’s a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but they meld together beautifully, and are all easy to make and work with. If you’ve never had chilaquiles before, this recipe is a must try, and it works great for breakfast, brunch, or lunch, and pairs especially well with a margarita.
Ingredients
For the adobo spice rub
1 tsp. canella, ground
1 tsp. allspice, ground
1 tsp. black peppercorn, ground
1 tsp. clove, ground
For the ranchero sauce
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tsps. spice rub
2 bay leaves
15 grams golden raisins, whole
2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup chipotle peppers, pureed
1.5 cups San Marzano (plum) tomatoes, liquified
1 tbsp. lard
For the chile de arbol sauce
1/2 cup chiles de arbol, whole
2 onions
12 plum tomatoes
5 cloves garlic
3 tbsps. cumin seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsps. allspice, whole berries
1.5 cups water
3 tbsps. salt
For the Mexican crema
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsps. fresh lime juice
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup half & half
Salt to taste
For the assembly
1 bag tortilla chips
2 cups ranchero sauce
1 1/2 cups marinated adobo chicken, sliced
1 1/3 cups queso Oaxaca, shredded
1 1/3 cups queso Chihauhau, shredded
1/4 cup queso fresco, shredded
2/3 cup carmelized onion, diced
2/3 cup poblano rajas, julienned
1 cup wild mushrooms
1/2 cup black beans, cooked/canned
1 cup Mexican crema
1/2 cup chile de arbol
1/3 cup radishes, julienned
40 grams micro cilantro, finely chopped
Preparation
Make ahead of time
Marinade: Marinate your chicken in the homemade adobo spice rub ahead of time. Blend all ground ingredients from the spice rub section together, and rub over chicken with olive oil in a large bowl. Let it marinate for anywhere between 20 minutes and a day.
Mexican crema: Whisk the ingredients from the Mexican crema section together in a bowl, add salt to taste.
Chile de arbol sauce: Toast chiles de arbol and whole allspice berries. Combine remaining ingredients together in a pot, and cook until reduced by half. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth.
Prepare the ranchero sauce
In a large skillet, saute onion, garlic, and spices in lard until soft and picking up light color.
Add pureed chipotle paste, raisins, and a pinch of spice rub powder.
Add chicken stock and freshly pureed/liquified tomatoes. Simmer until sauce reduces and thickens, about 20 minutes. Stir in cilantro to finish.
Grill the chicken and mushrooms
On a hot plancha or skillet, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt on the chicken pieces and saute. Do the same with the mushrooms on a separate part of the plancha/skillet (saute them with oil and salt).
Pull the mushrooms off and set aside as soon as they’re cooked through and starting to caramelize. Continue cooking the chicken until it’s cooked all the way through, then set aside and cut into slices.
Assemble and bake
In a large cast iron skillet, ladle and spread a base layer of the ranchero sauce, covering the bottom of the pan. Spread on a layer of tortilla chips, then cover those in a little more ranchero sauce.
Sprinkle black beans, poblano rajas, caramelized onions, grilled mushrooms, sliced adobo chicken, and top with a touch more ranchero sauce.
Next, sprinkle a layer of the queso Oaxaca and the queso Chihuahua over the other ingredients. Crack the eggs into the dish.
Bake at 400 F for about 10 minutes.
Pull out of the oven, and with everything still in the cast iron skillet, add Mexican crema and chile de arbol sauce, queso fresco, radishes, and micro cilantro.
Serve immediately.
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