I shared a smoky black bean soup with you guys a few days ago. It made a huge recipe—a necessary byproduct of frantic tinkering to fix a dish that seemed to have gone wrong. I love black bean soup as much as the next gal, but even I can’t really handle it more than a couple days in a row.
So today I took that very tasty Smoky Black Bean Soup and made Smoky Black Bean Huevos Chilaquiles. OK, I don’t speak Spanish so I might have mangled that but it still sounds better than Smoky Black Bean Scrambled Egg Chilaquiles.
Chilaquiles is a Mexican dish consisting of a sauce or something sauce-like served with corn tortillas—the name itself is not very informative as I have seen versions calling for the tortillas to be fried, baked, used stale, fried and simmered in the sauce, layered and served as is, or fried and then baked with the sauce. Basically chilaquiles are a take on the tortilla casserole that consists of using fried or stale tortilla chips or strips. I adore chilaquiles in all of its forms.
This is a very simple chilaquiles as the dish is quickly assembled—i.e., layered and garnished—and then served, no simmering or baking required. I personally prefer egg-based chilaquiles prepared this way as I don’t care for soggy eggs. It seems to me that shredded meat or poultry-based chilaquiles benefit more from simmering or baking in the sauce. I do put a little of the sauce in to cook with the eggs, so the eggs do receive some flavoring. It is also a simple dish in that you could try it with any Mexican flavored bean soup—the recipe does not need to be mine.
Laura’s Smoky Black Bean Huevos Chilaquiles
Ingredients
Corn tortillas, cut into strips and baked until crispy and then salted (you could obviously fry them as well; the shape does not matter; strips are easiest for my toddlers)
Well-flavored Mexican bean soup, simmered to reduce to a thick, sauce-like consistency (be sure to stir frequently to prevent scorching on the bottom)
Eggs (2 per adult, 1 per small child—to lighten the recipe you could also use half full eggs and half egg whites)
Salt and pepper to taste
Half of a small onion, diced
Half of a sweet bell pepper, diced
Drizzle of olive oil
Sour cream and shredded Monterey jack cheese to garnish
Cilantro and chopped scallions for garnish if you have them (I still have not made it to the store, so none here)
Chipotle powder or cayenne powder for garnish if you have any chile-heads in the family
Heat a nonstick skillet on medium high heat. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the pan—maybe one teaspoon—and cook the onions until softened and starting to blister a little, 10 minutes. Add the bell pepper and cook an additional 3 minutes (I like my pepper crunchy, add them sooner if you prefer them softer).
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour the eggs over the onions and peppers and begin to scramble and stir them. At this point they should be cooking quickly—keep scraping up the bottom of the pan. After about a minute or two, when the eggs start to keep their shape but are still quite soft and runny, lower the heat. Add 3-4 tablespoons of your bean sauce and stir that in. Turn the heat off while the eggs are still very soft, but essentially cooked. They will finish cooking in the pan as they sit.
Layer the crispy tortillas on the bottom of a plate. Spoon the egg mixture over the tortillas, and ladle some of the sauce over the eggs. Garnish on top with sour cream, cheese, scallions and cilantro. Add a few shakes of hot sauce (we love Tapatio) or ground chile peppers. Although the dish is prettiest at this point, I personally like to turn it all over a few times, getting the tortilla strips well coated with eggs and sauce. Yum.
I am here to attest that this was a very good dinner. I liked it with chunky red salsa but there was also a part of me that would have loved it with guacamole.
Thanks for feeding me this weekend 🙂