chilaquiles
What do you do with leftover roasted chicken?
Tacos, enchilada, Chalupas, Taco bowl, Casserole, burritos are some of my go to routine with leftover chicken. I remembered the taste of Chilaquilles at my friend’s home. I had tried making it once before in short cut way. So I tried to do it again, this time going all out way.
Chilaquilles (Chila-Kee-les).It’s a mouthful to say, Isn’t it?
What I know about ‘Chilaquiles’
It is very popular breakfast in Mexico, using day old leftover tortilla. Fried tortilla chips are smothered in freshly made salsa. Served with Fried eggs, crumbly queso fresco and Mexican Crema on top.
My husband is not a fan of eggs with tortilla in any form. You can leave the eggs out completely.I stayed with meal version for our dinner.
I hardly ever fry things. So I had trial short cut run before with tortilla chips. It works but the taste is vastly different when you do fry your own tortilla. Traditionally, day old stale dry tortillas are used in this dish. Since I bought the tortilla for this purpose alone,I baked my store bought tortilla for 5 minutes at 350F to dry it out. It absorbs less oil while frying, if it is dry.
Ingredients
1 cup leftover roasted chicken in bite size pieces
10 corn Tortilla
Oil for frying
Tomatillo Salsa
Refried Black beans
Queso fresco
Chopped Red onion (optional)
Frying Tortilla
- Layer tortilla on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350F for 5 minutes.It will dry,curl and crisp up a little. Cut the tortillas in triangles.
- Add oil in a pan. I used steel saute pan and just enough oil to submerge the tortilla barely. Heat the oil without smoking it. Medium-High I suppose.
- Add corn tortilla without crowding the pan and fry it. Keep an eye, do not let it burn. It happens very quickly.
- Do not add too many tortilla at one time.It brings the temperature down and makes oil drenched soggy chips.
- Once tortilla chips are out, put them in paper towel to drain extra oil.
Refried black beans
- Add 2 cans of rinsed out black beans in a pot.You can use Pinto beans if you like or just used canned refried.
- Add 1 table spoon of taco seasoning, salt if needed,1/2 cup water. Cook it at medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Put everything in blender and puree it.
Tomatillo salsa
- In a cookie sheet, add 7-8 medium sized tomatillos, 1 chopped onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 serrano chili(or jalapeno). Drizzle it with oil. Broil it until top is brown.
- In a blender, add broiled tomatillos, garlic, onion, chili, few sprigs of cilantro, salt, 1/2 lemon juice. Puree it.
Assembly
- In a pan, add the tomatillo salsa and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Now add the fried tortilla chips to it and let it get coated with salsa.
- In the serving plate, spoon refried black beans, salsa coated tortilla chips, chunks of roasted chicken. Top it with Queso fresco.Add chopped onion and mexican crema if your family like it.I do but no one else likes raw chopped onion in my family.Serve it hot.
It was well liked by my family. So I think it’s a keeper for us 🙂
