This delicious Chilaquiles Rojos recipe has triangles of corn tortillas simmered in salsa, and served with cheese, avocados, shredded chicken, eggs or beans.
What are Chilaquiles Rojos?
First, how do we even pronounce Chilaquiles? They are pronounced chee-lah-kee-lehs. It is kind of fun to say!
Chilaquiles are a traditional Mexican breakfast dish made from corn tortillas that are cut into triangles and then lightly fried or baked until they are crispy. They are then covered with red or green chile sauce and served for breakfast with eggs. They are also often served at lunch or dinner time with refried beans.
When served with red chile sauce, like this recipe, they are called Chilaquiles Rojos, and when served with green chile sauce, they are called Chilaquiles Verdes.
This dish is so good with so many flavors, the best way I can describe this dish is to say it is breakfast nachos or deconstructed enchiladas.
Ingredients
- 10 corn tortillas – cut into triangular wedges
- 1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
- 1 jalapeno – seeded
- ½ of a medium white onion – roughly chopped
- 2 cloves peeled garlic
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
- Cotija Cheese
- Shredded Chicken, cooked
- Shredded Beef, cooked
- Shredded Pork, cooked
- Fried Eggs
- Scrambled Eggs
- Black Beans
- Pinto Beans
- Cilantro
- Mexican Crema (or Sour Cream)
- Avocado
- Pickled Jalapeno Slices
- Radish Slices
- Onions, chopped
How to Make Chilaquiles Rojos?
Here’s how I make them.
1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Assemble the chilaquiles ingredients. For the amounts of each ingredient, please see the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
3. Next, I cut homemade corn tortillas into six wedges and arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet.
4. After spritzing with a bit of oil, I bake them for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until crisp. (Sometimes, if I’m really lazy, I’ll just use store bought tortilla chips instead. If you try it this way, get this cheap, thick tortilla chips and don’t add any salt to the sauce as the store bought tortilla chips are usually already salted).
5. While the chips are baking, I make an easy chilaquiles sauce. Place the tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, garlic, vegetable oil, salt, and cumin in the bowl of a blender or large food processor and puree until smooth.
6. Transfer the red sauce to a non-stick pan or a large skillet and set the heat to medium-high. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
7. Next, then reduce the heat to low and add the chicken broth. Taste and add salt as needed.
8. Transfer the baked chips to the skillet and fold gently into the sauce. If you want some crunchy chips around the edge of this dish, then save a few and don’t cook in the sauce and then add them around the edge of the dish. Simmer for 5 minutes or until chips have softened and absorbed some of the salsa flavor.
9. Serve with toppings of your choice! This Mexican chilaquiles recipe gets better when you top with cilantro, cotija cheese, shredded chicken, avocado, onion, eggs, beans or pretty much anything your heart desires! For the sliced avocado, save some time with this great 3-in-1 Avocado peeler, slicer and pitter tool.
How to Prevent Soggy Chilaquiles Rojos
When you make this recipe, you want to make sure that you don’t have overly soggy tortilla chips. You do want softened tortilla chips as that is the whole point of softening them in the warm chilaquiles sauce, but you don’t want them to be fall apart soft.
This recipe prevents overly sogginess by using thick tortillas that have been baked in the oven until they are crispy and lightly browned.
If you want to use store bought tortilla chips instead, then go for the thick tortilla chips. In many cases, these are the cheap tortilla chips that are thicker and crunchier and will stand up better when softened in the chilaquiles sauce.
If you want some crunchy chips around the edge of this dish, then save a few and don’t cook in the sauce and then add them around the edge of the dish.
Serving Suggestions
For breakfast, serve these chilaquiles topped with lots of cotija cheese, fried eggs on top, cilantro, avocado slices and Mexican Crema or sour cream. For breakfast or brunch, consider washing these down with a Michelada Bloody Mary!
For a more filling breakfast or dinner, add shredded chicken, beef or pork.
If you want a more spicy Chilaquilies Rojos, add some pickled jalapeno slices on top.
Want a few more tastes in every bite? Consider adding chopped onions, radish slices and black or pinto beans.
If you are serving these for dinner, consider serving them with one of our many margarita recipes.
For side dishes, consider serving with refried beans or chorizo.
Here’s the Recipe!
Chilaquiles Rojos Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 corn tortillas - cut into triangular wedges
- 1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
- 1 jalapeno - seeded
- 1/2 of a medium white onion - roughly chopped
- 2 cloves peeled garlic
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Optional Toppings
- Cotija cheese
- Shredded chicken - cooked
- Shredded beef - cooked
- Shredded pork - cooked
- Fried Eggs
- Scrambled Eggs
- Black Beans
- Pinto Beans
- Cilantro
- Mexican Crema (or sour cream)
- Avocado
- Pickled Jalapeno Slices
- Radish Slices
- Onions - chopped
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Arrange the tortilla wedges in a single layer on two 13 x 9 baking sheets. Lightly spray with oil and bake for 15 minutes or until crisp.
- Meanwhile, place the tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, garlic, vegetable oil, salt, and cumin in the bowl of a blender or large food processor and puree until smooth.
- Transfer the red sauce to a skillet and set the heat to medium-high. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then reduce the heat to low and add the chicken broth. Taste and add salt as needed.
- Transfer the baked chips to the skillet and fold gently into the sauce. If you want some crunchy chips around the edge of this dish, then save a few and don't cook in the sauce and then add them around the edge of the dish. Simmer for 5 minutes or until chips have softened.
- Serve with toppings of your choice!
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Please note that chilaquiles recipes are sometimes called: chilaquiles mexicanos.
Also, chilaquiles is often misspelled as chilequiles, chilaquilles, chilaquilas, chilaques, chillaquiles, chilakiles, chilaqueles, chillaquilles, chile quiles, chilquiles, chilaqules, chilequilles or chiliquiles.
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Your chilaquiles look wonderful! I live in San Diego…could you tell me where you ate while you were here? Thank you!
Hey Lucy. The best my mother and I have had so far here is Cotijas in Santee. Hopefully us both being Mexican carry a little weight on this subject. : )
As with most things, its an individual taste thing!
Thank you so much for this recipe! :’)
So glad you like it!
What do you usually serve with this? Rice, eggs, guac?
I usually have it with scrambled eggs 🙂
Those were delicious, thank you for the recipe 🙂