One of my favorite breakfasts in Mexico is chilaquiles. Mind you, I’ve only been to Mexico four times. Two times for pleasure, twice for museum conferences, my usual mode of travel. At my first International Council of Museums (ICOM) meeting in 1980, I was introduced to the Hacienda San Angel and to that potent potable pulque.* Our conference coincided with Day of the Dead and we had a memorable excursion to Guanajuato. Some years later, the Ethnographic Museums Committee (ICME) met in Mexico City, again overlapping with Dia de los Muertos. The de riguer side trip took us to to Michoacán for the celebrations.

*If you are curious about pulque, read here https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01026/full

As we made an early morning trip to Michoacán, we stopped for breakfast at a truck stop. My international colleagues chose American cereals, their own brand of comfort food in a land of strange foods. My food adventure radar made me choose chilaquiles; I was a convert.

I’ve always considered this dish as a way to get rid of or repurpose tortillas left over from dinner. I don’t know if this is the truth. Imagine my disappointment at local “Mexican” restaurants where it is built on tortilla chips like that Tex-Mex favorite of many, nachos.

In a recent cold snap, I had a taste for comfort food. All the necessary ingredients for chilaquiles were waiting in my pantry: corn tortillas, green tomatillo sauce, chicken, and eggs. Now I remember the Hatch chiles in my freezer. I searched on my friend google and assembled the components to come up with a dinner that was just plain delicious. Constant Companion is a convert! Daughter, who is averse to spices, enjoyed two fried eggs.

Chilaquiles. Take a bunch of corn tortillas. Some recipes called for up to 18, too many for a dinner for two people. I used about 10. Brush each with some oil and cut into triangles. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake in a moderate (350) oven for about 12 minutes. I prefer to bake my tortillas rather than frying them.

Heat your sauce.* Add the crisped tortillas to the warm sauce and mix til thoroughly covered. I added some shredded chicken breast excavated from the freezer and tossed it in the sauce. Top with a fried egg (keep the yoke a little loose to run deliciously into the tortilla, chicken, sauce concoction). Memories of Mexico from the simple comforting dish.

*The jar of prepared sauce came in handy for a lazy dinner. Look on line for recipes of red or green sauce.

The left overs with a fresh egg made for a delicious lunch the next day!