Chilaquiles rojos are a traditional dish out of Mexico that is popularly served for breakfast or brunch and often likened to a tortilla casserole. Translated directly in English, Chilaquiles rojos simply means red Chilaquiles. The main components of the dish are tortillas and red salsa or red chilli sauce. Although mostly prepared for breakfast, red Chilaquiles can be prepared for enjoyment at any occasion including lunch and dinner. Above all, Chilaquiles are very easy to make.
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What are Chilaquiles Rojos?
Chilaquiles rojos are a classic Mexican dish served for breakfast in most Mexican homes. Chilaquiles (pronounced chee-lah-key-less) comes from Nahuatl chil-a-quilitl which is to say herbs or vegetables in chili broth. Chilaquiles recipes have been a part of American cuisine for at least 120 years if their appearance in the 1898 cook book, The Spanish Cook, is anything to go by. You may also be interested in the author of the cook book’s other Mexican recipes as seen here on Amazon.
If you are new to red Chilaquiles, this is a good starting point to help you learn more about them is a simplified way. The goal here is to have you making your very own inaugural Chilaquiles rojos with this article alone.
Chilaquiles Rojos Components
The central components when making red Chilaquiles are tortillas and the salsa condiment. The tortillas or chips are first fried and then covered in a salsa. The rojos in Chilaquiles rojos thus refers to the red salsa. Although red sauce is used for Chilaquiles rojos, they can also be prepared using green sauce. In the classic method of making the recipe, no protein is added to the Chilaquiles. However, they may be sprinkled with cheese, served with fried eggs and have cream and onion added. Chilaquiles rojos have also been commonly served with beans!
Red Chilaquiles Regional Variations
Within Mexican culinary culture, there are different regional approaches to making Chilaquiles. For example, on the northeastern end of the country, red tomato salsa is often used. On the northwestern side, Chilaquiles can be made with cream. Thus there are different approaches to serving the Chilaquiles rojos.
The traditional and more common way in central Mexico is to have all the tortillas on a plate. Moments before serving, the salsa is poured over the tortillas and any toppings added.
Yet another way to do it, if you wish to have the tortilla chips maintain their crispness, is to avoid covering them in the sauce early but apply the sauce to each chip at the moment of eating. The reader will not help but notice these variations as they traverse the wonderful world of Mexican Chilaquiles.
How to make Chilaquiles Rojos Sauce
The first step in making red Chilaquiles is usually making the salsa itself. Here we explain a quick and convenient method of going about it. To begin with, the basic ingredients are some dried seeded chili pods (you can also use pimentos), tomatoes, onion and some garlic. The dried chili pods are put in a pot together with a tomato and filled with water.
The pot is set on the stove top and brought to a boil. This way, the chilies and the tomato are cooked together, infusing the flavours. Once the water with these ingredients has boiled, the pot is removed from the heat and the water drained and discarded. The boiled chilies and tomato are transferred to a blender, salt, garlic and some fresh water are also added. Everything is blended together to produce a smooth looking sauce. The sauce appears deep red and is set aside.
The onion is sliced up and put in a pan on the stove top with some heated frying oil. The onions are fried for a few minutes and heat reduced before adding the earlier blended red sauce. There is an option here to strain the sauce or add it to the pan as is. This will be a personal preference. The sauce is let to sit on the low heat until it comes to a simmer. At this point the Chilaquiles Rojos salsa is ready. The tortilla chips can now be added to the sauce or the sauce served later with the tortillas.
Store-Bought Chilaquiles Rojos Salsa
Nowadays, there is also an option to buy pre-made salsa which cuts on sauce preparation time. Below is an example of a popular store-bought pre-made sauce which can be used to do Chilaquiles Rojos quick fix.
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| Tostitos Chunky Red Salsa – Tostitos is a good example of pre-made red salsa that can be used when making red Chilaquiles. This pre-made salsa is rich with a spicy flavor. It can also be used as a dip if you preferred. If you wanted to avoid making your own red salas at home for any reason, this would be a good fit. The ingredients go some good way in simulating regular homemade red salsa. Included in the ingredients are diced tomatoes, garlic powder, jalapeño peppers and onion. See on Amazon. |
How to prepare Chilaquiles Rojos Tortillas
When preparing Chilaquiles rojos, you have an option to make your own tortillas from scratch or to use store-bought pre-made tortillas (see section below). Assuming you are using pre-made tortillas (which is the fastest method), all that would be left to do is to cut them up into chips and fry them just before making your red Chilaquiles.
Depending on the number of people being served, 10 to 12 tortillas are a good start when making red Chilaquiles. The tortillas are typically oval shaped. They are stuck up and cut into triangular pieces called chips. There is also an option to buy ready made chips (see section below). Once the tortillas are cut, they are ready for frying.
A pan set on medium heat is used for this purpose. Two to three cups of oil are added to the pan and heated. Once the oil is hot the chips are put in the pan and let to fry for some 2 to three minutes or until golden. Using a slotted spoon, the tortillas are removed from the pan allowing oil to drain as much as possible. The process is repeated in batches until all the tortilla chips are finished.
Store-Bought Chilaquiles Rojos Tortillas
As earlier stated, there is also an option to go with store-bought tortillas, some of which can be already sliced into chips with others only needing slicing and then frying. Below is an example of store-bought tortilla chips.
Corn Tortilla Chips – Making tortillas from scratch takes a significant amount of time. These store-bought corn tortillas make for a good alternative to making your own tortilla chips for the Chilaquiles rojos. They can also be used in any Mexican recipe and thus are not only limited to Chilaquiles. The chips are available already sliced up into typical triangular shapes well known for Mexican red Chilaquiles. See on Amazon.
Combining Tortilla Chips and Salsa
If we follow the more common way of making Chilaquiles rojos, once the red salsa is ready and tortilla chips are also fried and ready, it will be time to combine the two to produce the scrumptious Chilaquiles rojos. The recommended way of getting the two main elements to this combination is to start by making the tortillas and then prepare the salsa last.
Once the salsa is ready and whilst it is yet simmering on the stove top, it is time to introduce the earlier fried tortilla chips. The fried tortillas are emptied into the pan with the simmering sauce and gently mixed ensuring that all the chips are coated fully in the sauce. When the chips are coated the Chilaquiles rojos are ready to serve.
A step further, which is however optional, would be to add some topping. A common topping is cheese, which is sprinkled on top and the pan is covered with a lid to allow the cheese to melt. Other toppings may also be added which include herbs such as cilantro and basil. The final dish with toppings can be served with beans and fried egg.
Chilaquiles Rojos Recipes
The forgoing explanation demonstrates how to make very simple and basic Chilaquiles rojos. As the reader will find, there are many modern approaches to making this scrumptious Mexican dish and things quickly get even more interesting.
The following is thus our collection of some scrumptious red Chilaquiles recipes with varying degrees of interesting angles to also try. As the reader shall further pleasantly discover, it is fairly easy to come up with one’s own favourite red Chilaquiles recipe.
| Red Chilaquiles With Chicken Recipe – this recipe serves four and takes 40 minutes to make. It calls for corn tortillas which are toasted. Whereas a knife is often used to slice up the chips into somewhat neat triangular chips, this recipe uses coarsely broken up tortillas. The use of chicken is a notable variation to this red Chilaquiles method. Large chicken breasts which are poached and shredded are used. On the chiles, one jalapeño chile pepper is used. Before serving, the dish is sprinkled with some cheese, cilantro and sliced onion. View Recipe. | |
| Chilaquiles Rojos with Fried Eggs and Cotija Recipe – this recipe has an interesting variation to it. The tomato and onion are first charred before being combined with the salsa as a way of increasing the flavour. The tortilla chips in this recipe are deliberately thick and are soaked up with the salsa and runny egg yolks yet avoiding being soggy. The recipe feeds four and takes a total of 50 minutes to make. Other ingredients used in making these Chilaquiles Rojos include dried guajillo chiles, white onion, fresh oregano leaves and olive oil among other items. View Recipe. | |
| Low Carb Chilaquiles Rojos Recipe – this is a particularly interesting red Chilaquiles recipe which is intended to be a low carb version. The ingredients are carefully chosen to make the outcome low carb.For example, the tortillas are homemade low carb chips. As an additional twist, instead of onion, the recipe uses radishes along with fried eggs, sliced avocado, and cilantro. View Recipe. | |
| Green Chilaquiles Recipe – although we have been talking about red Chilaquiles, for good measure, we will include this green Chilaquiles recipe which we mentioned as an option earlier. According to the recipe, green happens to be the most popular salsa in Mexico. This recipe takes a total 30 minutes to make and serve 4. Other ingredients include cheese, jalapeño peppers, brown onion, garlic clove, coriander and vegetable oil. Garnish for the Chilaquiles will be made using sour cream, and thickened cream among other ingredient items. View Recipe. | |
| Grain and Gluten-free Chilaquiles Recipe – this is a rather very unique recipe that is tailor-made to produce legume-free and paleo-friendly Chilaquiles. Additionally, instead of using green or red salsa, it uses homemade gluten-free red enchilada sauce. In the end, the overall presentation of the final dish is as red as the traditional red Chilaquiles. The topping will be fried eggs, fresh cilantro, queso fresco, and avocado. For tortillas, the recipe uses crispy Taro chips which must however be eaten swiftly in order to avoid them getting soggy. View Recipe. | |
| Chipotle Tofu Chilaquiles Recipe – this Chilaquiles rojos recipe is a plant-based version of the original Mexican red Chilaquiles. It is thus a vegan friendly red Chilaquiles. This recipe takes 30 minutes to make and produces a final product with 16 grams of protein per serving. The topping to the dish is fresh cilantro, onion and Vegan Mexican “Parmesan” Cheese. View Recipe. | |
| Chilaquiles Rojos with Black Beans Recipe – finally, this vegetarian friendly recipe uses store-bought or homemade enchilada red sauce. Furthermore, the recipe uses fresh corn tortillas which can be baked briefly or toasted to get the somewhat similar texture as the fried tortilla chips. For the topping or filling, the recipe uses black beans, peppers, corn, tomatoes and onions. The recipe takes 45 minutes to make and produces 10 servings. Other ingredients required by the recipe include yellow or orange bell pepper, shredded Cheddar cheese, chipotle chili powder and vegetable broth among other items. View Recipe. |
Conclusion
Chilaquiles rojos are a Mexican breakfast dish which is however also served at any time. The main components of the dish are red sauce and triangular cut corn tortillas. In Mexico, traditional red Chilaquiles have some variations depending on the region of the country. Furthermore, different individuals have increasingly been developing their own versions of Chilaquiles rojos such as vegan friendly, plant based and keto-friendly variations. Chilaquiles can be made from scratch or using store-bought red salsa and tortillas as shown in a simplified way in this article.
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