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Chilaquiles are a Mexican dish made with fried tortillas simmered in chili sauce and topped with cheese. They can be eaten with any meal and are often considered a comfort food. Regional variations exist, and similar dishes like migas are popular in Tex-Mex cuisine.
Chilaquiles, pronounced chee-lah-KEY-leh, are a popular Mexican dish traditionally made with three basic ingredients: corn tortillas, salsa, and cheese. The foundation of chilaquiles are tortillas, which are cut into quarters, strips or squares or broken into chunks and then fried. Next, the fried tortillas are simmered in red or green chili sauce until they absorb some of the sauce and become a little soft, then cheese is sprinkled on top. A variety of other ingredients can be added to the dish, such as eggs, beans, meats, and more, depending on personal preference.
Chilaquiles can be eaten with any meal and are often enjoyed for breakfast or brunch when egg is added. The dish is often considered a comfort food, something Mexican mothers traditionally have leftovers in the kitchen, especially tortillas that are getting stale. Various chilaquile recipes often call for day-old or slightly stale tortillas. Tortillas that are too fresh or soft can fall apart when mixed with the other ingredients. When there are no stale tortillas in the house, drying the tortillas in the oven is often recommended.
There are many regional variations to the dish in Mexico. For example, a white sauce is used with the dish in Sinaloa. In Mexico City, a spicy red sauce is used, and the dish is topped with the strongly flavored Mexican herb epzoto, which has been used in Mexican cuisine since Aztec times. The name “chilaquiles” is thought to derive from “chil-a-quilitl,” a word in Nahuatl, an indigenous language of Mexico that comes from the Aztecs, meaning “herbs or vegetables in chili broth.” The name of this dish is sometimes written as “chilequiles”.
Such a tortilla-based dish is called “migas,” which is popular in Tex-Mex cuisine. The term Tex-Mex refers to dishes often found in the Southwestern United States, such as Texas, that mix ingredients from American and Mexican cuisines. There are also variations in the use of sauces and cooking styles.
Migas always contain egg along with the tortilla, salsa and cheese. There may also be variations in preparation, such as the salsa being added at the end in migas rather than used to simmer the tortilla as in chilaquiles. However, there are many debates among Mexican and Tex-Mex food aficionados as to whether chilaquiles and migas are the same thing or different dishes.
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