Chia Chilaquiles
Chia Chilaquiles
Baked, not fried. Welcome to your new breakfast obsession with tiny and big time crunch.
The only breakfast dish I know to always turn non-breakfast people into ravenous breakfast people. Javier is my better half, but he is also the guy who has professed his love for a thick slice of crusty sourdough with almond butter and coffee as a sufficient breakfast. And he is also the same guy who quickly changes into a ravenous breakfast person at the sight of chilaquiles. I say that because it took zero convincing to have chilaquiles divorciados (mitad rojos, mitad verdes) as our first breakfast as a married couple. We ignored all superstitions in the name of chilaquiles.
I’ve had plenty of chilaquiles made with store-bought totopos, aka “tortilla chips” as they are called in the U.S. (just call them totopos!) that soak up so much salsa they remind me more of a soggy casserole, instead of the crunchy, perfectly sauced chilaquiles I grew up eating. The scene of a kitchen counter covered in stale tortillas is a common sight back home. It’s always a sign that there will be chilaquiles the next morning.
The pro move to soft-chewy-crunchy chilaquiles starts the night before. Pull the old tortillas from your fridge and slice them into eighths. Lay them out on the counter to draw out moisture and stiff them up. This will make them sturdy and help handle soaking more of the salsa without making them instantly soggy.
I love fried totopos as much as the next person, but I also love the idea of baking them while you prepare the salsa and skipping the oil splatter on the stove altogether. When you toss them with chia seeds, you’re in for a really nice and tiny bonus crunch. Chia comes from Salvia hispanica, a flowering plant in the mint family native to Mexico where it was offered to Aztec gods in religious ceremonies. Health claims published by the Harvard School of Public Health about chia seeds include reducing appetite, lowering triglycerides, and improving blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes.
So, why have chia pudding when you can have chia chilaquiles?
But definitely sauce your chilaquiles while they’re cooking to absorb just enough salsa, and then finish saucing them when they hit your plate right before serving. A pool of crema will probably cancel all of the aforementioned health benefits, but who cares when is this delicious? Top your chilaquiles with eggs, grilled chicken, or asada if you’re on the verge of brunch.
This week’s playlist that I made just for chia’s tiny crunch has the nicest surf-rock by Gabacho, a solo project by Siul Reynoso, a Mexican-American musician via Chicago and Toluca. Pop, Electronica, and Trap sounds by Rusowsky and Alicia Te Quiero.