L.A. Times is Crushing on These Hoja Santa Eggs and Shrimp Chilaquiles

Soft-Chewy-Crunchy Hangover Dreams

If you’re anything like me, the first words that come out of your mouth when you open your eyes are: “I’m so hungry.”

Breakfast is hands-down my favorite meal of the day. But even better than breakfast is catching more z’s over the weekend and waking up just in time for brunch chilaquiles to start your day and keep you going until dinner. It sounds wild, but you can start your day eating chilaquiles for brunch and that will carry you into dinner.

You know about my love for chilaquiles when I gave Fresca readers Chia Chilaquiles, so when Los Angeles Times reached out to let me shout it from the rooftops, I knew I had to pour my heart out in the form of a primer for one of my favorite dishes in the universe.

My chilaquiles feature: “How to make chilaquiles for breakfast, lunch or dinner, in Vallarta and Oaxaca style” is online and tomorrow in the L.A. Times Sunday paper on newsstands! Beautiful photos by Ricardo DeAratanha and food styling by Nia Lee. A big heartfelt thank you to Betty Hallock, deputy Food editor, whose work and food writing I’ve admired for a long time, and who generously kept my obsessive chilaquiles voice alive. Mil gracias to the Food editor, Daniel Hernandez, and General Manager of Food, Laurie Ochoa for seeing me and my cooking.

For all Fresca readers, here is how to find your Chilaquiles power.

The Trick to Perfect Chilaquiles

• Always air out your tortillas: It all starts with totopos, the official name of tortilla chips in Mexico, and it’s easy to make your own from thick-cut stale tortillas. Laying out stale tortillas at room temperature overnight is the key to drawing out moisture for maximum crunch factor. If you’re in a rush, you can zap them in the microwave for 1 minute to remove moisture before cooking them. This step will ensure chilaquiles that soak up salsa and runny egg yolks without getting soggy.

Two Shortcuts to Still-Perfect-But-Faster Chilaquiles

• Shortcut #1: Baked Totopos. You can absolutely fry them and keep it OG and here’s my handy recipe for Fried Totopos on L.A. Times, but let’s say you’re struggling on a Saturday morning and you don’t want to keep an eye on the oil temp, set up a frying station y toda la cosa. I feel you. My recipe for Baked Totopos is the shortcut without zero compromise. You toss the stale tortilla wedges with oil and salt, lay them out in a single layer on baking sheets, and bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned and crispy, 10 to 12 minutes.

• Shortcut #2: Buy the best store-bought totopos and trick yourself (gasps!): Because we’re all human. But don’t just buy any bag of “tortilla chips.” Look for sturdy, thick totopos versus puffy, thin ones. Somos makes “unusually thick and crunchy” totopos that stand up to salsa beautifully. Have a Chip from Laguna Beach makes the croissant of tortilla chips with flaky totopos seasoned with just a hint of soy sauce. Siete Foods makes white and blue nixtamalized corn totopos with avocado oil that are delicious and perfect for all of us seed-oil peeps.

Pro Tip: When using store-bought totopos for chilaquiles, warm them up in the skillet before adding the salsa. This will release some of the oil from the totopos and bring them back to crunchy status.

Two Recipes To Take Chilaquiles from Breakfast to Brunch. But first, a playlist to cook from:

Chilaquiles Verdes With Hoja Santa Eggs And Garlicky Beans

Inspired by the iconic eggs you find in Oaxaca draped over hoja santa leaves. My core memory is the moment when I approached the stunning clay comal at Chef Thalia Barrio García’s Cocina de Humo in Oaxaca. The comal is covered in hoja santa leaves and sunnyside-side-up eggs and it’s a beautiful sight. In this recipe, the eggs sit so nicely on chilaquiles verdes with a garlicky bean parsley salad.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times; Styling by Nia Lee / For The Times)

Chilaquiles Verdes With Hoja Santa Eggs Ingredients 

1 pound tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed
½ yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 ¾ cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth (or water)
1 serrano chile, stem removed and roughly chopped
½ cup cilantro, stems and leaves
½ teaspoon cane sugar (optional)
kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
4 fresh hoja santa leaves, rinsed and dried (or substitute shiso leaves)
4 eggs
1 recipe homemade totopos, or 12 ounces store-bought totopos
1 avocado, thinly sliced

Garlicky Beans with Parsley Ingredients

1 teaspoon avocado oil, or other neutral oil, plus more as needed
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 cups cooked cannellini or black beans, homemade or from a 15-ounce can of beans (rinsed and drained)
¼ cup whole parsley leaves
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 avocado, thinly sliced

Step 1
Combine tomatillos, onion, garlic, and broth (or water) in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and partially cover until the tomatillos are dull green and cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the mixture along with the broth and serrano into a blender; purée until smooth. Add cilantro and 1½ teaspoons of salt to the blender. Pulse until smooth. Taste and add sugar if needed.

Step 2
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over the lowest heat setting. Place four hoja santa leaves on a single layer. Season the leaves with ¼ teaspoon of salt and carefully crack one egg over each leaf and season the eggs with a pinch of salt. Partially cover with a lid and cook until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny, 5 to 6 minutes.

Step 3
Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium skillet over low heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add beans and ½ teaspoon of salt, and stir until the beans are warmed through, 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, and stir parsley. Season with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and olive oil.

Step 4
In a large stockpot big enough to fit all the totopos, combine the totopos with the salsa verde over medium-low heat. Gently stir with a spatula until totopos are fully coated, taking care not to let them get too soft (you’re after that soft-chewy-crunchy bite), 3 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Step 5
Divide chilaquiles among plates. Using a spatula, carefully lift the hoja santa eggs off the skillet and place them on top of the chilaquiles. Spoon the beans on the side along with the avocado.

Chilaquiles Rojos With Vallarta-Style Shrimp Salad

This shrimp setup might be familiar to you from my Puerto Vallarta-Style Shrimp Burgers with Sprouts, but for this recipe, I turned it into a glorified salad seasoned with lime juice, thinly sliced onions, sprouts, and cilantro. I know, I really went there and topped chilaquiles rojos with shrimp because it’s perfect?! You’ll want to make shrimp chilaquiles part of your rotation.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times; Styling by Nia Lee / For The Times)

Chilaquiles Rojos Ingredients

1 ½ pounds tomatoes (about 4 large Roma tomatoes)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
3 to 4 large guajillo chiles (1 ounce), stems and seeds removed
1 ½ cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth (or water)
Kosher salt
1 recipe homemade totopos, or 12 ounces store-bought totopos

Vallarta-Style Shrimp Salad

1 teaspoon avocado oil, or other neutral oil
1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 ounces alfalfa, onion, or radish sprouts
½ yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, from 1 lime
1 cup Mexican crema (or sour cream, thinned out with 2 tablespoons of water)

Step 1
In a medium saucepan, bring tomatoes, garlic, guajillos, broth (or water), and 1½ teaspoons of salt to a simmer over medium heat. Partially cover with a lid and cook until the guajillos are soft and pulpy and the tomatoes are bursting out of their skins, 20 minutes. Transfer the tomato mixture along with the liquid into a blender and puree until smooth.

Step 2
Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Season shrimp with ½ teaspoon of salt and lots of freshly ground pepper. Add shrimp and cook until they turn pink and shrimp are just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer shrimp to a medium bowl and cool.

Step 3
In a large stockpot big enough to fit all the totopos, combine the totopos with half of the salsa over medium-low heat. Gently stir with a spatula until totopos are fully coated, taking care not to let them get too soft (you’re after that soft-chewy-crunchy bite), 3 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Step 4
Chop the shrimp into bite-sized pieces and put them back into the bowl. Add sprouts, onion, and cilantro and combine with the shrimp. Season with 1 tablespoon of lime juice and ¼ teaspoon of salt and mix well.

Step 5
Divide chilaquiles among plates. Pour the remaining salsa all over the chilaquiles until all of the totopos are covered in salsa. Spoon crema in the center and top with the shrimp salad. Serve immediately.

Recipes originally published in Los Angeles Times. Please consider becoming a subscriber and supporting local journalism.

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