Chilaquiles From The Tasting Table Test Kitchen
Make chilaquiles for dinner. Or breakfast. Or now.
Chips and salsa are plenty good. But how about chips in salsa?
Chilaquiles, that genius Mexican invention of tortilla chips smothered in sauce, then tricked out with toppings (radishes, cilantro, cotija cheese, onions, shredded chicken or even last night's barbecued pork), come in many variations. The sauce can be rojo, with tomatoes, or verde, made with tomatillos. But we think we've created the simplest sauce yet (get the recipe here).
Our test kitchen devised a green sauce using a jar of store-bought tomatillo salsa amped up with sautéed garlic, jalapeño and white onions, plus a generous handful of cilantro.
When it comes to the chips themselves, there are two schools of thought: They can be seriously soaked with sauce, almost dissolving entirely, or be lightly coated so that they stay crisp. We like the second option, and use thick-cut tortilla chips as the foundation. Marry the chips with the sauce, finish with the toppings, and you have chilaquiles.
Recipe from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen
Skillet Chilaquiles with Tomatillo Sauce
Chilaquiles from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola or grapeseed oil
- 1 small white onion, half of the onion finely chopped, the other half thinly sliced
- 1 jalapeño, finely chopped (seeded for less heat)
- 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups store-bought tomatillo salsa
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more if needed
- 1½ cups roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves, divided
- 7 cups thick-cut tortilla chips (preferably fried fresh or from your favorite Mexican restaurant)
- 3 radishes, thinly sliced
- ½ cup crumbled cotija cheese
Directions
- In a large, deep skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the finely chopped onion, the jalapeño and the garlic and cook, stirring often, until the onions start to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until reduced by half and the onion mixture looks chunky rather than soupy, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the tomatillo salsa and the ½ teaspoon salt, increase the heat to medium-high and simmer for 2 minutes.
- Transfer the tomatillo sauce to a food processor or blender. Add 1 cup of the cilantro and process or blend until smooth, about 30 seconds. Taste and add more salt if needed (you may want to keep the sauce under-seasoned if the tortilla chips you're using are heavily salted).
- Add 1 cup of the tomatillo sauce back to the skillet and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Add the chips in an even layer and cover with the remaining sauce. Cover the skillet and cook until the chips are semi-crisp (chips on the bottom of the skillet will be softer than those at the surface), 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chips. Turn off the heat and serve in the skillet, sprinkled with the remaining sliced onion, the remaining ½ cup chopped cilantro, the radishes and the cotija cheese.