I love Chilaquiles, and typically make them for breakfast, but the other day I got a hankering for them around dinner time after discovering I had roughly 42 corn tortillas on hand! Chilaquiles (pronounced chee-law-KEY-lays) is a Mexican dish consisting mostly of tortillas, cheese, and salsa, usually served with eggs. I’ve tweaked my version to make it as quick and easy to prepare as possible. For this recipe, you’ll need 20 corn tortillas, 2 cups of red or green enchilada sauce, 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey, 1 16 oz. jar of chunky salsa, 2 cups of sharp cheddar (divided in 3), 2 cups part skim mozzarella (divided in 3). I use Las Palmas Enchilada Sauce and Ortega Salsa for the sauces in the recipe because they taste good to me, are quick and convenient, and have all natural ingredients.
Since I was making this for dinner, I wanted to add a more substantial protein to the dish than eggs, so I used ground turkey. Brown the 1 1/4 pounds of ground turkey in a large frying pan, to be exact. While it’s browning, chop 20 corn tortillas into about 1 inch pieces (they don’t have to be exact – I have larger and smaller pieces in mine).
When the turkey is finished browning, drain the meat, and then return it to the frying pan.
Drain the meat to remove excess fat
Add the drained turkey back into the frying pan.
Next, add the chunky salsa to the meat.
Mix up the meat and salsa really well to incorporate them.
Now, on to the tortilla pieces! To make clean up easier, use one 9 x 13 baking pan to mix up the enchilada sauce and tortilla pieces and to construct the casserole. First, in the 9 x 13 baking dish, layer out half the tortilla pieces, and cover with 1 cup of the enchilada sauce. Then, layer the other half of the tortilla pieces and cover with the other 1 cup of enchilada sauce. Mix up really well to cover all tortilla pieces in the enchilada sauce, then remove the mixture to the cutting board.
Half of the tortilla pieces covered by one cup of enchilada sauce
Now, put together the casserole by layering 1/3 of the tortilla pieces, then 1/3 of the turkey meat/salsa mix, then 1/3 each of the mozzarella and sharp cheddar cheese.
Tortillas, then meat
Add cheeses
Repeat the layering process twice…tortilla pieces, meat, cheese
Finish with the cheeses!
I didn’t have the queso (cheese) typically used to make them, cotija or queso fresco, so I substituted mozzarella and bit of sharp cheddar (because I like that sharp flavor). You can always replace my cheeses with the Mexican cheeses. I particularly like the cotija with chilaquiles. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes, until the cheese on top has completely melted and slightly crispy in spots.
Can’t wait to dig in!
Serve with corn as a side dish, or, for a one-dish variation, add a 15 oz. can of corn (drained) to the casserole layers. Enjoy!
Common Sense Country Girl 