Chilaquiles

Ingredients:

For the green salsa:

• 4-5 tomatillos

• 1 medium white onion

• 3 garlic cloves

• 2 jalapeños 

• Salt (to taste) 

• Cilantro

  For the rest:

• A bag of chips from a Mexican bodega

• Queso Cotija (cotija cheese)

• Cilantro, about a tablespoon

• 2 Avocados

• Crema mexicana (Mexican sour cream)

• 1 Purple onion

• 1 Habanero 

• 2 lemons for juice

• Pinch of salt

Preparation:

Fresh green salsa that I made in the molcajete. If the molcajete is small like mine, I recommend making the salsa in batches.

Before cooking anything, you should make the purple onion mixture that will serve as a topping. Slice your purple onion into slivers. Place them in a bowl. Next, chop your habanero pepper into tiny cubes. You can skip this step if you’re not into spice. Lastly, add the juice from two lemons, and a generous pinch of salt. Set aside so they mix well.

On high, heat up your skillet or grill and roast your tomatillos, garlic, jalapeños, and onion. Once all sides of the veggies are nice and charcoaled, remove from the heat and let them sit in a bowl to cool down. Once cooled, peel the skins. Cut the tomatillos into quarters and dice the onion and the peppers. In a molcajete (mortar and pestle) drop in the garlic and a pinch of salt. Grind them down into a paste. Add the tomatillos, one quarter at a time. Mash them up. Next add the peppers and onion. Chop about a handful of cilantro and toss it in there. If your molcajte gets too full at any point, empty it into a bowl and continue grinding down the roasted veggies to make the salsa (See image to the right). You can also skip the molcajete and place the veggies and salt in a blender with about 1/2 cup of water. Blend them up and set the salsa aside.

Cooking:

Adding the cotija and cilantro.

Heat up your skillet to medium heat add the salsa. Add the chips and mix in with the salsa for about 10 mins. Top them off with crumbled cotija cheese, cilantro (as pictured to the right), a drizzle of the Mexican sour cream, the pickled purple onions, and half an avocado, sliced per serving (4 servings for this recipes).