mild pessimism is the key ingredient

señor dusty’s signature dish (although it is different every time) is chilaquiles. i served as sous chef and chief dish washer on this project, and he requested that i post this, since he is new to cooking, too.

the principle behind this dish is that it is supposed to consume leftovers and culminate in casserole fashion. it is also known as excellent hangover food. so, here is the señor himself to explain his process.

I started trying to make chilaquiles about two and a half years ago. I had tried them for the first time at Kitsch’n and fell in love with the simplicity of the dish. It’s super tasty and will last you a good few days. 

As Karrie said, the main crux of the dish is that you use up leftovers, but it works fantastically for food you need to use before it expires. You can experiment and find the mixture that suits you best, but to date, this is the combination that I find works best for me.

So what’ll you need? This is for a larger sized baking pan or glass pan (9x13):

1. Tortilla chips: I use the remnants of past bags of chips, usually the crumbles and chips too small to dip into jars of salsa. Full size chips work just as well, and stale chips are just as good as fresh.
2. Sour Cream
3. 8 Eggs
4. 1 Red, Yellow, Orange, and Anaheim pepper
5. 2 Limes
6. 1/2 a shallot
7. 1/2 an avocado
8. 1 can of red enchilada sauce
9. 2 chicken breasts
10. 1 1/2 to 2 jars of salsa
11. Shredded cheese (1 bag or 1 lb., Manchego, blended, fiesta or mexican style)
12. Half and Half
13. Chopped cilantro (a few sprigs)
14. Cumin
15. Paprika
16. Cayenne Pepper
17. Salt
18. Pepper

It’s a bunch of stuff, but the whole point is to get rid of things on the verge of going bad. In this case our sour cream, peppers, and salsa were all nearing their end. So the steps:

1. Take your chickens, poke them with sharp things.
2. Fill a glass bowl with the red enchilada sauce
3. Take your poked chickens and let them soak in the sauce. 
4. Add dashes of your cayenne pepper, regular pepper, salt, cumin, and cilantro to the sauce and chicken. Mix together.
5. While your chicken is soaking, cut up your peppers and shallot. Put the cut up bits in a separate bowl. Mix together well.
6. Place the chicken into a pan and cook on 425 degrees for 25 minutes, sauce and all.
7. While the chicken cooks, shred your Manchego cheese. This cheese can be found currently at Trader Joes and probably Whole Foods. I used about 2/3 of a half-pound block.
8. Take your chips and fill cover the bottom of your baking pan.
9. Take your sour cream and cover the chips as much as you wish. The chips will be a pain in the butt to keep still, but it doesn’t have to be pretty.
10. Take your chicken from the oven and let it cool.
11. Cover the sour cream with your chopped up veggies.
12. Cut your avocado into thin slices and place along the pepper and shallots layer.
13. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl.
14. Mix half and half along with some pepper and salt into the eggs.
15. When the mix is good and mixed, pour over the veggie layer.
16. Cut up your chickens and place on top of the veggie layer, pouring the remainder of the enchilada sauce on top.
17. Cover this layer with salsa.
18. Place in the oven and cook on 350 for about 45 minutes to an hour. Poke a hole in the middle to see if the eggs are still runny. If so, place the oven on a lower temperature and keep it going until the eggs are good and fluffy.
19. Cover everything with your cheeses. I’d recommend putting the Manchego on first since it is a fairly thin cheese when shredded. Put it in the oven for another five minutes until everything is good and melty. (For the record, I did  not do this. The dish was quite big and the cheese cooked quite quick. Good future note for myself though.)
20. Take it out, let it cool, and eat that tortilla casserole. You’ve earned it, champ.

señor’s favorite chilaquiles hail from kitsch’n.