Rick Classic Makes Chilaquiles

Esta Noche en Sabado Gigente it's Chilaquiles!

Soy Rick!

We are making chilaquiles today.

It's basically kind of whatever you have from leftover.

It's not a complicated meal.

It's just a really good, often times, breakfast meal.

For this, because we don't have any leftovers,

I'm actually going to make a green sauce.

It's a sauce that I like a lot.

It's super easy.

It's a roasted tomatillo sauce.

You roast the vegetables, throw it in the blender,

then take rotisserie chicken or a leftover piece of chicken,

shred it up, toss them together and ladle it

over your fried tortillas.

So, what we're going to do first is we are going

to make the sauce.

So, we have jalapeno, we have poblano, we have cubanelle,

we have some green onion, we have a white onion,

some fresh oregano, garlic, and tomatillos.

And because it's me and I like animal fat,

I'm using schmaltz.

You don't have to use schmaltz.

You can use lard, you can use olive oil, you can use

vegetable oil.

You just need a little bit of fat to

help everything roast evenly.

You can do this definitely without any fat if you were

watching what you ate.

So, I'm going to season this pretty liberally.

So the thing that the oil does - the heat is

evenly distributed when you coat the surface in fat.

If you just left this dry, it's not going to brown

quite as nicely.

The fat just gives an extra layer of absorption

for all the heat that's going to be bearing down

on all these veg.

Since we're using chicken, it's just going to intensify

all the umami and the chicken flavor

that is going to be in the rotisserie chicken.

We're going to pick that up in the veg as well.

We definitely want everything to be soft.

We want a little bit of caramelization, but not a whole lot.

Okay, wait, just stop right there.

Okay, we literally bought this package today, right?

Check this out.

These are already cracking because they are dry

and disgusting, okay?

This is what you get, unfortunately, in the United States

when you buy packaged tortillas.

I just wanted to show you the difference

between this and this.

This is a homemade tortilla, and this is Mission.

First of all, they shouldn't be dry and cracking like

just out of the bag.

They should be at least be, like, somewhat fresh.

[Man off Camera] Rick, I think you could use this

as like a drink coaster.

I wouldn't even dirty the bottom of my glass with this.

[Man Off Camera] [mumbles]

[laughing]

So when I actually go to the store and I'm shopping

for corn tortillas, if you can find ones that have a little

condensation on the inside of the bag, that is at least

a hint of indication that they were packaged somewhat fresh,

and that there's still moisture present.

They should also not be sticking to one another,

so a lot of times, I will literally pick up the bag,

and then just give it a little twist.

Now, once you've made your purchase, what I tend to do is

I'll just put on a low flame, just put it directly

on the burner.

Get a little bit of the black marks because it's going to

actually pull out some of the corn flavor, and the charring

will give you a little bit of bitterness, which will

actually compensate for the sourness of the preservative.

So, that is how I cope with corn tortillas in the U.S.

But, if possible, it is really, really a game-changer

when you start making your own corn tortillas.

All right.

So, what we want to do, and I am going to fry up

some of these, just to show you how they fry up.

There's no real set way on how you should do this.

I like strips, usually about half an inch, but it's kind of

fun to do little bitty strips.

You can also just break them up into pieces if you wanted

to do that.

This is probably the way that you might see them in Mexico.

These are really good.

I'm going to go ahead and give these another little cut.

I'm going to keep these separate, because I'm not sure

that they are going to cook at the same speed.

So, we are going to fry these at 350.

I've got about three inches of oil in this large pot here.

I'm going to go ahead and drop these in.

As much as I shit on store-bought tortillas, I will say

that once they are fried, they are actually really good.

You want to brown a little bit so that

they don't stick to one another.

You can actually pull one out to test it, but they will

get slightly golden-brown.

This is super hot, so don't do this at home.

But, you can see it is still a little bendy.

It's not completely crisp.

So, we're going to keep it going, so you can see they are

starting to go brown now.

I'm going to go ahead and pull them because they will

actually continue to brown as they sit because the

oil is super hot.

Even the oil that is on the tortilla itself.

And then, this is actually important.

Anytime you fry, whether it's french fries, or fish,

or chicken, you want to salt as soon as they come out,

even while there is oil still present.

Give them a little shake.

What happens when you put salt on hot fried food

is that it is reabsorbed back in, whereas if you waited

until it cooled down and then salted, the salt will

just stay on the surface.

By the way, this apron, my friend made this in Mexico City.

His name is Damian.

He's awesome; highly recommend.

So, I'm just going to peel the garlic, because we don't

want to blend garlic peel.

The oregano, you can pull the leaves off if you want.

It actually, fresh oregano imparts a pretty strong flavor,

even just sitting on top of the veg while they roast.

One of the reasons why I like this sauce a lot is because

it's so easy.

You just roast the veg and then throw it all in the blender.

I'm going to add a little bit of coriander,

a little bit of cumin, and some white vinegar.

All right, so I'm just going to add a little bit of water

to thin it out a little bit.

Also, I want it to be a little bit chunky.

If I was doing this for tamales, or enchiladas,

I might want it a little bit thicker.

Taste.

Mmmm, that's good.

[blender whirring]

Okay, that looks good.

So, this is shredded rotisserie chicken.

I'm going to just toss it in the sauce.

And you don't want the sauce too loose.

I want the chicken to absorb the flavor of the sauce.

Let's say you were only making this for two people,

and you wanted to use half the chicken.

You could make the sauce, freeze a pint of it, and then

next time you want to make Chilaquiles or chicken tacos,

actually would be really good, just pull it out.

Or you could make enchiladas.

So yeah, it's a really versatile sauce.

So, I'm going to top this with our chicken.

I just have some Monterey Jack here.

If you have some Oaxacan cheese, that would be great.

You could use queso fresco, but you're not going to get

quite that melty deliciousness.

Monterey Jack is just good, too.

All right, I'm just going to run this under the broiler

for maybe a minute or two.

This is one of those situations where you really need to

know your broiler.

I know that these ovens suck and that the broilers

don't really work that well, so I have the rack

on the highest position, but this is not the point where

you want to walk away and go deal with kids, or make

a phone call, or text anybody, because depending on your

broiler, it could take literally thirty seconds.

[Man Off Camera] Do you want to fry an egg while you're-

Do you have enough time to?

Yes, I'm sure.

So, I like my chilaquiles with a fried egg on top.

Wow, just barely warm.

It's like broiling under a candle.

Thanks, Wolf.

[laughter]

Since I'm already using schmaltz in the vegetables,

I thought, Why not fry an egg in schmaltz?

I mean, how bad can that be?

So, you want to get a really nice hot pan.

Throw a little schmaltz in there.

Make sure it's nice and hot.

You should start to see little wisps of smoke.

I'm going to go ahead and crack the egg

into this little bowl just to be ready.

I'm going to go ahead and drop this egg in.

Yes!

[crackle of egg frying]

Fry, egg, fry.

And in case you didn't believe me, look, the cheese

isn't even melted yet.

[Man Off Camera] Wow.

Anybody got a blow torch?

[laughing]

Okay, I'm tired of waiting, and we at least have a

little bit of browning.

That actually does look really good.

Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm.

This looks so good.

Cheese pull!

Yeeessssss.

Oh my God, that is what you want to see.

[Man Off Camera] Take that, internet!

Yes!

[Man Off Camera] So, this is like three servings

on the sheet tray?

Also, I have my schmaltz-fried egg.

[Man Off Camera] I forgot we even fried an egg!

[laughing]

Right, yeah well, it was like half an hour ago.

All right, so toppings.

As with a lot of Mexican food, there is always

the accoutrements.

So, definitely I need a little bit of freshness from onion,

and some cilantro, a little radish for color.

This is queso fresco, which is nice, a little fresh cheese.

And we'll do a little dollop of crema, just to cut the heat.

A little bit of avocado, a squeeze of lime obviously.

Mmmm.

That looks really good.

All right, so I'm going to invite my friend Matt to come

and join me, but I actually don't want to eat that.

I want to eat this.

[Man Off Camera] Matt, are you mad about that?

Yeah, I mean.

I'm not mad at all about that.

Oh look, Ryan, you're just in time.

[laughing]

I like the sheet tray better.

I'm just going to get under that.

That salsa is so bomb.

[crunching]

Uh huh.

That's really good.

Nice and crunchy.

This is so good.

Can I eat off the top of it?

You do you.

Okay, here we go.

[Man Off Camera] That is so beautiful, no one will eat it.

Oh yeah.

I'll eat it.

I'm glad you like it.

I'm glad you were into this idea of like eating

off the sheet tray.

But that's the thing about this, it's like it's total

comfort food.

It's not pretentious, it's easy to make, it's easy to share.

And a lot of fun to eat on a sheet tray, so try it.

It's a lot of fun to eat.

It is, yeah, use your hands.

Am I just building now?

[Matt] Yes, Colton, let's linger on this

for just a second.

[Man Off Camera] Let's cast a lingering gaze on this.

[laughing]

[Matt] Oh, yeah.

[Ryan] [mumbles]

[Matt] Everything you see here that the light touches

will one day be yours.

[laughing]