Aurora’s Chilaquiles is the perfect example of a recipe that lives in a family long before it ever lives on paper. We make them on slow mornings at home, but they are also special enough to be served at a tornaboda. A tornaboda is the morning meal after a wedding, when everyone is tired, hungry, and in need of something comforting and real. Party too hard? Chilaquiles!
Like all good Mexican dishes, chilaquiles come with a debate. Do you simmer the chips in the pot of salsa, or do you plate the chips and pour the salsa over the top? The 'in the pot' method started as a way to use up old tortillas, letting them soften slowly in the sauce. But unless you are working with stale tortillas or very thick chips, they tend to get soggy and fall apart.
Our family has always done it the other way: chips on the plate, hot salsa ladled over. It softens them just enough while still keeping some body, and you get more salsa on your plate, which is never a bad thing. When we started making this recipe for Bradleigh's American family, they fell for it so hard that even her cousins learned how to make it. We still laugh about the fact that a grandma’s chilaquiles recipe traveled all the way from Mexico City to a small Indian reservation in California.
