Huevos Rancheros

Eggs, Ranch Style

eggs If you like Mexican and Southwestern food, why not have some for breakfast? Huevos Rancheros is not a difficult dish to make, and tastes great, though not all find it visually appealing when the sauce is more green than red, as in some recipes.

George C. Booth mentions the dish in his 1964 work, The Food and Drink of Mexico, and my fairly traditional recipe - with a nice red sauce - is similar.

6 eggs
6 flour tortillas
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 small green chiles
1 tbsp. garlic powder
2 cups tomato sauce
2 drops Tabasco sauce (optional)

Fry the tortillas in the vegetable oil in a large pan, but only slightly - they should not get crisp. Place them on the side, then sauté the onion and chiles. Add the tomato sauce and garlic powder, and cook on medium heat for about seven minutes. Fry the eggs sunny side up, then put each egg on a tortilla, pour the tomato sauce (with optional Tabasco sauce added) over everything, and serve.

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Variations

There are tons of variations on the above recipe, most of them good, some easier. Try these ideas:

Instead of making the tomato sauce with the onions, chiles, and garlic powder, just buy some green chile salsa, heat it in a small saucepan on the stove or in the microwave, and use that as the sauce. Much quicker!
Try scrambled eggs, instead of eggs sunny side up.
Add some shredded pepper jack cheese on top of everything; how can you go wrong adding shredded cheese to a dish?

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