Wild Turkey Chilaquiles Verde
Is it breakfast? Is it lunch? Is it dinner? Or is it all three?! This recipe is like those choose-your-own-adventure books I read as a kid. You can have it anytime, day or night, and that’s the wonderful part about this go-to Mexican comfort food recipe.
If you want to make it more of a breakfast or brunch dish, throw a couple of sunny side or scrambled eggs on top. You can also choose to keep your chips crunchy or soft, depending on how long you cook the dish. I like my chips to sit in the middle and soften as I eat them. Today, I made this dish for lunch, but most of the time, I like it piled high for breakfast.
Anytime I find myself south of the border in Mexico, chilaquiles are one of the first things I try to find to start my day.
They are typically made Oaxacan style with a smoky dried chile pasilla that is rehydrated and then blended with tomatoes. My grocery store didn’t have a single dried chili, so I went with my other favorite style, the verde.
This sauce is cooked with roasted tomatillos, garlic and jalapeño and blended to form a tangy and smoky goodness that’s a wonderful savory base for this dish. You can and should try to make your own tortilla chips for this, but using them out of a bag is easy and still tastes great. I like to boil and shred one wild turkey breast from my harvest each year for dishes just like this.
Finish with some Mexican crema (or Greek yogurt or sour cream), sliced onion, cilantro and queso fresco. Enjoy!
Serves 2.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 pound of tomatillos, husked and rinsed
- 1 fresh jalapeño, stemmed
- 2 garlic cloves, skin on
- 1/2 of a medium white onion, sliced thin
- 1 cup of chicken broth
- 1 cup of shredded wild turkey
- 5 cups of tortilla chips (or 5 large handfuls)
- Salt
- Cilantro
- Mexican crema
- Queso fresco cheese
- Eggs, if making for breakfast or brunch
Instructions
- Spread out tomatillos, jalapeño and garlic in a cast iron skillet or cookie sheet, and roast under a broil until the tomatillo skins are blackened and soft—about six minutes. Turn everything over and roast on the other side for six more minutes. Remove from the oven and place into a blender or food processor, scraping all the juices from the pan. Blend until smooth.
- Place cast iron or pan back on a burner to medium-high heat. Add oil, and once oil is shimmering, slowly add the tomatillo sauce into the pan, stirring frequently, until the sauce has darkened and thickened—about eight minutes.
- Add the chicken broth and bring to a simmer, stirring to combine for about five minutes.
- Taste the sauce and season with salt to your liking.
- The sauce should be soupy but not thin. If it’s not thickening, then cook longer. If it reduces too quickly, add more chicken stock to get it back to the consistency of soup.
- Add the shredded turkey to the sauce.
- Add the tortilla chips to the sauce, careful not to break them.
- Turn off the heat and stir the sauce with the chips, making sure every chip has sauce on it.
- If you like your chips extra crunchy, then immediately transfer to a plate. If you want them a bit softer, let the chips sit in the pan with the sauce for about four or five minutes before transferring.
- Garnish with Mexican crema, onions, cilantro and cheese.