Next time you find yourself looking for chicken dinner ideas, give this Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe a try. They are packed full of flavor and come together even faster if you have shredded chicken on hand!
Originally posted March 27, 2009
I have been making this chicken chilaquiles recipe for years now. And every time I make it, I think to myself – why don’t I make this more often? This is one of those dinners that is super easy to throw together and that uses things that I usually already have in my kitchen.
We all know that I am a huge advocate of keeping cooked, shredded chicken on hand. It makes dinner time so much easier on those nights when you just don’t have the energy to cook. I’ll admit that I didn’t even know how to say chilaquiles back when I first published this recipe, but now this is one of my favorite dinners!
What are Chilaquiles
Ok – before I get into what chilaquiles actually are, I have to point out that I know that these are not traditional chilaquiles. These are definitely an easy, shortcut way to make chilaquiles, but the idea of chilaquiles is there.
Traditionally, chilaquiles are a Mexican dish that consists of fried tortilla strips that are topped with a spicy sauce and cheese. Usually, when I’ve had these at a restaurant, the chips are added to the pot with the sauce to cook, so the chips don’t remain super crispy. They are also usually served for breakfast or brunch and are often topped with or served with eggs.
My chilaquiles recipe adds chicken to the red sauce and turns it into a dinner.
How to make Chilaquiles
This chilaquiles recipe is so easy!!
- Start by making the sauce, which consists of garlic, diced tomatoes and chipotles in adobo plus some of the adobo sauce. I remove the seeds from the chipotles because I have kids eating, but if you like the heat, you can leave some or all of the seeds in the chiles. Cook all of this together, along with some water, until it makes a thick sauce.
- Add some cooked, shredded chicken to the mixture and let it heat through. Then, off the heat, stir in some cilantro.
- Place some tortilla chips in a bowl and top with some of the chicken mixture. Top that with sour cream, queso fresco and additional cilantro.
More Mexican Inspired Recipes
Mexican Shredded Beef Baked Taquitos
Mexican Corn Salad
Salsa Verde Chicken
Beef Tostadas
Steaks with Mexican Spices and Chile Con Queso
Mexican Egg and Sweet Potato Breakfast Scramble
Tres Leches Cake
Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 28- ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 chipotle chiles in adobo finely chopped, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
- coarse salt
- 3 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves chopped
- 4 cups tortilla chips
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
Instructions
- Combine oil and garlic in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and sizzling, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add undrained tomatoes, chipotles and adobo, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil; season with salt. Reduce heat and simmer rapidly until lightly thickened, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add chicken and cook, stirring, until hot, about 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in chopped cilantro.
- Divide chips among four shallow bowls; top with chicken mixture and sauce. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, sour cream, and queso fresco. Serve.
MindyW says
This looks pretty tasty! I wonder if you could throw it all in a crockpot with good results?
Grace says
it doesn’t matter how much a person mangles the pronunciation of chilaquiles, they’re delicious. this is my kind of food. 🙂
Cathy says
Those look fantastic! They have found a place on my “recipes to try” list.
clbeth at hotmail dot com
Mandi says
I bought this cokbook a couple years ago, and have LOVED it ever since. I have made these (I pronounce them chili-kellies…with a Utah accent) a couple times and just love them, but they are a trillion times faster with a rotisserie chicken from Costco!
Love your site. I hate getting into the same old, same old rut, and love trying new things..much to my families dismay.
Maria says
My hubs would love this one. That is a great cookbook, I really need to get it, or win it..ha!
steenbok68@gmail.com says
In Mexico these are considered breakfast. I love’em and could eat them any time of the day!
gayle says
Just found your blog, and already I see a couple of dozen recipes I have to try!
I’m going to go do a coin-flip now – Beef Quesadillas or Chicken Chilaquiles for supper tonight…
Thanks for the recipes!
kat says
My husband would dive head first into that!
Jean Bugs says
Someone give me a spoon! This looks awesome:-)
Sophie says
I just bought a whole chicken, I’ll be trying this recipe with the leftovers :). Lol this is actually a fun word to say, but I can see how it can be quite tough to pronounce. I think the first commenter did a good job of providing the pronunciation for it, though :).
Janell says
I just saw a similar recipe for these, but I’m with you—how do you say it??? I’m gonna have to try this recipe soon cause I know we’d like them at our house!!
Beer Lover says
Oh yeah! this one look terrific!
Jingle says
This looks SO good!!!! Thank you for the great recipe!
Anonymous says
Your recipes always look so appetizing. I need to try this recipe-it looks yum!!
robmba says
Ryley has the pronunciation right.
In Mexico, this recipe is a way of using up old stale corn tortillas. They fry the tortillas so you end up with tortilla chips, then throw the chips in with the chicken and sauce. So normally the chips are cooked in the sauce rather than just serving the sauce on top of the chips. It’s a great way to use up all the broken up chips at the bottom of a bag or soggy chips if you leave the bag open when the humidity is high.
Elyse says
I’ve been eying this Martha Everday Food recipe for quite some time, and I think I need to make it after your rave reviews. Yours looks absolutely delicious! (I’ll join you in that confession: I stared at your blog post title for like 2 minutes trying to decide in my head how to pronounce the recipe name :). However it’s pronounced, it sure looks yummy!