Christmas Chilaquiles

A couple years ago, on one of our many long car trips back from Montreal, my husband and I made a pitstop for some vittles and beer. We happened to land upon a taco joint in the middle of Nowhere, VT, run by extremely stoned hippies. Hippies who made damn good Mexican food. The tousled gamin behind the counter asked about sauce preference; when we asked for both red & green options he said with a shaggy grin, "we call that Christmas". We ate our Christmas enchiladas and took that description back home with us to make our own, along with some of their delicious salsa verde.

Chilaquiles is a dish I'm very fond of, especially when you just want to throw something comforting and savory together quickly. With leftover roasted chicken, salsas from the local taqueria in the fridge (they make 'em better than I do, anyway) and stale tortillas begging for a purpose, this is a great clean-out-the-kitchen dish as well. Plus, it's always fun to have Christmas in July. 

Apologies for the iPhone photo - DSLR will be back in action soon.

Christmas Chilaquiles
Makes 3-4 servings

*Vegetable oil
*1 cup salsa verde
*1 cup salsa rojo

*2 cups shredded chicken, divided

*10 stale corn tortillas, cut into wedges

*Sour cream, cotija cheese, lime wedges, cilantro for serving

Preheat the oven to 400. In a heavy pot heat a couple inches of vegetable oil to fry the tortilla wedges. In batches, fry the tortillas until crisp and browned, and drain on paper towels. Take two smallish baking dishes and ladle a little bit of the salsa verde in one, and the salsa rojo in the other. Toss the cups of chicken with a little respective sauce and then layer tortilla chips, ladles of salsa and shredded chicken in each baking dish. Repeat until all the chips have been used. Bake for 10-15 minutes, then serve by portioning out red and green salsa'd chilaquiles on a plate together. Add a dollop of sour cream + any other fixin's, and enjoy.