Huevos Rancheros

I'd never tried Huevos Rancheros before. I'd always wanted to, and for a long time was on the look out for a good recipe. Well, I found it. I had nothing to compare it to, but Bobby did. He said they were the best Huevos Rancheros he'd ever had. Bobby has a lot of favorite recipes in my repertoire, but it's been a while since he's added a new one to his top 10. This one may have made the cut, which made me really happy. The sauce itself was way too spicy for my kiddos, so they got quesadillas instead. If you want to serve this to your kids, I would recommend cutting back on the peppers. Not us, though. I'm going to keep making it the way I did. Mmmm, mmmm!

Huevos Rancheros
recipe from Martha Stewart

I've always been intrigued by recipes that require soaking dried chilies in boiling water and then pulverizing them in a blender to make a delicious red sauce. It was every bit as great as I imagined it would be.

Ingredients

Serves 4 .

• 2 mild to medium-hot dried chilies (such as New Mexico or Anaheim), cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed
• 1 small yellow onion, cut lengthwise into 6 wedges with a bit of root end attached
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 cloves garlic, skin on
• 1 jalapeno chile
• 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 5 whole canned tomatoes, without juice
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 8 large eggs
• 8 corn tortillas (6 inches each), warmed
• Cotija, Chihuahua, or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded, for serving
• Cilantro, coarsely chopped, for serving
• Sour cream, for serving

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Add dried chiles to dry skillet and toast on all sides, pressing down on them with a spatula, about 1 minute per side. Remove from heat and place in a large bowl; pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water over chiles, and place a small heatproof plate on top to keep them submerged. Let soak for 20 minutes.
3. Add a teaspoon of oil to the skillet and swirl to just coat the bottom. Add onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook until charred on all sides, about 8 minutes, removing garlic if skins begin to burn. Remove skins from garlic and place in the jar of a blender. Cut jalapeno in half lengthwise, removing ribs and seeds; add to blender along with onion, chipotle peppers, tomatoes, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, honey, chiles, and their soaking liquid. Blend until smooth. In the same skillet over high heat, heat remaining 5 teaspoons canola oil until almost smoking. Add sauce to the pan, being careful as it will splatter. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 2 minutes. Stir in lime juice, and remove the skillet from the heat. Crack eggs into the skillet and transfer to oven. Cook until egg whites are cooked through and yolks are still runny, about 5 minutes. (I gave them seven minutes.)
4. Place 2 tortillas each on 4 individual plates. Top each with 2 eggs and sauce. Garnish as desired with cheese, cilantro, and sour cream.

Note: We folded them up like tacos and ate them that way. There was a lot of extra sauce. I put all the extra sauce in the fridge and we had it again the next night. We were almost out of corn tortillas, so I used flour instead and actually preferred it.