As we know, I am extremely fond of the concept of stacking my favorite foods on top of each other and calling it a meal. Well, I love eggs in almost all their iterations and I love Mexican food (both authentic and not-remotely-authentic).
Imagine the joy I felt the day I realized you could combine the two in the form of… huevos rancheros! There’s no Cuisine Police or anything to tell you to knock it off, no matter how much your execution falls short of The Real Deal.
In the process of typing up this post, I looked up an authentic Mexican huevos rancheros recipe. I’ll be frank: this ain’t it (though I do intend to try to make that at some point because it looks incredible). I am but a humble lazy person looking to combine some of my favorite foods all in one dish, which is why I call this “breakfast nachos” rather than misleading anyone into thinking it’s a dish that requires some level of finesse.
Full disclosure: the above photo is not something I made. I got it at a diner in Bristol, Pennsylvania after a night hike a couple of years ago. I was wearing a mask because, y’know, pandemic. A guy yelled at me to take it off and screamed something about “Joe Biden’s America” and then got absolutely furious when I flipped him off and told him to run along. THE PANDEMIC WAS GREAT, GUYS. I’M SO GLAD WE ALL WEATHERED A SHARED TRAUMA TOGETHER AND WE’RE ALL BETTER FOR IT.
Anyway, I’m using this photo because no matter how hard I try, I cannot get a nice photo of my breakfast nachos, but I use almost exactly these ingredients. They always, ALWAYS look gross when I make them, no matter how meticulous I am. Alas. My compliments to the chef at the Original Golden Eagle Diner.
BUT I DIGRESS. This recipe has merely suggested measurements and not anything that’s hard and fast, and that’s because this tends to be what I make when I’m kinda hungover or feeling hungry but too tired to make anything. I recommend the strategy of dumping food you like on top of other food you like to anyone and everyone.
If you’re like me and always have some basic Mexican food components in your house, you might enjoy this!
Breakfast Nachos
Stack your favorite breakfast foods on top of each other for a delicious breakfast/lunch/sad dinner.
Ingredients
- A handful of tortilla chips or broken up hard taco shells
- 1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican blend
- 1 avocado or 3 tbsp of ready-made guacamole
- 1/4 C ready-made pico de gallo
- 1/2 C salsa
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tbsp butter
- Smoked paprika, to taste
- Cumin, to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Scatter your tortilla chips on the foil-lined tray and sprinkle with cheese.
- Once your oven is preheated, pop the cheese-covered chips in for 5-10 minutes or until melted. If the cheese is melted before the eggs are done, cover the chips with foil.
- While chips are in the oven, melt butter in a pan.
- Break the egg over the pan and season with salt, pepper, a dash of smoked paprika, and a dash of cumin.
- Cook to desired doneness. I like over-easy because then the yolk seeps down over the chips and the cheese and BOY HOWDY IT IS SO FUCKING GOOD.
- Remove cheesy tortilla chips from oven.
- Slide the egg carefully onto the cheesy chips.
- Top with other ingredients (avocado, pico de gallo, etc).
- Eat with gusto; feel like a chef while trying to get a little bit of everything onto each chip.
Notes
This can be as fancy or as simple as you want it to be. Your fridge leftovers will make the call.
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