Migas: A Mexican Breakfast

I'm not much of a breakfast person, but Greg is so I have to change up the menu occasionally to keep him happy. At my wits' end for ideas, I hailed back to a breakfast my mother used to make for us. Migas. It's basically pieces of corn tortillas in scrambled eggs.

Migas in Spanish means crumbs. It's real peasant food, and how my mom used to keep us fed when grocery money had to stretch.

Why is it special? It's the sweetness of the corn tortillas that really takes the eggs to a whole new taste level. If you look up migas on the internet or have it at a Mexican restaurant, they throw in all sorts of extra ingredients, but traditional migas is very simple fare. Add the extra ingredients if you must, but try it plain first to see how you like it.

Here's the recipe.

Migas: Serves 2

• 4-6 Corn tortillas cut into squares
  Note: It's usually 1 tortilla per egg, but I love
the crispy tortilla bits and there's an excellent chance
some won't make it to the table.
Extras are always better.
• 4 Eggs
• Salt to taste

Extras:
• 1/3 cup Cheese, Cheddar, Jack, or Cotija cheese
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• Seeded jalapeno diced fine
• Seeded tomato, diced fine
• Sausage

Start by cutting the corn tortillas into squares. Some people fry the tortillas whole and then cut them into squares, but that's putting the cart before the horse. Cut the squares while the tortillas are cold. This way you won't burn your fingers trying to make those squares from hot tortillas.

Fry the tortillas squares in a pan with a good layer of oil. They fry up crisp in a matter of minutes so make sure your other ingredients are prepped and your eggs are already stirred in a bowl and ready to pour. Salt to taste.

I like onions, so once the tortillas pieces are browning, I toss in the onion. At this point you can also put in jalapeno, tomatoes, or sweet peppers into the mix. Fry until the onions are soft. If you have too much oil left over after everything is fried, pour out the excess before you add the eggs.

Make a hole in the pan and add the stirred eggs. Quickly fold the eggs gently to cook, then mix in the tortilla squares as it continues cooking. Add cheese and meld it into the mixture.

You can top it with a little cotija cheese, a white Mexican cheese that has the crumbly texture of feta. It's on the salty side, but great on Mexican dishes.

I can't begin to tell you satisfying this is. Thank goodness for Greg and his fickle appetite. He asked me why I had never made this before in our 42 years of marriage. I honestly didn't think he would like it, but I was wrong. He asks for this often.

Have you ever had migas? Is this something you might try?

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