Tags
army, bacon, barracks, breakfast, camp pendleton, chow, cooking, eggs, food, huevos rancheros, IMEF, marines, mexican, microwave cooking, military, pasilla pepper
Riddle: What do you get when you cross the most important meal of the day with the best selling ethnic food in the USA?
The answer: Mexican breakfast!
Now, what do you get if you take one of the most popular Mexican breakfast dishes and make it with as few tools as possible in your barracks room?
It should come as no surprise that the answer there is MICROWAVE HUEVOS RANCHEROS!!
This simple, addictive dish does vary a bit from its stovetop counterpart as you don’t fry the eggs and salsa is nearly impossible to make with the cutting utensils you are authorized to have in the BEQ, but overall the flavors remain intact. The best part is that it is ready in half the time as the original.
Plus it beats anything (besides bacon) that the chowhall is serving up in the AM.
One caveat to note before launching into the recipe is that when we made this dish in the Chow NCOIC test kitchen we hand chopped the vegetables. You may also use a premade pico de gallo salsa and spare yourself the additional effort of cutting up your veggies.
While this dish may differ slightly from the original, it is still vibrant and flavorful enough to make you scream “Ole!” at breakfast or any time of the day. It may even inspire you to begin calling your morning meal Mexfast in its honor.
Microwave Huevos Rancheros
Makes 2 servings
Ingredients
½ roma tomatoe, chopped
2 tbsp white onion, chopped
2 ½ tbsp. pasilla pepper, chopped
4 eggs
2 tortillas (corn or flour)
¼ cup enchilada sauce
¼ cup queso quesadilla cheese
2 tbsp. real bacon bits
2 tbsp. olive oil or butter
2 tbsp. green onion, chopped
2 tbsp. sour cream, divided
Salt & pepper (toi taste)
Tapatio hot sauce (to taste)
Preparation
- Mix chopped vegetables together in a small bowl.
- Place eggs and enchilada sauce in a medium size mixing bowl and whisk until well blended.
- Stir vegetables into egg mixture
- Place 1 tortilla each in 2 microwave safe bowls. Brush with olive oil or margarine to prevent eggs from sticking to tortilla\
- Pour equal amounts of egg and vegetable mixture on top of each tortilla. Top with cheese and bacon bits.
- Microwave on high for 3 ½ to 4 ½ minutes until the eggs are puffed up in the middle and cooked through (Microwave ovens vary). Check doneness by poking a toothpick into the top. Toothpick should come out clean.
- Top with green onions and sour cream.
- Enjoy for breakfast or anytime!