Pheasant Chilaquiles
A popular brunch dish that tosses chips with a smoky sauce and tops with shredded pheasant or quail meat
Chilaquiles is a Mexican dish that features tortilla chips coated in a piquant sauce of tomato and smoky dried peppers. This dish is often attributed to the Aztecs, a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico from the 14th to 16th centuries. Unsurprisingly, the corn tortilla was a staple food for them—a tradition that is still alive and well today.
Historians say that the Aztecs created chilaquiles to use up stale corn tortillas. In the ancient Nahuatl language, the word chílítl means chili and quíllté means greens or herbs. Therefore, chilaquiles was a way for Aztecs to economize and repurpose leftover food.
A popular dish for breakfast or brunch, topping chilaquiles with a fried egg is common, but among those who hunt, upland game birds such as pheasant or quail work wonderfully well in chilaquiles. I simmered pheasant directly in the salsa roja until tender, which adds its meaty flavor to the sauce. Plus, gently cooking the sauce for a couple hours helps to create depth and incorporate the flavors.
Pheasant Chilaquiles
Ingredients
Method
- To make the sauce: Remove stems and split each chile lengthwise to remove the seeds; add more chile de arbol if you like a spicier sauce. Rinse chiles with water and place in a medium saucepan. Cut an “X” through the skin of each tomato. Submerge chiles and tomatoes with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute. Take off heat, and then remove tomato and set aside on a cutting board. Cover the saucepan and allow chiles to soak for 10 minutes.
- Add peeled and seeded tomatoes to a blender, along with one clove of garlic, quarter of an onion, 1½ teaspoons of kosher salt, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and rehydrated chiles. Add 1½ cups of chile water to the blender. Blend until smooth.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Season pheasant pieces with salt and place them in a medium enameled Dutch oven. Pour the salsa roja over the pheasant and bring to a simmer. Then cover the Dutch oven and bake in the oven for 2 hours, or until pheasant becomes tender. Stir halfway through and check that the sauce isn’t scorching—add a splash of water if needed.
- About 20 minutes before the pheasant is ready, cut the tortillas into eighths. Heat 2 inches of oil in a medium saucepan to 350 degrees. Fry tortilla wedges in batches until golden and crispy, about 4 minutes, allowing the oil to come back to temperature with each new batch. Drain on paper towels.
- Remove pheasant from sauce and shred. Reheat the sauce over the stove—add a splash of water if it seems dry. Then take off heat. Add fried tortilla chips to the warmed sauce and gently stir to coat. Transfer coated tortilla to plates. Garnish to taste with shredded pheasant, crumbled cotija cheese, crema, radish, red onion, cilantro and avocado. Serve immediately.
