Tex-Mex Migas With Scrambled Eggs, Tortilla Chips, and Chiles Recipe

These migas may be a hangover killer, but even if you haven't overindulged, it's still a killer breakfast option.

A plate of Tex-Mex migas next to beans.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Why This Recipe Works

  • Pre-salting the eggs helps them retain moisture and cook up more tender.
  • Pre-salting and draining the tomato prevents it from dumping water into the eggs.
  • Poblano pepper adds a more intense capsicum flavor, without making the dish too spicy.

As I'm working on a recipe for the Tex-Mex version of migas*—scrambled eggs with onion, tomato, chile, and tortilla chips, I have to admit, though, that there's an inherent contradiction in trying to perfect a recipe that seems to be designed as hangover food. I'm not sure whether Tex-Mex migas started as a morning-after headache cure, but I have to believe that's one of the main appeals of a breakfast dish that's made from stomach-friendly ingredients like eggs and tortillas, with just enough punch to blow the dust off plastered eyes.**

*Not to be confused with the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexican versions of migas, which are all different.

**Another of its appealing characteristics is that it's darned tasty.

As simple as the dish is, there's quite a bit of opportunity for things to go wrong. Or, if not wrong, at least not quite right. The first, a pet peeve of mine, is when eggs are served with undercooked onions. I just don't find the crunch of a half-cooked piece of onion pleasant when eating soft eggs. The second is watery eggs, caused when ingredients dump water into the pan—which is easy to do with migas, since they contain watery ingredients like tomatoes, and because the eggs themselves can release water when overcooked.

With that said, if you wake up one morning after having drunk too much and just need some spicy eggsstat, as I did this past Sunday, I won't fault you for throwing everything in a skillet and going to town. But if you're up for giving this dish slightly more attention and care, there are some things you can do to make it even better.

Stop the Synning (Syneresis, That Is)

Have you ever overcooked meat, custard, or scrambled eggs and noticed how they dump out water? Or have you ever had an emulsified sauce, like mayonnaise or Hollandaise, break? That's a phenomenon chemists call syneresis, and it describes a process in which the water in foods expands when exposed to heat, while the proteins bond and contract, causing the water to break free. It's generally a bad thing.

The first step in preventing syneresis is to cook the eggs gently. But we can do even more: We can add salt. A lot of people think that pre-salting eggs ends up making them tough, but,as we've shown before, it's actually the opposite that's true. Salt, it turns out, acts as a buffer, preventing the proteins in the eggs from bonding too closely and squeezing out the water. The longer you let the salt sit with the beaten eggs, the more noticeable its effect.

In this recipe, that just means that I make sure to beat and then salt my eggs before I prep anything else. Then, as I chop onions and fry tortillas, the salt has time to do its thing in the eggs.

A similar thing happens when you cook watery ingredients, like fresh tomato, with eggs: They can dump water and ruin the texture of the dish. I had considered a few different ways of dealing with this, including precooking the tomato to remove its water, but I decided that the pop of freshness from the barely cooked tomato was an important quality in migas. Instead, I borrowed an idea fromKenji's pico de gallo recipe, in which he pre-salts the diced tomato, then sets it in a strainer to drain. The salt pulls water out of the tomato through osmosis, while preseasoning it.

Draining salted diced tomatoes in a fine-meshed sieve to reduce the water that ends up in the final dish.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

So, in this recipe, right after I salt my eggs, the very next thing I do is dice the tomato, toss it with salt, and set it in a strainer over a bowl to drain.

Let he who is without syn(eresis) cast the first tomato!

Tortilla Time

Frying your own tortilla chips may seem overly labor-intensive for a breakfast recipe, but I figured I had to buy fresh tortillas anyway, since migas are typically served atop them, to be eaten taco-style. Might as well use some of those tortillas for the chips. Still, if you want a shortcut, this is the place to take it, since the dish will definitely work with store-bought chips. (I actually really want to doa drunk-food version of this with Doritos...who's in?)

A stack of corn tortillas that has been cut into rectangles for frying.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

我把饼切成条,炸了into chips roughly the size of Fritos (Fritos, by the way, would be another really fun convenience product to throw into a batch of migas), then fried them in vegetable oil until crisp.

The hardest part is not eating them all before it's time to use them in the recipe. I had to scold some of my coworkers for stealing bites.

Freshly-fried tortilla chips.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Preparing the Aromatics

As I mentioned above, I have a pet peeve about undercooked chunks of onion in my egg dishes. I am equally peeved about onions in dishes like this that are large. Maybe I'm weird, but I'd like to think other people feel the same way.

To solve that here, I just chopped everything up more finely, and then cooked them long enough in the pan to soften them thoroughly. No oniony crunch here. Of course, if you're sitting there reading this and thinking,this guy is nuts, I LOVE large pieces of crunchy onion in my eggs, it's pretty easy to alter the recipe to your tastes.

Stirring all of the diced chiles and onions in a cast iron skillet with a wooden spoon.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

All the migas recipes I've seen call for onion and chile pepper. Some call for bell pepper. With the exception of certain Spanish and Creole dishes, I tend not to like what cooked green bell pepper adds to a dish. Still, I liked the idea of getting more capsicum flavor into the dish, and there's a limit to how many serrano peppers one can add before the food goes up in flames.

I reached for a Poblano pepper instead, which isn't traditional to migas, but its more concentrated peppery flavor did a good job of enhancing the serrano chiles I was using, without doubling down on theScoville scalerating.

The Migas Sequencing Project

The next main consideration was the sequence of cooking. Add the tortilla chips too early and they'll be pure mush; add them too late and they'll be too crunchy. Add the tomatoes too early and they'll break down into mushy lumps; add them too late and they won't warm up enough. Here's the order I settled on.

Uncooked eggs and vegetables combined in a cast iron skillet.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

一旦芳烃充分软化,我瞧wered the heat and added the eggs, slowly scrambling them. I know people can be very divided on the topic of proper scrambled-egg texture—my girlfriend and I debate it just about every time we scramble eggs—but I'm firmly in the not-firm camp.

Therefore, the finished egg texture I'm going for is soft, creamy, and custardy. If your preferences differ from mine, you can cook your eggs more, and even raise the heat a little to help them along. No harm, no foul—they're just eggs, after all.

When the eggs had started to set just a little, I added three-quarters of my tortilla chips. Since the eggs were still wet, those chips were going to soften into the mixture. I liked the idea of some of that corn-chip flavor blending seamlessly with the eggs. But I reserved some to add toward the end, so you still get some semi-crunchy bites.

Then I tossed in the drained salted tomatoes and served the eggs with warmed tortillas, hot sauce, and sides like refried beans and avocado.

The one thing I didn't do here was add cheese. Some people swear that cheese shouldn't be added to proper migas. I don't really have an opinion on it, but I love melted cheese on something fierce, so I started off with cheese in my basic recipe. My early batches all had it. At some point I decided just to try it without on a whim, and was surprised that I actually preferred it without the cheese: The flavors of the eggs, onion, peppers, and tomato were all clearer and cleaner without cheese in the mix. And, with the custardy texture I aim for, the eggs already have a decadent quality. They really don't need the cheese.

Finished Tex-Mex migas on a tortilla next to refried beans and sliced avocado.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

But, you know, I won't narc on you if you add some cheese when you make it. Whatever gets you past that oh-so-crapulous feeling is all right by me.

0:49

How to Make Soft-Scrambled Eggs

September 2014

Recipe Details

Tex-Mex Migas With Scrambled Eggs, Tortilla Chips, and Chiles Recipe

Active30 mins
Total30 mins
服务4 servings

These migas may be a hangover killer, but even if you haven't overindulged, it's still a killer breakfast option.

华体会应用下载

  • 8largeeggs, beaten

  • Kosher salt

  • 2plum tomatoes, diced

  • Vegetable, canola, orpeanut oil, for frying

  • 16corn tortillas, 8 cut into 1 1/2– by 3/4-inch strips (see notes), 8 left whole andwarmed in a dry hot skillet just before serving

  • 1mediumPoblano pepper, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped

  • 2 serrano chiles or1jalapeño, stemmed and finely chopped

  • 1mediumyellow onion, finely chopped

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • Mexican hot sauce, for serving

  • Refried beansand sliced avocado, for serving

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk eggs with 2 generous pinches of salt and set aside. In a medium bowl, toss tomato with a generous pinch of salt, then transfer tomatoes to a strainer and set over bowl to drain.

    A close up of beaten eggs in a bowl.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  2. In a medium saucepan, heat about 2 inches of oil to 350°F (180°C). Add tortilla strips and cook, agitating and flipping them constantly with a wire mesh spider, until bubbles slow to a trickle and chips are pale golden brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate, season with salt, and set aside (see note).

    Frying small rectangles of fresh corn tortillas to make chips for migas, using a spider to stir them..

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  3. Heat 3 tablespoons (45ml) oil in a large cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add Poblano, serrano or jalapeño, and onion and cook, stirring, until fully softened but not browned, about 5 minutes.

    Stirring small-diced onions and chiles in a cast iron skillet and stirring with a wooden spoon.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  4. Lower heat to medium-low, add eggs, and cook, stirring constantly, until curds are just starting to form throughout, about 3 minutes.

    Adding beaten eggs to cooked onions and chile peppers in a skillet.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  5. Add 3/4 of the tortilla chips and continue to cook eggs until they are still soft but nearly cooked, about 5 minutes longer. Add tomato and remaining tortilla chips and cook until eggs are softly scrambled and just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer immediately to a bowl to halt cooking. Serve right away on top of warmed whole tortillas with hot sauce, refried beans, and avocado.

    Stirring almost-cooked migas with scrambled eggs, fried chips, and vegetables.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Whisk,large cast iron skilletor large nonstick skillet,instant-read thermometer, wire mesh spider

Notes

To save time, you can also make this recipe with store-bought tortilla chips instead of frying your own.

Read More

Nutrition Facts(per serving)
575 Calories
31g Fat
56g Carbs
21g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 575
% Daily Value*
Total Fat31g 40%
Saturated Fat 7g 34%
Cholesterol372mg 124%
Sodium743mg 32%
Total Carbohydrate56g 20%
Dietary Fiber 10g 35%
Total Sugars 6g
Protein21g
Vitamin C 32mg 160%
Calcium 169mg 13%
Iron 4mg 22%
Potassium 741mg 16%
* %每日价值(DV)告诉你多少营养ent in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)