A Dressed-Up Mexican Dish

The charity dinner benefiting scleroderma research held last month in Santa Monica included a most talked-about dish: chilaquiles.

“We wanted to showcase the Mexican food we find exciting and dishes that our customers enjoy,” said Mary Sue Milliken, co-owner, with Susan Feniger, of Border Grill and City restaurants. But for this event, which the chefs were hosting, Feniger and Milliken had to rethink chilaquiles , an ultra-simple dish. “It’s like serving macaroni and cheese,” Milliken said. “So in order to present it to 310 people who were paying a lot of money for a benefit dinner, we decided to elevate the dish by serving it as a separate course in small, precise squares between the lobster salad course and the lamb chops.”

Instead of fitting tortillas, cheese and chicken in a soup bowl, as they do at their restaurants, the chefs layered the tortillas in a pan to bake. You can make panfuls for a relatively inexpensive but appealing party dish and serve it either as an appetizer or a main course with a salad.

BORDER GRILL CHICKEN CHILAQUILES

Oil

12 corn tortillas, day-old

8 chicken breast halves

Chicken broth or water

Salt, pepper

Chilaquiles Sauce

1 cup thinly sliced onion

2 cups shredded Jack cheese

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

In 1/2 cup oil, lightly fry tortillas one at a time until soft, not crisp, adding more oil as needed. Set aside.

Place chicken breast halves in large skillet. Add chicken broth to cover and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat until chicken is tender, about 20 minutes. Drain chicken and cool. Remove skin and bones from chicken. Cut meat into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.

Dip each tortilla in Chilaquiles Sauce to coat well and set aside. Mix onion and 1/3 Chilaquiles Sauce. Mix chicken breast pieces with some Chilaquiles Sauce. Mix Jack and Cheddar cheeses.

Again dip tortillas in remaining Chilaquiles Sauce. Turn to coat well.

Place 1/3 of tortillas in bottom of generously buttered 4-quart rectangular dish. Top with 1/2 onion mixture, 1/2 chicken mixture and 1/2 cheese mixture. Cover with another 1/3 of tortillas. Layer with remaining ingredients, ending with remaining sauced tortillas on top. Press firmly, so that chilaquiles will mold into dish. Spoon over remaining sauce as desired, reserving rest for other use. Cover with foil, but do not let foil touch top layer. Bake at 350 degrees 45 to 60 minutes. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Note: To make in oven-proof soup bowls, layer tortillas (cut-up if needed), onion mixture, chicken breast mixture and cheese mixture in 8 buttered heat-proof soup bowls. Cover with foil and bake at 300 degrees 40 minutes.

Chilaquiles Sauce

3 cups Tomatillo Salsa

1 cup whipping cream

Salt, pepper

Combine Tomatillo Salsa, whipping cream and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Makes 1 quart.

Tomatillo Salsa

2 pounds tomatillos

1 large onion, quartered

5 jalapeno chiles

2 bunches cilantro, stemmed

Salt, pepper

Process tomatillos, onion, chiles and cilantro in food processor until large chunks have disappeared. Place in blender and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Makes 4 3/4 cups.