Every season is skillet season.
I’m convinced that food cooked in a skillet tastes 42% better, be it oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, roasted chicken breasts, or macaroni and cheese.
On second thought, make that 142%.
Combined with the previously proven theorem of Lindsay’s Laws of All Things Sweet (the first rule of which, coincidentally, also applies to Savory things) stating that everything tastes better in miniature, it follows that these personal-sized skillet huevos rancheros are 284% more delicious than full size huevos rancheros (henceforth known as huevos aburridos, or boring eggs).
So it’s no surprise that this skillet-ized and personal-sized version of one of Taylor’s favorite breakfast dishes earned high marks in our house. Suitable fodder for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, I’d call these skillet huevos rancheros (once we got the forumula right, that is) a resounding success.
We first tried to use a bed of potatoes, but they never seemed to get crispy and stuck to the skillets like wallpaper paste.
On to plan B: tortillas.
Preheating the skillets first ensures the tortillas get nice and crispy on the bottom, exactly the kind of texture and crunch that the potatoes failed to deliver. Tortillas for the win!
On top of the tortillas is a layer of refried black bean, cheese, and what I like to call our shortcut ranchero sauce (bypassing the roasted peppers for a can of fire-roasted tomatoes instead). The beans form a dam of sorts, a well tasked with holding a precious golden-yolked egg while it bakes until the egg is runny to perfection and topped with avocado and fresh cilantro.
The best part about the tortilla base is that the whole thing slides out of the skillet in one perfect little package, ready to be sliced and devoured.
Classic huevos rancheros baked in a single-serving cast-iron skillet, layered with tortilla, beans, ranchero sauce, cheese, and a perfectly runny egg.
TIP: If you’d like extra tortillas to serve along side, roll them up in a piece of foil and place in the oven with skillets for the last 5-7 minutes of cooking to warm through.
If you want to prepare this in a single larger 10-inch skillet, use a single extra-large flour tortilla and put all the beans and cheese in a single skillet; make 4 indentations evenly spaced around the skillet so the eggs don’t run together. Increase cook time as needed to acheive desired doneness.
Let us know what you think!
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