By Joe Yonan Editor, Food and Travel October 20 at 8:54 AM

If you want a treatise on authentic chilaquiles, the Mexican skillet dish of fried tortillas, salsa, cheese and sometimes a fried egg, this isnt it. Instead, Im going to sing the praises of a dish with some of the same elements, and the same name, even though I have no doubt that some purist out there will question whether Im allowed to call it that at all.

You see, when I was growing up in West Texas, this was the way I usually saw chilaquiles: baked casserole style, rather than skillet-fried. It was a covered-dish potluck staple, right up there with seven-layer dip. In this version, the chips soak up the salsa while baking and meld into a single layer, making the dish the savory oven equivalent of ice box cake (in which cookies soak up cream in the refrigerator). You pack tortilla chips into a baking dish I like to use the same deep enamel-coated cast-iron pan I use for lasagna and then pour salsa over them.

None of it seems right while youre doing it, at least the first time: Too many chips, and too much sauce, and maybe not enough cheese, and how will it ever work? It does.

It takes well to additions and changes, too. In my childhood, it always included shredded chicken, but these days I throw chickpeas or other legumes in there. Ive varied the salsa between green and red, and I recently started adding steamed greens or other roasted vegetables.

Ive always made it with fried tortilla chips or fried my own to start with. But when I was faced with developing a recipe that includes a nutritional analysis, I thought better of it. Shouldnt I try using baked chips instead? It worked just as well and possibly a little better, as the tortillas came out slightly layered on the bottom rather than fused into a single mass.

In fall, youd think I might be inclined to go darker with the sauce as the days cool, but I prefer staying verde and using part of the glut of green tomatoes from my garden rather than the typical tomatillos. I also add roasted cubes of winter squash and a cup or two of cooked white beans.

On top, its always the same: Monterey Jack cheese, which gets all bubbly as the casserole cooks. Its hardly as traditional as queso fresco or cotija, but I suppose thats the point.

Here is the original post:
Weeknight Vegetarian: A baked, Tex-Mex version of the classic chilaquiles