Cheap Easy Meals Are Hardly a Home on the Range

Hunter's Chicken - Chicken braised with mushrooms, onions and peppers in a tomato sauce. Lots of garlic cloves. Served over polenta with broccoli rabe

I took a shortcut by adding in a full jar of Rao's Marinara Sauce and chicken stock as the base for the braising. After browning the chicken and adding the vegetables, you can add the sauce.  After bringing to a boil, turn to low, cover and leave for about an hour until the chicken is falling off the bone.  (alternately, you can stick it in the oven if it's not 90 degrees out). I also added a 1/4 cup of rice to stretch the meal a bit. 

My little Brown Dirt Cowboy

I was happy to see that the New York Times featured Migas in their Cooking Column.  These are a real treasure and easy.  Again, I'm obsessed with cowboy food, as I call it.  As you're making these you can imagine your horse nearby, grazing under a tree.  There would be a running stream and you cook these up on your open fire.  Your gun at your side in case you run into any bad hombres.   Mind you, I've never even been camping once in my life and would be deathly scared of wild animals but I have romantic notions of the idea and imagery of cooking outdoors in the rugged West. 

Breakfast Migas

Cut up and cook the corn tortilla strips in a a little onion and I had red pepper. You don't need a lot of oil but you should stir to coat the torts. 

On medium high heat, wait until they get crisp and toasted before adding eggs, cheese and sauce

Turn the heat down a bit, make a little well in the center, add a dab of butter and add the scrambled eggs, you can add cheese now if desired. 

Allow the eggs to set a bit before slowing adding in the salsa and then fold everything together.  From underneath bring the chips up onto the eggs. 

Until I Saw Your City Lights, Honey I was Blind

The Northern Lights from a nephew's home in Alabama.  There was no such show here in New York, due to city lights and cloudy skies.

Breakfast Migas
You must never allow yourself to forget the deeply satisfying taste of a toasted corn chip fried along with some onions, eggs and a little hot sauce mixed in.  True brown dirt cowboy food.  If you have the bright idea to add a little cheese then absolutely no one in their right mind would likely have an objection.

She Tears the Hole Up Even Wider

Migas

In New York right now, if you've a virus with symptoms similar to COVID-19, I think it's safe to assume you have it.  More than a few of us are monitoring each other daily here. The spread is increasing like a wildfire and you have to assume so many people have it but aren't getting tested so as not to clog up our health care workers.  Reading a million threads after having shortness of breath and chest pains increase over a couple of weeks I saw that fever is not always present in folks diagnosed, nor is a persistent cough.  Major chills and sweats I guess is indication of fever but without a thermometer, you fear it's in your head.  But last night I did have a fever dream, at first very pleasant.  Everything felt so soft, like all worries were gone and I floated in a room.  I felt so clean. It was someone else's house that had antique furniture, rugs and lamps. No one had been there for a long time. An old friend was there and we had a beautiful celebration but after some discussion things became dark.  My friend informed me that I had a hole in my lungs, actually I think they said in my heart but when I went to look down at where they were pointing, my body became the cartoon drawing I recently viewed online of infected lungs. As I heard this news I tried to take in a deep breath but the air came out the hole instead, I looked down and as nightmares sometimes happen, lots of stuff happened that I can't remember or comprehend once awake but I can tell you it was awful.  All I know is I was gasping when I shot straight up out of bed drenched in sweat.

I woke up and made a list of everyone I want to keep in touch with and have made it through many of them and thankfully it's a longer one than I expected.  You could center on the death around you or you can give love to those who are living and special to you in your life.

And you can carefully attempt what you often get wrong, like migas.  I made my own chips out of fresh corn tortillas.  I used the last bit of my homemade hot sauce to flavor the chips, added cheese, jalapeno, and cilantro and roasted sausage to the eggs. 

Went to Sleep With You On My Mind

I went to sleep thinking about what to make for breakfast. I wanted chilaquiles but I also wanted pure creamy fluffy scrambled eggs. I had some leftover roasted tomato salsa and sweet onions so I added those to my sauced up corn tortilla slices and put in a hot wok to crisp.

I slow cooked the scrambled eggs with fresh cilantro and cotija cheese.

I served the eggs on top of the chilaquiles so that I could mix together the two flavors with each bite. One bright and clean, soft. And the other peppery, crisp around the edges and packed with spicy punch. Crunchy turkey bacon side.

My Heros Have Always Been Cowboys

I call these dry chilaquiles but since I've been here in NY I've grown to know them as Tex-Mex migas ala Lobo Restaurant on Court Street. I also call it cowboy cooking because I often fantasize about being on the trail with my horse and black iron skillet. I have to stop for the night by the stream. This might be a dish I'd rustle up upon waking for breakfast. Strips of corn torts and onions fried up quickly in a hot pan then heat lowered and eggs scrambled in. It is always surprising to me how great corn tortillas taste heated in oil. Very rustic and earthy. Good all on its own. I put peas in this mornings migas to add some color. If you have it, nice soft chorizo is perfect.
In reading more and more about traditional chilaquiles it seems the difference is those are made with salsa. You cook the corn tort strips in the salsa to get a little softened. That's how they serve them at Pequena in Fort Greene. Super good, with salsa verde and chicken!
My dad's from Texas but I grew up in the Fort, Wayne that is, Indiana. Who knows how these recipes get passed down. Even on my end, we're talking eating these when I was around 7 or so, so I don't even know how they were made. I'm just going on taste memory.
Whatever you call them they're delicious, fast and special.