Macheesmo

For quite some time now the most popular post on Macheesmo was a recipe that I made kind of on a whim almost two years ago.  It was just a simple breakfast sandwich with two twists:

1) You could freeze them.

2) They were made in a muffin tin so you could make a bunch of them at a time.

Based on the comments and emails I’ve received about the post, I think the muffin tin thing was what people really liked.  It totally takes the guess work out of eggs and you can cook them in big batches.

I also do not think it’s coincidence that a muffin tin is the perfect size for an egg.

Something that great couldn’t be coincidence.

So I started brainstorming quick breakfasts that could use a muffin tin, but didn’t involve actual muffins.

These Tex Mex Egg Cups were the first dish that I tried and I loved them about ten times more than the breakfast sandwiches.  We’ll see if they get ten times the traffic…

Tex-Mex Egg Cups

by Nick

Serves:

Makes 6 cups

Prep Time:

10 mins

Total Time:

30 mins

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A quick breakfast with eggs and cheese baked into corn tortilla cups. Simple, delicious, and easy to make and they freeze beautifully!

Ingredients

6 corn tortillas

Butter or oil for muffin tins

6 tablespoons salsa

6 teaspoons Adobo sauce (from chipotle can - optional)

6 large eggs

3 ounces cheddar cheese, grated

1 avocado, cubed

Cilantro, garnish

Instructions

1) Lightly butter or grease muffin tins and form corn tortillas into the tins. It’s okay if they get folded a bit.

2) Add a spoonful of salsa and a tiny dab of Adobo sauce into each corn tortilla. You could also add in some black beans or something.

3) Crack an egg in each cup.

4) Bake eggs at 350 for 15 minutes.

5) Top with cheese and bake for another few minutes.

6) Top with cilantro and/or avocado and serve immediately!

Tex Mex Egg Cups

Prepping the Cups

While eggs are a perfect fit in a muffin tin, corn tortillas are not.  Luckily they are flexible so you can make them fit!

There are two very important steps to make sure this goes down smoothly.

First, grease your muffin tin.  You could use butter, vegetable oil, or even a nonstick spray. Doesn’t matter.  If you don’t do this though, the corn tortillas are going to stick horribly to the pan.

Second, microwave the tortillas for about 10 seconds on high.  That will loosen them up and make them easier to work with.

Then you just kind of shove them in there!  There’s no science to it and they might fold and break a bit.  Don’t worry about it.

The Bottom Layer

I knew my middle layer in these Tex Mex Egg Cups was going to be an egg.  I knew my top layer was going to be cheese.

I struggled with the bottom layer.  At first I thought black beans would be a good thing, but then I worried that it wouldn’t have enough kick.

So I went with some salsa and this stuff!

I didn’t want the actual chipotle peppers, just the Adobo sauce!  This stuff has fantastic flavor.

Now, you could use a whole bunch of different stuff in this layer, but just don’t add too much stuff.  Remember that we have a lot of other stuff to fill!

This was my bottom layer of flavor.

The Egg Business

Next step is the eggs. Nothing rocket science about this… just crack them in!

If you’re worried about shells, you can crack them into a separate bowl and then pour them into the cups.

We are going to add some cheese to these Tex Mex Egg Cups later, but I like to bake them for a while first so they are almost done.

So throw your muffin tin in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile you can prep your toppings.  I went with some grated cheddar, cilantro, and avocado.

When your cups come out of the oven, most of the whites should be cooked, the tortillas should be starting to crisp up nicely, but the yolks should still be soft.

This is perfect.

Then sprinkle on some cheese for each cup.  You don’t need a lot, just enough to give each cup a light layer of cheese.

Then back in the oven for another 4-5 minutes just until the cheese is melted.

Pull these guys out and carefully remove them from the muffin tin.  They shouldn’t stick much, but you might still need to go around them with a knife to loosen them a bit.

Then just top them with some avocado and cilantro and serve them up!

I definitely recommend making these soft so that the egg yolks are still a bit on the runny side, but you could cook them hard also.

Just like the breakfast sandwiches, these Tex Mex Egg Cups are definitely freezable.  After they are done cooking, let them cool and then pop them out of the muffin tin.  Freeze them on a baking sheet and when they are frozen solid you can individually wrap them in foil and then store them in a freezer bag.

Good luck having leftovers to freeze though…