Huevos Divorciados

Mexican breakfast is delicious.  There’s tons of it to go around here in Austin.  Breakfast tacos, chilaquiles, migas and huevos rancheros all have a heavy presence on the menus of restaurants in town.  But finding one of my favorite dishes, huevos divorciados (divorced eggs), has proven to be more difficult.  The dish features two eggs, one smothered with a red tomato-based sauce, and the other with a green tomatillo-based sauce.  Why settle for one sauce when you can have two?

This recipe is fairly simple as there is little prep work (only a blender is needed) and the cooking time is short too.  I’ve provided the recipe for the sauces, but you can get as creative as you want with the accompanying side items.  It’s typical for refried beans to divide the plate into two so the red and green sauces don’t mix, but you could easily serve potatoes, bacon, chorizo, black beans or any combination thereof. Just make sure you have warm tortillas to sop up all the yummy sauce. Have fun with the garnishes too.  Add any range of toppings from chopped cilantro, or pickled jalapeños to cheese and chopped onions, or just serve the sauce and eggs alone.

A few notes about tomatillos.  When I lived in the Northeast, finding fresh tomatillos in the supermarket was like finding a needle in a hay stack.  Canned tomatillos are available but I’d go the extra mile and find a Mexican supermarket that sells them fresh.  The fruit should be a darker green rather than pale, and the husk pliable and dried out.

Huevos Divorciados

Serving Size: Makes enough sauce for up to 8 servings

Ingredients

For the red sauce:

  • 1 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
  • 1/4 of a white onion (about 1/3 cup)
  • 1/2 jalapeño pepper (seeded and deveined for milder sauce)
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • salt

For the green sauce:

  • 1 pound tomatillos, hulled and rinsed
  • 1/3 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
  • 1/4 of a white onion (about 1/3 cup)
  • 1/2 jalapeño pepper (seeded and deveined for milder sauce)
  • 2 garlic cloves

For the final assembly:

  • Eggs – two per person
  • Optional garnish – chopped cilantro, jalapeños, avocado and cotija cheese

Instructions

For the red sauce:

  • Add all the ingredients to a blender. Puree until smooth. Add the sauce to a small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

For the green sauce:

  • Add all the ingredients to the rinsed blender. Puree until smooth. Add the sauce to a small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

To finish:

  • Cook two eggs per person to your desired doneness. Plate the eggs and spoon a few tablespoons of the green sauce onto one egg and a few tablespoons of the red sauce over the other.
  • Garnish the dish with any number of ingredients including chopped cilantro, chopped onions, sliced jalapeños, sliced avocado, cotija cheese, or any combination thereof.

Notes

Huevos divorciados are traditionally served with refried beans dividing the eggs but any number of accompaniments can be used. Customize the dish any way you like with sides like chorizo, bacon, potatoes, black beans or simply enjoy the sauced eggs with a tortilla.