While New Orleans is indisputably a superior city to Austin there are a few things I miss dearly about the capital of Texas.

Namely migas. I’ve scoured New Orleans for this dish and have yet to find a single restaurant that is serving one of the defining foods of Tex-Mex cuisine.

Meanwhile back in Austin, hundreds of people are on queue at dozens of taquerias scattered about town-all serving a wide variety of migas and migas-like dishes.

What are migas? At their essence they’re corn tortillas that have been fried in oil then shattered in a frying pan alongside chopped tomatoes, onions, chile peppers, and whipped eggs.

The entire melange is then garnished with yellow cheese and served with dragon’s blood salsa and warm, soft tortillas. Standard sides for this sublime food? Refried pinto beans cooked down with lard and/or home-fry-style potatoes generously seasoned while being sauteed.

RL Reeves Jr Recipe: Migas Done In The Creole Fashion

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs, whipped with a splash of heavy cream
  • 2 each chiles, jalapenos, chopped
  • 1 each onions, green, chopped
  • 1 each tomato, chopped
  • 1/4 c. cheese, yellow, grated (I used cheddar but Extra Melt would be traditional)
  • 1 c. Hola Nola Creole flavor tortilla chips (1c.=a nice handful)
  • fat pat butter

    Method

    Heat butter in pan til lightly browned and foaming
    Saute chiles,onions,and tortilla chips in cast-iron pan for 5 minutes
    Add eggs which have been whisked with the cream
    Add tomatoes
    Swirl pan to evenly distribute eggs then do nothing for several seconds
    When eggs begin to “set up” gently fold them towards center of pan with big wooden spatula
    Swirl pan again so uncooked eggs are introduced to the hot cast iron
    Gently fold eggs inward again
    Remove pan from heat
    Garnish with yellow cheese

    Voila!

    You now have a big serving of Migas Done In The Creole Fashion

    cooking notes: I mistakenly bought Hola Nola’s ‘Creole’ totopos (tortilla chips) at Terranova Brothers Superette yesterday, and while they are delicious (and oddly reminiscent of the old ‘Taco’ flavor Doritos) I wanted to burn through the bag as quickly as possible so that I could purchase the standard flavor that we use with all the handmade hot sauces we turn out of the Scrumptious Chef test kitchen.