Chef Lupita
Aporreadillo Michoacano con Huevo
Michoacán's Tierra Caliente almuerzo, where salted beef is softened, pounded, fried in lard, folded with egg and chile perón salsa, then served beside morisqueta like a proper working table.
Culinary Explorer
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Enfrijoladas con Chorizo de Oaxaca
Created by
Oaxacan enfrijoladas built on a black bean sauce perfumed with toasted hoja de aguacate and fried in asiento, folded and smothered, then crowned with crumbled Oaxacan chorizo, a fried egg, crema, and queso fresco.
Breakfast & Brunch
Mexican
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
30 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 servings
This is Oaxacan breakfast food. Not brunch, not a weekend project. This is what gets put on the table at eight in the morning in a kitchen in the Valles Centrales, alongside a clay mug of café de olla and a stack of tortillas pressed twenty minutes ago. Enfrijoladas are tortillas bathed in bean sauce. Simple to describe. Not simple to make well.
The sauce is where Oaxaca announces itself. Black beans cooked with hoja de aguacate, the toasted avocado leaf that gives Oaxacan cooking a warm, anise-like flavor no other state replicates. You blend the beans smooth with their broth and fry the puree in asiento, that dark, caramelized sediment left at the bottom of the lard-rendering pot that Oaxacan cooks prize more than the lard itself. Asiento does what plain manteca cannot: it brings a smokiness and depth that anchors the bean sauce to its place of origin. If you use butter or vegetable oil, you have made a different dish from a different state.
The chorizo on top is Oaxacan chorizo. Not the bright red, vinegar-soaked variety from Toluca that most of Mexico knows. Oaxacan chorizo is seasoned with chile pasilla oaxaqueño and local spices, darker in color, smokier, drier when cooked. It crumbles into rough, crisp pieces that sit on top of the dark bean sauce like a second layer of Oaxaca on the plate. A fried egg goes over everything. That is how it is served for breakfast across the Central Valleys, and that is how you will serve it here.
My mother was Jalisciense. Her enfrijoladas used pinto beans and no avocado leaf, a completely different animal. The first time I ate them done right was at a fonda near Oaxaca's Mercado 20 de Noviembre, early morning, the señora behind the comal moving fast with a line of regulars waiting. She didn't ask what I wanted on top. Chorizo, crema, queso fresco, onion, egg. She knew. Asi se hace y punto.
Enfrijoladas belong to the pre-Columbian family of antojitos bañados, 'bathed snacks,' a category of tortilla-in-sauce dishes that includes entomatadas, enmoladas, and enchiladas, all rooted in the Mesoamerican practice of wrapping nixtamalized corn in bean, chile, or seed-based pastes. The use of hoja de aguacate as a bean seasoning is specific to Oaxaca's Zapotec and Mixtec culinary traditions, where the native criollo avocado tree provided aromatic leaves long before the Spanish arrival. Oaxacan chorizo, distinct from the nationally dominant Toluca style, developed during the colonial period when Spanish pork-curing methods merged with Oaxaca's endemic chile pasilla oaxaqueño and regional spice blends, producing a drier, smokier sausage that remains a Central Valleys specialty to this day.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
cooked black beans (frijol negro)
Quantity
2 cups
black bean cooking broth
Quantity
1 cup, plus more as needed
dried avocado leaves (hojas de aguacate)
Quantity
2
dried chile pasilla oaxaqueño
Quantity
1
stemmed and seeded
garlic clove
Quantity
1
peeled
asiento (Oaxacan unrefined lard sediment)
Quantity
1/4 cup, divided
kosher salt
Quantity
to taste
Oaxacan chorizo
Quantity
8 ounces
casing removed
corn tortillas
Quantity
12
large eggs
Quantity
4
Mexican crema (optional)
Quantity
1/3 cup
queso fresco (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
crumbled
white onion (optional)
Quantity
1/4 medium
sliced into thin half-moons
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cooked black beans (frijol negro) | 2 cups |
| black bean cooking broth | 1 cup, plus more as needed |
| dried avocado leaves (hojas de aguacate) | 2 |
| dried chile pasilla oaxaqueñostemmed and seeded | 1 |
| garlic clovepeeled | 1 |
| asiento (Oaxacan unrefined lard sediment) | 1/4 cup, divided |
| kosher salt | to taste |
| Oaxacan chorizocasing removed | 8 ounces |
| corn tortillas | 12 |
| large eggs | 4 |
| Mexican crema (optional) | 1/3 cup |
| queso fresco (optional)crumbled | 1/2 cup |
| white onion (optional)sliced into thin half-moons | 1/4 medium |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting
- •Blender
- •Medium saucepan for frying the bean sauce
- •10-inch skillet for the chorizo and eggs
Instructions
- 1
Toast the aromatics
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium heat. Press each avocado leaf flat against the hot surface for about ten seconds per side until it darkens slightly, curls at the edges, and releases a warm anise-like fragrance that will fill the kitchen. That fragrance is the backbone of Oaxacan bean cooking. No other herb does this. Set the leaves aside. On the same comal, toast the chile pasilla oaxaqueño for about fifteen seconds per side until the skin puffs and blisters. It should smell smoky, not burned.
The pasilla oaxaqueño is a thin chile and it turns bitter fast. If it goes black, throw it out and start with another. There is no recovering from a burned chile. - 2
Blend the bean sauce
Combine the cooked black beans, one cup of their broth, the toasted avocado leaves, the toasted chile, and the garlic in a blender. Blend on high until completely smooth, about one minute. The sauce should pour like heavy cream. If it is too thick, add bean broth a tablespoon at a time. Too thin and it will slide off the tortilla. You want it to coat the back of a wooden spoon and hold there without running.
- 3
Fry the bean sauce
Heat two tablespoons of asiento in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When it shimmers, pour in the bean puree. It will sputter and spit, so stand back. Stir constantly for five to seven minutes as the sauce darkens one shade and thickens. The asiento gives the sauce a depth that plain manteca cannot match: smokier, more caramelized, rooted in the rendering tradition of Oaxaca's Central Valleys. Taste for salt now. Season it assertively. The tortilla and the crema will temper it at the table. Keep the sauce warm over low heat, adding a splash of bean broth if it thickens too much as it sits.
The frying step is not optional. Raw blended beans taste flat and starchy. Frying in asiento transforms the sauce into something with body and depth. La manteca es el sabor. This is the step that separates a good enfrijolada from a forgettable one. - 4
Cook the Oaxacan chorizo
Crumble the chorizo into a dry skillet over medium heat. No added fat needed. Oaxacan chorizo renders its own. Cook for eight to ten minutes, breaking it into small, uneven pieces with a wooden spoon, until the edges are crisp and the fat has rendered out. The color should be deep brick-red, almost brown. That dark color comes from the chile pasilla oaxaqueño in the sausage, not from food coloring. Transfer the chorizo to a plate and reserve the rendered fat in the skillet for frying the eggs.
- 5
Soften and dip the tortillas
Heat one tablespoon of asiento in a separate skillet over medium heat. Pass each tortilla through the hot fat for about five seconds per side, just long enough to soften it and make it pliable. Do not fry it crisp. This is not a tostada. Working quickly, dip the softened tortilla into the warm bean sauce, coating both sides generously. Fold it in thirds and place it on a warm plate, slightly overlapping the previous one. Three per plate. Repeat until all twelve tortillas are sauced and plated. Ladle the remaining bean sauce over the top of each plate so the tortillas are properly bathed, not just dabbed.
- 6
Fry the eggs and serve
Return the skillet with the reserved chorizo fat to medium heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of asiento if needed. Crack the four eggs into the skillet and fry until the whites are set and the edges are lacy and golden but the yolks are still runny. Place one egg on top of each plate of enfrijoladas. Scatter the crisp chorizo over everything. Drizzle with crema. Crumble the queso fresco on top. Finish with the sliced raw white onion. Serve immediately with café de olla if you have a clay pot to brew it in. This is breakfast that does not wait. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •If you cannot find asiento, use manteca de cerdo. Asiento is the dark sediment that settles to the bottom when pork lard is rendered in large batches. It is sold in Oaxacan markets by the spoonful and available online from Oaxacan spice importers. It tastes like lard's more interesting older sibling: deeper, smokier, slightly caramelized. Manteca works. Asiento is better. La manteca es el sabor, but asiento is where the sabor lives in Oaxaca.
- •The beans should be your own pot beans, cooked the day before with a piece of white onion, a garlic clove, and a sprig of epazote if you have it. Good canned black beans will work in urgency. Drain them, rinse them, and use water for the broth. The sauce will be thinner in flavor. That compromise is real. Preguntale a las señoras del mercado which they prefer.
- •Oaxacan chorizo is not the same product as the bright red chorizo sold in most Mexican supermarkets. It is drier, darker, seasoned with chile pasilla oaxaqueño and regional spices. If you can only find Toluca-style chorizo, use it, but know the flavor shifts from smoky-deep to vinegar-sharp. You will have made enfrijoladas. You will not have made Oaxacan enfrijoladas. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
- •Do not substitute bay leaf for the avocado leaf. People suggest this and it is wrong. Bay leaf tastes like bay leaf. Hoja de aguacate tastes like warm anise and green pepper and is irreplaceable in Oaxacan cooking. Find the right ingredient or make a different dish.
Advance Preparation
- •Cook the black beans one day ahead from dried. They need at least two hours at a gentle simmer with a piece of white onion, a garlic clove, and a sprig of epazote. Refrigerate in their broth. This is the most time-consuming step and it should never be rushed. Good pot beans are the foundation of this dish.
- •The bean sauce can be blended and fried several hours ahead and reheated gently over low heat. Add a splash of bean broth when reheating because it thickens as it sits. The flavor only improves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 340g)
Calories
720 calories
Total Fat
39 g
Saturated Fat
16 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
22 g
Cholesterol
260 mg
Sodium
1050 mg
Total Carbohydrates
58 g
Dietary Fiber
12 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
31 g
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