BREAKFAST

People in Mexico enjoy a substantial breakfast. In Mexico City, it’s common to find bankers and art dealers tucking into plates of chilaquiles or huevos con chorizo at 10:00 AM.
The notion of brunch isn’t particularly popular, maybe because our regular breakfast foods tend to be considered brunch foods in the United States. We mostly eat savory foods in the morning; our morning sweet comes in the form of pan dulce (sweet rolls). Mexican breakfasts almost always feature eggs, cooked every conceivable way.
I never tire of eggs. An accessible and affordable protein, eggs have so much versatility, from how they’re cooked to what you eat them with and which salsas you pour over them. They give you tons of energy to get through the busiest days. And if you’ve overindulged the night before, they’re the perfect hangover cure. Also, the chile that’s often cooked with eggs (and prominent in salsas) gives an instant boost of vitamin C—always a good thing in the morning.
If you haven’t cooked a lot of Mexican food before, breakfast is a great entry point to the cuisine. Not only is it such an important meal in Mexican culture but these dishes are also hard to mess up and often more impressive than the sum of their parts, given how easy they are to put together.
I’ve given recipes to serve four to six people for almost all of my breakfast dishes so that you can make a quantity to serve friends or family. But everything can be scaled down to serve one or two very easily, and most of these dishes are simple enough that they’re worth cooking even if you don’t have company. I often throw together a pan of huevos a la Mexicana on a weekday morning. It’s one of my son Lucas’s favorite breakfasts. If you haven’t cooked a lot of Mexican food before, breakfast is a great entry point to the cuisine. Not only is it such an important meal in Mexican culture but these dishes are also hard to mess up and often more impressive than the sum of their parts, given how easy they are to put together.
I’ve given recipes to serve four to six people for almost all of my breakfast dishes so that you can make a quantity to serve friends or family. But everything can be scaled down to serve one or two very easily, and most of these dishes are simple enough that they’re worth cooking even if you don’t have company. I often throw together a pan of huevos a la Mexicana on a weekday morning. It’s one of my son Lucas’s favorite breakfasts.
While I’ll suggest certain salsas that are typically served with particular breakfast dishes, always feel free to substitute any of the staple salsas that you may already have in your fridge. There really isn’t a salsa that doesn’t taste good on eggs. You’ll notice a lot of the same ingredients repeat in breakfast dishes: onions, garlic, cilantro, chile, tomatoes. You can mix and match any of these dishes, and they will taste fantastic.
Breakfast food is comfort food, no matter the culture. And it’s an even greater comfort to enjoy these foods with family and friends first thing in the day before any distractions set in.