Will the real huevos rancheros please stand up?

When my husband Wayne and I go out for breakfast or brunch in our home town of El Paso, Texas, it's hard to order anything other than huevos rancheros   The typical items appear on breakfast menus- pancakes, bacon and eggs, oatmeal, but why go to a restaurant if you are going to order the same old thing you could have cooked at home?

An air of suspense surrounds the huevos rancheros plate.  You never know until the dish arrives exactly how it will be presented.  The good news is that huevos rancheros prepared almost any way are quite a treat.

Just in case you have never tried huevos rancheros, the basic construction is a fried corn tortilla, topped by a fried egg, which is topped by some kind of sauce.  (Health conscious readers may note that the word "fried" has already appeared twice in the description!) 

 I have eaten at restaurants that forego the bottom tortilla layer, but surely they must be just uninitiated?  For the middle layer, we always request our fried eggs to be cooked "over hard" (generally accompanied with a flipping of the hand to emphasize the point).  However, I have sometimes had to eat huevos rancheros with runny eggs, which is how most people order them, I suppose.

But it is the sauce that tops the tortilla and eggs that is the deciding taste factor.  Sauces can be divided into three categories.  The first ( which is my favorite) is a thick, red, homemade red sauce, made from dried red chile pods.  Wayne insists that the sauce must be a very dark red, almost maroon in color, and if the sauce has an orange tint, it has been watered down, so cross that restaurant off your list.

The second type of sauce is a green chile sauce.  Our Desert Southwest is blessed with availability of long green chiles year round; however, we believe that green chiles from Hatch, New Mexico are the most flavorful.  Last weekend we ordered huevos rancheros at a small restaurant in the neighboring town of Canutillo, New Mexico.  They arrived at the table topped with green sauce.  The sauce was good, but unfortunately we are both addicted to red sauce.  As we paid our bill, Wayne asked the waiter if they also served  huevos rancheros  with red sauce. He replied, "Yes, we could make them with red sauce, but they wouldn't be huevos rancheros." You can see that the definition of huevos rancheros is rather flexible.

The third sauce is any combination of sauteed tomatoes, chiles, onions, garlic, salt, and perhaps oregano.

Sometimes the sauce is soupier, like salsa for dipping tostadas. At other times, the chiles predominate, and if they are the hotter varieties of jalapeño or serrano peppers, you will be reaching for something to fight the fire.  One restaurant we used to frequent covered the eggs with chopped green chiles, which can be mild, medium or hot.

What I have been describing are the huevos rancheros found in most restaurants in El Paso. Browsing through pictures on the Internet of huevos rancheros though, I was amazed at the different interpretations of this favorite breakfast dish.  Sometimes the sauce is under the eggs, not on top like I am used to. Other variations include garnishes like avocados, various kinds of cheeses, onions, or even sour cream.

And we haven't even delved into the side dishes that are usually served with the huevos.  Refried pinto beans and Mexican-style rice are common in El Paso.  Sometimes you are served a small pile of lettuce and tomatoes, just to make you think you are eating healthy, I suppose. 

Could huevos rancheros resemble snowflakes, in that no two are alike?  I'm beginning to believe that the sky is the limit in creating your own version of this delectable breakfast fare.