Huevos Motulenos (Mexico)

(4 servings)

  • 8 corn tortillas
  • 1/4 cup canola oil (approximately)
  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 1 cup diced ham
  • 2 cups cooked black beans - pureed
  • 1 cup peas - thawed if frozen
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup shredded queso fresco cheese (or Monterey Jack or cheddar if preferred)

  • For Yucatan-Style Salsa:
  • 4 habanero chiles - charred/seeded/mashed
  • the juice of 4 key limes
  • 4 cloves garlic -- charred/peeled/mashed
  • 8 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
First make the salsa by simply mixing all the salsa ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Add oil to a medium fry pan so that it's about 1/4 inch deep. Set heat to medium-high. When oil is hot, fry each tortilla until soft and crisp at the edges (this only requires cooking a few seconds per side).

Lay cooked tortilla next to each other on a large baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.

In a separate large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter.

Add the diced ham and cook - stirring often - until thoroughly heated and partially browned. Transfer to a temporary bowl and cover.

In the same pan, reduce heat to medium and add the beans. Stirring often, cook until warmed through.

While the beans are cooking, drain the oil from the original pan leaving only a thin coating of oil. Return pan to medium-high heat and begin frying eggs either sunny-side-up or over-easy according to preference.

Remove baking sheet from oven. Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees.

On the baking sheet, construct each serving on top of tortillas as follows: a layer of black beans, 1 fried egg (you may want to place eggs on tortillas right after they finish cooking to maintain your flow and conserve your work space), a smearing of salsa, equal amounts of ham and peas; and equal amounts of grated cheese.

Return baking sheet to oven and cook until cheese begins to melt - about 5 minutes.

Serve warm. Each serving consists of two tortillas.


Huevos Motulenos come from the town of Motul in the Mexican state of Yucatan. Fried plantains are a traditional side-dish


Mr Breakfast would like to thank Mr Breakfast for this recipe.

Recipe number 1692. Submitted 4/1/2006.