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Puebla's rural breakfast trick. A raw egg cracked onto a soft tortilla on the comal, the masa folded around it like a shirt, the yolk sealed inside, finished with a fried chile pasilla salsa.
This is from Puebla. Not the city, the campo. The small towns and ranches outside the capital, where a woman feeding a family before dawn does not have time for separate pans and separate plates. The tortilla is already on the comal. The egg goes inside it. The salsa is already simmering. Breakfast is on the table in fifteen minutes and nothing is wasted.
Encamisado means dressed in a shirt. That is exactly what the masa does. You crack the egg onto a half-cooked tortilla, fold the masa over the yolk like you are buttoning a shirt around it, and finish the package on the comal. The white sets inside the tortilla. The yolk stays soft if you pull it at the right moment. The chile pasilla salsa goes on top. Queso fresco, a few leaves of epazote, refried black beans on the side. That is the dish.
This is campo food, which means it is honest food. The masa has to be the right hydration or the tortilla tears the moment the egg goes in. The comal has to be hot enough to set the bottom but not so hot that the masa burns before the egg cooks. The fold has to be quick. Cooks in the small towns around Cholula and Atlixco do this without thinking. You will fumble the first two. The third one will work. By the fifth you will understand why the women in the campo never bothered to write the recipe down.
My mother did not make encamisados. She was from Jalisco. I learned this dish from a woman named Doña Rosalba in a kitchen outside Atlixco who pressed the tortillas with her hands while telling me her husband would not eat eggs any other way. She did not own a tortilla press. She did not need one. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Huevos encamisados belong to the Puebla campo tradition of envuelto cooking, a family of dishes in which masa or tortilla encloses a filling before final cooking, and shares ancestry with tlacoyos, gorditas, and the pre-Columbian practice of wrapping food in nixtamalized dough for the comal. The dish reflects the rural household economy of the central Mexican highlands, where eggs from the family yard, masa ground that morning, and a salsa of dried chile pasilla were the foundation of a working breakfast long before café con leche reached the village. Although Puebla's reputation rests on baroque convent dishes like mole poblano and chiles en nogada, the state's everyday rural cooking, encamisados, memelas, tlacoyos, has only recently been documented in serious culinary writing, having survived for generations entirely through transmission from mother to daughter.
Quantity
2 cups
Quantity
1 1/4 cups, plus more as needed
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
8
at room temperature
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
to taste
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
2
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
3 medium
husked and rinsed
Quantity
2
unpeeled
Quantity
1/4 medium
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| masa harina for tortillas (Maseca or Minsa) | 2 cups |
| warm water | 1 1/4 cups, plus more as needed |
| kosher salt (for the masa) | 1/2 teaspoon |
| large fresh eggsat room temperature | 8 |
| manteca de cerdo (for the comal) | 1 tablespoon |
| kosher salt (for finishing) | to taste |
| dried chile pasillastemmed and seeded | 4 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 2 |
| tomatilloshusked and rinsed | 3 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| white onion | 1/4 medium |
| manteca de cerdo (for the salsa) | 1 tablespoon |
| kosher salt (for the salsa) | 1/2 teaspoon |
| refried black beans (optional) | for serving |
| crumbled queso fresco (optional) | for serving |
| fresh epazote leaves (optional) | for serving |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas, warm (optional) | for serving |
In a wide bowl, combine the masa harina and salt. Add the warm water in two pours, working it with your hand until you have a soft, pliable dough that holds together without cracking. If it cracks at the edges when you press it, add water by the tablespoon. If it sticks to your palm, add a little more masa. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 15 minutes. The masa needs that time to hydrate fully. Rushing it gives you a tortilla that splits the moment the egg goes in.
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the pasilla and guajillo chiles 20 to 30 seconds per side. The pasilla is thin and burns fast. Watch it. Move them to a bowl of hot tap water, not boiling, and let them soften for 15 minutes. On the same comal, char the tomatillos, garlic, and onion until blackened in spots and softened through, about 8 minutes. Peel the garlic. Transfer everything to a blender with a half cup of the chile soaking liquid and the salt. Blend until smooth but with a little body. Heat the tablespoon of manteca in a small skillet, pour the salsa in, and let it sputter and fry for 5 minutes until it darkens and the fat separates at the edges. La manteca es el sabor.
Divide the rested masa into 8 equal balls, about the size of a golf ball. Keep them under the damp cloth so they do not dry out. Line a tortilla press with two squares of plastic cut from a freezer bag. Press each ball into a tortilla a touch thicker than usual, about 4 to 5 millimeters. The thicker round is what lets the masa puff and close around the egg. A thin tortilla will tear. Press only as you cook them. Masa sitting pressed for more than a couple of minutes starts to dry at the edges.
Heat a cast iron comal over medium-high until a drop of water dances and disappears in two seconds. Rub a little manteca across the surface with a folded paper towel. Lay one pressed tortilla on the comal. Cook 30 to 40 seconds, just until the edges set and the underside is opaque but not browned. You are not making a regular tortilla. You want it cooked enough to hold but still soft and bendable on top.
Flip the tortilla. Immediately crack one egg into the center of the cooked side, letting the white spread slightly but stay contained. Sprinkle the yolk with a small pinch of salt. Work fast. The white needs to start setting on the hot masa before you close it. This is the moment that makes the dish. The egg is going inside the tortilla, not on top of it.
Using a thin spatula and your fingertips, fold one side of the tortilla over the egg, then the other, like you are closing a shirt around the yolk. Press the seam gently with the back of the spatula to seal. Lower the heat to medium. Cook the encamisado 1 to 2 minutes per side. The masa will puff slightly and brown in spots. The white sets through. The yolk stays soft if you pull it at the right moment. Press the surface lightly with your finger. If it gives but springs back, the yolk is still runny. If it is firm, the yolk is set through. Both are correct, depending on how the cook in your house likes it. In the campo, they go runny.
Lift the encamisado onto a warm plate. Spoon the warm chile pasilla salsa generously across the top, letting it pool around the edges. Scatter crumbled queso fresco and a few torn epazote leaves over the salsa. Serve with refried black beans on the side and a stack of warm corn tortillas for any cook who wants more. Eat it immediately, while the yolk is still soft and the masa is hot off the comal. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 400g)
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