The Cowboy Breakfast That Won the West ¦ Authentic Huevos Rancheros

Range, breakfast ain't just a meal, it's a tradition. And today we're cooking up one of the boldest breakfast dishes to hit the range. This recipe was born from early mornings in the original Cowboys, the Vaqueros. So grab your plate, pour you a cup of coffee, because we're having huevos rancheros with fire-roasted flavor. Hey, thank y'all for stopping by camp, and camp might look a little different today. Where we at? Big Sky country up here in Montana cooking for a ranch. And hey, these fellas are going to be working really hard, so we're going to top them off with a really hearty breakfast. We are, and what is that? Huevos rancheros. Now we've got all these fresh ingredients, good tomatoes, jalapenos, serranos, onion, some dried chilies, corn tortilla, and some cackle berries. Don't get no better than that. Huevos rancheros, traditional style. Now to kick this recipe off, there's really one most important thing you need to remember, and that is the flavor of these traditional chilies that these Mexican Cowboys brought so many years ago to give it that great flavor. And welcome to Full Flavor University, and your first class is Chili 101. And first up, the guajillo chili. Mild, tangy notes there with a little sweet flavor all rolled into one delicious chili. When you rehydrate this chili, it'll give those sauces that rich red brick color. The cascabel chili, also known as what? The rattle chili. And cascabel means little bell in Spanish. It has a nutty, earthy, slightly smoky flavor, and usually is mild to medium heat. The jalapeno, one of the most iconic fresh chilies grown in Mexico. It is usually mild to medium heat, but this can vary too to a little more on the hotter side. The way I look at a pepper to see if it's going to be really hot on a jalapeno, is there will be little white lines in it, and cracks. Usually that means it's going to be a little hotter, but this also comes from the soil in which the jalapeno was grown in. Now the jalapeno originated in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Now when you dry this jalapeno, right there on the vine, or you pull it off and you let them dry, it becomes my most favorite pepper in the world, a chipotle pepper. Now as we go down the line, next in line is the serrano. Now it is hotter than the jalapeno, sort of has a little grassy flavor to it. Boiling these little serrano chilies will lessen the heat factor in there for your taste buds. Now that you're an expert on these chilies, we're going to throw them on old Bertha, and we're going to roast them to bring about even more flavor. We just throw them tomatoes and stuff right there on the fire, and that skin's going to crack, and it's going to be easy to peel. Now you can do it this way, is you pick them up with a set of tongs and peel that off with a fork, or you can dip them in some cold water right quick, and that skin will come off really easy. But throw them back out here on that fire, because I want to get some of that roast down into that meat, not just on that skin. Now when we get all these roasted like we want them, we're going to in this pot with them jalapenos and serranos, but also we're going to add them dried chilies to it to let them rehydrate. And when everything gets really good and soft, we're going to go to blending it together. Well, when you get to watching this, we've been boiling for about probably 10 minutes pretty hard. So them peppers, I'm thinking might be pretty tender. They are. So we're going to get them out. The onions are going to be the last thing to get tender. The tomatoes, you can see they're falling apart, so that is good. There's one of them serranos, and I think them cascabelles and stuff have got there too. We'll see if that'll poke. Well, you've seen me dip them tomatoes and the green peppers out of there. Now they've got tender enough. We're just going to chop them just a little in this bowl, and then I'm going to get the potato masher. Now if you're at home, what would you be doing? You'd have electricity, and you could just throw all this in the blender. Hit the switch. Don't forget to put the lid on because it will get on the ceiling. So I'm going to get these chopped up, then I'm going to get the tater masher after them. Them dried chilies and the onion, they'll end up going over here, getting a good grinding. They will, so let me get after it. If you've been riding the range and got yourself a powerful hunger, time is of the essence and cowboys will be hungry. Saddle up with the Cast Iron Cowboy, serving up grub the time-honored way. Folks been eating out of these things for over 125 years, so I think if it was good enough for them old timers back then, it is sure good enough for us to go now. Because you can't get full on fancy. You pull that off and put it on a plate, magic happens. Cast Iron Cowboy, premieres September 29th, 9.30 p.m. It's going to be dynamite, I'm telling you about. Well, got that blended up without a blender as best as I can do. Now if you was at home, you can see this is pretty chunky, but you can blend it until it's just smooth as water, you can. And if you ever think, well that's too thick, the water that you had boiled these chilies in, save a little of that, you can add it back to it. Now I forgot the garlic cloves, so I'm going to add them in there right now. And this is just dried garlic. Give it a little salt and we're going to have a taste. But I got something I need to ask y'all. This is pretty authentic, old traditional, southwestern Mexican breakfast. And huevos rancheros really means rancher's eggs. So it is probably my go-to breakfast when I go out somewhere. But what is yours? What do you really like to have on your plate for breakfast? Whether you're going out or you're making it at home, leave me a comment and let me know. I might even cook it in a future video. There's a lot of flavor right there. It's got a bite to it. That's going to be so good, it does need just a pinch more salt to it. We're going to get this back in a pot, let it heat and simmer there, while we get ready to finish the eggs. Before the American cowboy ever roamed the open ranges of Texas, New Mexico, or Montana, there was the vaquero, the original Spanish horseman. These men weren't just cattle herders, they were the foundation of what we now call cowboy culture in America. The term vaquero comes from the Spanish word vaca, meaning cow, and their story begins in the early 1500s when Spanish colonists brought livestock to the New World. In New Spain, what we know now as Mexico, these cattle multiplied fast across vast lands. Someone had to manage these growing herds, and that was the vaquero. As Spanish missions and presidios spread northward into what would become the American Southwest, the vaquero rode with them. By the 1700s, vaqueros were working cattle across modern-day Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and especially Alta, California, which is present-day California. In fact, some of the first documented cattle drives in California happened around missions like San Juan Capistrano and San Gabriel. The vaqueros working these lands often managed massive herds for the Spanish landowners known as rancheros, and when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the ranching lifestyle remained, but now with a uniquely Mexican flair. Vaqueros were skilled riders, rope masters, and craftsmen. They made their own saddles, braided their own lassos called riata, and wore wide-brim sombreros and leather leg coverings known as chaparreras and what we call chaps today. Hold up just a minute. This is a pet peeve of mine and most cowboys across the world. It is. It is not pronounced chaps. It is chaps. These are leggings that cowboys wore for protection and also warmth. Okay, now let's get back to the rest of the story. Their gear, language, and techniques would later influence every part of American cowboy life, but many vaqueros weren't directly of Spanish descent. Many were indigenous, mestizo, or Afro-Mexican, men who blended Spanish ranching knowledge with native survival skills and a deep connection to the land, and when it came to food, they made it count. Long cattle drives meant meals had to be simple, filling, and fire-friendly. Tortillas, beans, dried meat, and chili sauces were everyday fare. Huevos rancheros, eggs layered over tortillas and doused in a peppery tomato sauce, was born from these traditions. It wasn't a special occasion breakfast. It was fuel and it was full of flavor. As ranching culture traveled north and mingled with Anglo settlers and Civil War era cattlemen, the vaqueros methods and meals shaped the cowboy way of life from South Texas all the way to Southern Montana and the Great Plains. Well, while that sauce is sitting there just simmering along, it is time to break out the corn tortillas. Now before that, I had me a little leftover bacon grease from yesterday, so I just warmed it back up. I just want you to just give them a little bath in here in this, and then just throw them right here on Oberta. It don't take long for it to happen, so be paying attention. You just want them warm plumb through, not crispy. It don't take long on Bertha. In fact, let me get something to peel them off there with because that bunch is ready to go. Cackle berries, a very important component to huevos rancheros. Now you can fry these any way you want. You can do them in a skillet, you can do them on a flat top griddle, over medium, over easy, sunny side up, any way you want. Huevos rancheros, now traditionally, which is this dish, it was just tortilla, sauce, egg, a little more sauce. But I have sprinkled cheese on mine. I like them that way, and we even showed you a bonus version here we did. As things have evolved, people like to add a little everything. And for this one, we just what? Layer of refried beans, some chorizo, two fried eggs on top, a little cheese, a little more sauce. So you take your bite out of every which one you want to. I'm gonna hold them out there. You go ahead and get your bite. I'll let y'all go first. No, bashful, huh? Well, I'm gonna go with traditional right off the bat. Mate, that'll make you want to do the chihuahua. You're not a chihuahua, you're a schnauzer. Did you think that would be all right? Now I'm gonna try Shan's version. Refried beans, chorizo. Might be a toss-up, but I'm gonna lean towards original. I just like the flavor that is just there by itself. The corn tortilla fried in that bacon grease. You get that egg, you get that sauce that we made to go on it. Folks, that is a winner right there. Rancher's eggs, huevos rancheros. But it is with great pride, honor, and privilege that I tip my hat to all the servicemen and women and all the veterans that have kept that old flag of flying over camp. We commend you all, we do. But folks, remember, it's time to what? Share the fire. Not just the cooking fire, but the fire inside you. The passion that you have, because that's going to bring about good things in the world. And when you share your cooking fire, hey, you're drawing people together. You're making family, you're making friends. So have that fire, have that passion in there. Get on in here close. Give me a big old hug. God bless you each and every one, and I'll see you down the huevos rancheros trail.