Mexican Scrambled Eggs ♥ Huevos Revueltos a la Mexicana

I swear, I could do this all summer, sharing healthy summer breakfast ideas! This easy one-skillet scrambled egg dish originates in Mexico and makes up in just minutes, definitely fast enough for a quick weekday breakfast although worthy of a casual of a weekend-slow brunch. I love our recipe, just eggs and tomatoes but also Diana Kennedy's version with onion, chiles and tomato. Both recipes belong on healthy cooks' summer menus!

Simple & Seasonal But Also a Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Low Carb. High Protein. Very Weight Watchers Friendly & Freestyle Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

Skip Straight to Our Recipe for Mexican Scrambled Eggs
Skip Straight to Diana Kennedy's Own Recipe for Mexican Scrambled Eggs

"The Most Popular Eggs In Mexico"

That's not me talking, it's Diana Kennedy, the now 96-year old champion of home-style state-by-state traditional Mexican cuisine for an English-speaking audience for more than sixty years. She wrote in her cookbook The Art of Mexican Cooking, "This is the simplest and most popular way of cooking eggs in the Mexican manner."

What? Shouldn't that be Huevos Rancheros ("Ranch" Eggs)? Not according to Diana Kennedy, who says that huevos rancheros are better known outside of Mexico, where huevos revueltos a la Mexicana (Mexican Scrambled Eggs) are the most popular egg dish in Mexico itself.

Family Rituals

But the popularity of Mexican Scrambled Eggs is also the refrain of my breakfast-loving (and -cooking) husband, e-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e time he cooks up a skillet of Mexican Scrambled Eggs – which is frequently, especially during summer tomato season. As we sit down to eat breakfast, he turns to me with a little grin and I can't help but laugh, already guessing exactly what he's about to say. "Do you know?" he asks each time, quoting Diana Kennedy, "that these are the most popular eggs in Mexico?" A teenager would roll her eyes. Me, I find it a sweet ritual.

Adapting Diana Kennedy's Recipe

Mexican Scrambled Eggs have been a morning staple breakfast here for more than a year. We first tried the simple egg skillet last year during that month-long project we called Deep Mexico: Ingredient-Driven Mexican Meal Prep. I so-so-so recommend that hyper focus. We learned so much, we ate so well and most of all, we fixed on so many dishes that quickly became house standards, these scrambled eggs among them.

But a couple of days back, I went back to the cookbook to check Diana Kennedy's original recipe. Ha! I quickly realized that over the year, we changed her recipe in fundamental ways.

MORE EGGS We use 8 large eggs to serve four, she uses the equivalent of 5.
OIL Diana Kennedy's recipe uses 4 tablespoons of oil, we use only enough to keep an already non-stick pan from sticking. In fact, when my husband makes Mexican Scrambled Eggs, he warms up the oil in the skillet, then lightly wipes most of it away with a tissue. He wants the focus on the creamy eggs and the ripe tomato, not the oil.
ONION & CHILES We skip the onion and serrano chiles.
INGREDIENT ORDER She softens the onion, chiles and tomatoes in oil first, then stirs in the eggs until set. We like to start the eggs first, and then, just as the eggs begin to firm up, add the tomatoes. This way the tomatoes warm up but don't cook.
ADDITIONS We frequently make Mexican Scrambled Eggs with tomatillos, some times paired with tomatoes, sometimes on their own. Tomatillos do take slightly more time to cook than tomatoes, so we add them a little sooner.

I mention our changes because our recipe may well vary from others you've seen or perhaps have even made. All I can say is ... we adore our version of Mexican Scrambled Eggs! The eggs themselves are so tender and creamy, almost curds of egg. The tomatoes are summer sweet and juicy, a welcome contrast to the creamy eggs.

But Both Versions Belong In a Repertoire of Eggs!

That said? Writing this, I decided to make Diana Kennedy's own version of Huevos Revueltos a la Mexicana, the original recipe from her cookbook. And oh my, her Mexican Scrambled Eggs are good! Thanks to that extra oil, her scrambled eggs are richer than ours even though they call for fewer eggs. And I really love the mix of onion-chile-tomato with the tender, barely mixed scrambled eggs.

Me? I'll be making both. By the way, "Do you know that these are the most popular eggs in Mexico?" Tee hee ...

RESOURCES Diana Kennedy's life story is fascinating, it's worth a quick introductory read. She's written many Mexican cookbooks but this is the one we keep at eye level in an entire bookshelf of cookbooks (arrghh, just one of three!), The Art of Mexican Cooking: Traditional Mexican Cooking for Aficionados. You'll want a non-stick pan for cooking these eggs, I've been using this large non-stick pan from Cuisinart nearly every day for almost a year. It has two handles! And a glass lid! We think of our well-seasoned cast iron skillets as "non stick" but for these eggs, true non-stick it is. If you don't have one, this is a wonderful non-stick spatula. I've had to replace mine a time or two but have been using the same model (and no other) since the mid 1990s! It's thin enough to reach under cookies or pancakes but sturdy enough to stir stews and sautéeing vegetables. Love this spatula! My Disclosure Promise

These recipes are so quick and easy that I'm adding them to a growing collection of easy summer recipes published all summer long ever since 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

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RECIPE for OUR MEXICAN SCRAMBLED EGGS

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 15 minutes
Serves 4 (easily scaled down or up)

Just five ingredients!
Very light glisten of a neutral oil (about 2 teaspoons of sunflower, safflower, canola or even plain vegetable oil)
8 large eggs
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
1 medium ripe tomato, diced small (about 1 cup)

Warm a large, non-stick skillet on medium heat, add a slick of oil and when it's warmed up, tilt and swirl the pan to distribute the oil across the pan. Meanwhile, use a large fork to just-mix the eggs, water and salt; don't use a whisk, you don't want air in the eggs, just to mix them a little.

When the oil is warm, gently pour the eggs into the skillet, they shouldn't sizzle but within a few seconds, should begin to set up a bit. With a soft spatula, wherever the eggs begin to cook a bit, gently scrape the pan from the outer edge to the center, collecting the more-cooked egg in the center, letting the less-cooked egg stream out into the pan. If you like, lift a section of eggs and turn it over.

When the eggs are about half cooked, stir in the tomato. This will slow down the cooking to let the pan come back to temperature, then begin stirring again, helping curds form. Once the eggs are fully cooked, serve hot.

MAKE-AHEAD Mexican Scrambled Eggs are best cooked and served right away.

VARIATIONS Use half tomato, half tomatillo, very pretty and a nice combination.

ALANNA'S TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
Want something extra special? Make Mexican Scrambled Eggs with just-harvested farm eggs and stil-warm-from-the-sun home-grown tomatoes. That said, we make this dish with grocery-store eggs and winter tomatoes all the time, no need to be super-picky.
NEUTRAL OIL For me, it's reflexive to reach for the bottle of olive oil that sits by the stove whenever oil is called for in a recipe. But olive oil has taste. Usually taste is a good thing but for a dish this simple, we choose a neutral oil without taste so that the eggs and tomatoes themselves can stand out without competition.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Serving: 168 Calories; 10g Tot Fat; 3g Sat Fat; 423mg Cholesterol; 281mg Sodium; 2g Carb; 0g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 13g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 4 & PointsPlus 4 & SmartPoints 5 & Freestyle 0 & myWW green 5 & blue 0 & purple 0

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RECIPE for DIANA KENNEDY'S MEXICAN SCRAMBLED EGGS (REVUELTOS A LA MEXICANA)

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 15 minutes
Serves 4

4 tablespoons lard or safflower oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped white onion
4 serrano chiles, finely chopped (I use poblano)
1 cup finely chopped unpeeled tomato
5 large eggs
Kosher salt to taste

Warm a large, non-stick skillet on medium heat. Stir in the onion and chiles and let cook, stirring occasionally, until just translucent. Stir in the tomato and let cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomato juices have mostly cooked off.

While the vegetables cook, break the eggs into a bowl and use a large fork to mix; don't beat or whisk the eggs, just combine the whites and yolks. Gently pour the eggs over the vegetables and let rest until the egg begins to set, then use a spatula to gently scrape and turn over the eggs until they are fully cooked, about 4 minutes. Serve immediately.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Serving: 222 Calories; 18g Tot Fat; 3g Sat Fat; 264mg Cholesterol; 90mg Sodium; 3g Carb; 1g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 8g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 6 & PointsPlus 6 & SmartPoints 7 & Freestyle 4 & myWW green 6 & blue 4 & purple 4

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION Both recipes adapted from The Art of Mexican Cooking: Traditional Mexican Cooking for Aficionados by Diana Kennedy. My Disclosure Promise

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