Mexican Baked Eggs

Tonight's recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs: Closet Cooking. This is a fairly standard tex-mex dish in that it resembles nothing authentically Mexican, yet incorporates all the ingredients that are commonly stereotyped as being south of the border. No matter the authenticity, this turned out pretty well and had some fantastic flavors to it. We served it over some roast potatoes I had baked in olive oil, salt, pepper, tons of minced garlic, and smoked paprika. For future meals we would add some more protein with some chicken sausage pieces to help make the dish even more filling.

Mexican Baked Eggs
(originally found on the Closet Cooking blog)

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 jalapeno peppers, seeds removed and diced
1 (28 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1-2 tsp oregano
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
4 eggs
Grated cheese (we used a reduced fat Mexican blend)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Saute the onions in the oil over medium heat until soft. Add in the garlic, cumin, chipotle powder and jalapeno. Saute for a minute and stir in the tomatoes with their liquid and the black beans. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro and oregano.

Closet Cooking's blog entry actually forgot to include the oregano in the instructions, so I figured this would be the appropriate time/place to add them in. None of the blog comments mention the missing oregano, so I'm not sure what other people did. Oops!

Transfer half of the sauce to a baking dish (I used an 8x8 inch dish) and crack 4 eggs directly on top. Spoon the rest of the sauce around the eggs and bake 8-10 minutes, or until the eggs begin to set. Generously sprinkle cheese on top and broil until the cheese is super melty. The egg whites should be fully cooked at this point.