Wow! I was just cleaning out my Drafts folder and found this post. I can’t believe that I forgot to share these with you! The recipe for these sassy little Huaraches is another one that I learned from Chef Luis ^[1] at my cooking class adventure in Cozumel. They’re super delicious and super easy to make. Plus, you can dress them up all pretty and serve them to company. No one would ever guess that they only take about ten minutes to prepare.

Huaraches is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a fried masa base, with a variety of toppings. Masa is a dough made from cornmeal and is a common ingredient in Mexican cuisine. The name huaraches is derived from the oblong shape of the masa dough, similar to the sandals of the same name. Huaraches are usually built on a large masa base and eaten as a meal, but Chef Luis had us make small ones to serve as appetizers.

By the way, that is not me in the picture above. It is one of my classmates. She claimed to be a pastry chef from Mississippi or somewhere. I don’t know about that, but I do know that she doesn’t like to be photographed. Don’t ask me how I know. I just know. ‘Nuff said.

In class, we made our own masa bases for our huaraches using a tortilla press. You can certainly do that too, except I can’t tell you how, because Chef Luis didn’t give us the recipe for them. Sigh… But, I’ve adapted the recipe for you using corn tortillas, which are readily available at any Latin market and most supermarkets. If you’re fortunate enough to live near a tortilleria, a shop that sells freshly made tortillas, so much the better.

Don’t mind the mess on my tray. Some people were getting annoyed with me because I was taking so many pictures, and I didn’t want to take the time to move the stray bits out of the shot. For the record, I only took 394 shots.

These huaraches are topped with a traditional mixture of spicy chorizo sausage, diced potatoes, cotija cheese and refried black beans. All of these ingredients can also be found at your local supermarket, as can the crema used as a garnish. If, for some reason, you can’t find crema, which is the Mexican version of sour cream, just use regular sour cream or crème fraiche. It will be just as good.

To make the topping for our huaraches, we liberated the chorizo from its casing and sautéed it with some diced potatoes. If I make these again, I would definitely add some finely diced onion to the mix as well. I would also heat up the refried beans a little before spreading them on the the masa bases. Chef Luis didn’t have us do that, and I wasn’t crazy about the cold beans. Other than that, I thought that these little huaraches were pretty darn tasty. I think they’d be a great addition to a Mexican-themed buffet. You could also mix in some scrambled eggs and voila! Brunch!