Fully-Loaded Huevos Rancheros

• Begin by preparing your refried beans and salsa verde a day in advance, to save time in the morning when you are ready to prepare the rest of your huevos rancheros breakfast components.

For the Refried Beans:

• The night before you plan to make the beans, soak beans for 12 hours in cold water with ½ tsp baking soda and 1 Tbsp kosher salt.
• The beans will double in size after soaking up the liquid overnight, so use a bit more water than you think you may need.
• Drain the beans after they have soaked.
• Add beans to a pot or Dutch oven and cover with water.
• Add the garlic cloves and dried oregano and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to low and cook beans for 90-120 minutes, or until beans are tender.
• In a large cast iron skillet or large saute pan, heat lard until hot.
• Add the onions and cook until the onions are translucent and just starting to take on some color.
• Stir in the minced serrano pepper and the chipotle pepper.
• Use a slotted spoon to remove the beans from the cooking liquid and place them in with the lard and onions and serrano pepper in the saute pan. *Do not discard the cooking liquid at this stage.
• Partially mash about half of the beans and add ½ cup of your cooking liquid and stir to combine.
• Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook and stir your beans, adding more of the bean cooking liquid when the mixture gets too dry.
• Continue to cook until your beans have reached the desired mashed potato texture.
• Taste and carefully adjust seasoning with salt, until your beans taste perfect.
• If you prefer a looser refried bean consistency, add more of the bean cooking liquid.
• If you prefer a chunkier final product, only mash some of the beans.
• Now it is time to make the salsa verde.
• Again, it might be helpful to make this a day in advance of when you plan to make the huevos rancheros for breakfast.

For the Salsa Verde:

• Preheat oven to high broil, or 550F.
• Remove the outer husks from the tomatillos and wash under cold water.
• Slice the tomatillos in half and rub with vegetable oil.
• Place the tomatillos on parchment paper on a sheet tray and broil for about 6-8 minutes, or until the tomatillos have taken on some dark color.
• Remove the tomatillos from the oven and allow to cool.
• When the tomatillos have cooled down slightly, combine the roasted tomatillos with the serrano peppers, white onion, garlic, cilantro, red pepper flakes, and lime juice.
• Blend in a blender until slightly chunky but mostly smooth and broken down, like salsa.
• Remove from the blender and place in a bowl.
• Taste the mixture and adjust the quantity of lime juice to your preference.
• Season with salt, and carefully adjust the quantity needed until the salsa tastes great.
• Now that you have your refried beans and salsa verde prepared, it is time to make the remaining components for your huevos rancheros!

For the Remaining Huevos Rancheros Components:

• Soft-poach 10 eggs and leave them resting in cold water while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
• Assemble plates with some of the tortilla chips, some refried beans, sour cream, some chipotles in adobo, lime juice, white onion, queso fresco, pickles jalapenos, fresh cilantro and oregano, fresh avocado, and salted roma tomatoes.
• Top everything with a generous ladle of salsa verde and the remaining queso fresco and fresh herbs.
• Serve with wedges of lime.