Dairy Free Chilaquiles are easier to make than you might think! Nothing beats a delicious red chilaquiles recipe and these flavorful chilaquiles can easily be made into a vegan recipe.

Dairy Free Chilaquiles

Before going gluten and dairy free, we would frequent a Mexican restaurant in a nearby town. It was one of our favorites and I loved ordering chilaquiles. Chilaquiles (pronounced chee-luh-key-lays) are a traditional Mexican breakfast made with tortilla chips simmered in sauce. Nothing beats the homemade chips smothered in sauce and covered in cheese. Well, after going gluten and dairy free, it took eating there one time to realize it was no longer a safe option.

Since then, I have not had chilaquiles, but kept thinking about how I needed to make them! I knew I wanted to make an easy, dairy free chilaquiles recipe that everyone would love

You can find your favorite Pace® Picante Sauce at your local Kroger or Foods Co. Pace® Picante Sauce comes in mild, medium, and hot, so if you’re feeling spicy, you are in luck.

We love the bold flavors of Pace® Picante Sauce – it’s just so darn good!

What is great about this recipe is it doesn’t have to be dairy free if you don’t want it to. A few small modifications make it dairy free; making chilaquiles vegan can be easy as well.

Easy Chilaquiles

This saucy and delicious red chilaquiles recipe is perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can add a few scrambled eggs to the top for breakfast/brunch, or shredded chicken for lunch or dinner. Adding a variety of toppings your family loves will make this your own unique meal.

We opted for avocado and cilantro, but a little vegan sour cream, lettuce, and jalapeño would be awesome too!

What ingredients will you need for this red chilaquiles recipe?

This recipe is made with just a few simple ingredients and you can use premade items to make it even easier if you would like.

Jar of Salsa (16 oz jar)
1 1/2 cups Enchilada Sauce – this can be store bought or homemade
1/2 cup shredded cheese; we used vegan cheddar
Garnish with avocado, cilantro, green onions, and anything else that sounds good
12 corn tortillas and oil to fry them, or 2-3 oz of corn tortilla chips

We used the Pace® Picante Mild Sauce for this, but if you like a kick, using medium or hot would be perfect. I also used some of my homemade enchilada sauce that I keep in the freezer for this. You can get the recipe for that HERE, but if you are looking for super-easy ingredients you can absolutely use store-bought red enchilada sauce. I think it’s important to use both salsa and enchilada sauce in this recipe, as the Pace® Picante Sauce incorporates the flavors of smoothly blended tomatoes, chunks of savory onions, and hand-picked jalapenos, while enchilada sauce adds a more liquid consistency with a chili-packed kick.

If you are not vegan or dairy free, feel free to use your favorite cheese. I imagine pepper jack would be amazing, but we used a vegan cheddar, and it was great!

How to make Chilaquiles Vegan…

If you need this recipe to be vegan, then you will want to make sure your enchilada sauce is vegan. If you can’t find any at the store my enchilada sauce is easily made vegan by just using vegetable broth in the recipe.

The cheese and any topping you use will need to be vegan/dairy free as well. We chose vegan cheese; vegan sour cream would be excellent too.

How to make these Easy Chilaquiles…

If you are making the chips from scratch, then this is your first step. Slice 12 corn tortillas each into 4 equal triangles and then add about 1/4-1/2 cup of oil in a large frying pan. I used avocado oil, but vegetable oil works just fine.

Place as many triangles as you can fit in the pan without them touching each other. Let them cook about 1-2 minutes, flip and cook another minute. Remove them from the pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat until all the tortilla chips are done.

Set the chips aside and start the sauce. In a large skillet (I prefer cast iron) add the enchilada sauce and Pace® Picante Sauce. Heat through; once a light simmer starts turn the heat off and add all your chips, smothering them in the sauce. Top with your shredded cheese.

If you are using regular cheese the hot sauce should melt it, but vegan cheese is harder to melt, so I put the skillet in the oven on a low broil until our cheese softened (this step is optional).

Now add all your toppings and serve warm.

This is such an easy, delicious recipe, and you can enjoy it for any meal. We will be eating this for breakfast with eggs on top very soon. Enjoy!