Recipes by María “Mari” Santiago
20 recipes
20-Minute Lazy Sunday Chilaquiles Verdes (The One-Pan Savior)
Traditionally, chilaquiles mean frying old tortillas and dirtying three different pans. Not today. This is my lazy weekend hack: we blister a quick salsa verde, poach the eggs right in the bubbling sauce shakshuka-style, and tuck sturdy bodega chips in at the last second. It’s tangy, rich, retains that crucial crunch, and leaves you with exactly one pan to wash before your second cup of coffee.
25-Minute Picadillo Verde Bowl (The WFH Comfort Braise)
Listen, a good braise doesn't have to take all afternoon. This green picadillo bowl takes ground pork—an unsung hero of the weeknight kitchen—and bathes it in a quick, charred tomatillo salsa. We toss in calabacitas and corn, let it bubble until the pork is impossibly tender, and serve it over whatever rice you have in the fridge. Real flavor, real life, and absolutely zero sad desk lunches.
12-Minute Broiled Black Bean & Blistered Tomato Cazuela (The WFH Lunch Scoop)
It is 12:45 PM, you have exactly fifteen minutes before your next meeting, and the sad desk-salad is not going to cut it. We are doing a quick-broil cazuela. By blistering tomatoes and scallions under the broiler, we build a smoky, deep base in minutes. We blend half of that jammy veg with canned black beans, top it with cheese, and broil it into a molten, scoopable dream. Real flavor, real life, no sad lunches.
15-Minute Broiled Chipotle Totopos (Friday Night Couch Nachos)
Listen to me: we are not suffering for dinner, even when dinner is actually just snacks on the couch at 8 PM. By blasting sturdy tortilla chips, creamy black beans, and an instant chipotle drizzle under the broiler, we give hand-pulled Oaxaca cheese the spotlight it deserves. It melts into gooey, blistered perfection, giving you those crispy little cheese edges (the costra) that you’ll fight your partner for.
20-Minute Blistered Seta Dobladas (Friday Night Folded Tacos)
Listen, by Friday at 6 PM, nobody wants to cook, but nobody wants to wait an hour for delivery either. Enter the doblada: a crispy, folded taco stuffed with hard-blistered oyster mushrooms and melted Oaxaca cheese. Tearing the mushrooms and blistering them fast gives you this incredible, meaty chew that hits all the right comfort notes.
10-Minute Soft-Scrambled Chorizo Tacos (Because We Don't Do Rubbery Eggs)
A Brooklyn-Oaxacan morning rescue that fixes the classic huevos con chorizo. By crisping the meat first and gently soft-scrambling the eggs in the rendered red fat, we get shatter-crisp savory bites suspended in creamy, glossy eggs. Smeared over warm tortillas with bright lime-avocado, this is proof we're not suffering for breakfast.
25-Minute Skillet Fideo Seco (The Weeknight Noodle Rescue)
Sopa seca is the Oaxacan-via-everywhere-else comfort food we all deserve on a tired Tuesday. We toast broken noodles until they smell like a bakery, then let them drink up a smoky, garlicky chipotle-tomato broth until tender and jammy. It's basically Mexican spaghetti, finished with cooling crema and avocado, and it costs about four dollars to make.
12-Minute Ancho-Seared Cod Tostadas (The WFH Coastal Reset)
Sad desk lunches? We don't know them. We are not suffering through the midday slump. This is my Tuesday reset: a quick, smoky ancho sear on a piece of cod, flaked apart right in the pan, and piled onto crispy tostadas with a punchy jalapeño-cabbage slaw. It hits every texture—warm, smoky, crunchy, bright—and gets you back to your life in under 15 minutes.
15-Minute Skillet Entomatadas (The Lazy Weekend Brunch)
When you want enchiladas on a Sunday morning but are absolutely not turning on the oven, we make entomatadas. We blend a smoky, chipotle-laced tomato sauce, "fry" it in the skillet so it builds depth instantly, and quickly simmer our corn tortillas right in the warm sauce. Top it all with a fried egg and a heavy hand of crema. This is maximum Oaxacan comfort with Brooklyn speed.
25-Minute Pollo Almendrado (One-Pan Almond-Ancho Chicken)
This is a Tuesday mole, not a wedding mole. We are taking the deep, nutty, Oaxacan flavors of a traditional almendrado and putting them on a strict Brooklyn timeline. By using a scoop of almond butter and a quick blender salsa, these chicken thighs go from fridge to deeply savory, tender, and rich in under half an hour. We're not suffering for dinner tonight, guys.
20-Minute Cremini & Poblano Estofado (The Weeknight Bean Braise)
A rich, earthy, deeply savory skillet braise that comes together before anyone can even ask for a snack. We're skipping the fussy poblano-peeling step and doing a high-heat blister, then building a fast, tomato-paste-fortified broth that turns simple cremini mushrooms and canned pinto beans into a Tuesday night masterpiece. Serve with warm tortillas and remember: we are not suffering for dinner.
12-Minute Broiled Chorizo & Bean Fundido (Friday Night Botana)
This is Friday night couch food that tastes like a weekend project. We’re crisping up Mexican chorizo, mashing beans right into the flavorful rendered fat, and broiling a blanket of cheese until it’s bubbly and blistered. The real secret? A quick lime-soaked onion toss right at the end to cut all that beautiful richness.
15-Minute "Tasajo-Style" Flank Steak with Blistered Tomatillo Salsa
A Brooklyn-fast take on Oaxacan tasajo. We quick-blister tomatillos and aromatics in a dry skillet, blitz them into a smoky pan salsa, and sear thinly sliced flank steak in the same screaming-hot pan. Creamy avocado and warm tortillas turn this into a Tuesday night triumph. We are not suffering for dinner, mi gente.
15-Minute Pan-Seared Shrimp "Encacahuatado" (Spicy Peanut-Chipotle Shortcut)
A Tuesday night miracle that tastes like a Sunday project. We are taking the rich, nutty logic of an Oaxacan encacahuatado (peanut mole) and running it through a Brooklyn weeknight filter: a quick blender sauce that hits a screaming-hot skillet right after we flash-sear some large shrimp. Creamy, spicy, crunchy, done.
Caramelized Sweet Potato Molletes with Skillet-Toasted Ancho Crunch
Weekend lunches shouldn’t feel like a restaurant prep shift, but we’re also not suffering with a sad cold sandwich. We're leaning into the ultimate Mexican open-faced comfort food—molletes—but giving them a Brooklyn-Oaxaca upgrade. I use my favorite mom-math shortcut: microwaving a sweet potato so it’s instantly ready to caramelize in a hot pan. We layer that sweet, charred camote over salty, cheesy black beans, and finish it with a 3-minute skillet-toasted ancho and pepita crunch that wakes the whole dish up. Real flavor, real life.
15-Minute Huevos en Salsa Verde (The Tuesday Morning Rescue)
When you have exactly 15 minutes before the morning completely derails, this quick-simmer skillet is your lifeline. We’re dropping soft-scrambled eggs right into a vibrant, raw-blended tomatillo salsa, letting it bubble and thicken into a rich, tangy gravy. Scoop it into warm tortillas, and remind yourself that we are not suffering for breakfast today.
20-Minute Seared Bone-In Pork Chops with Smoky Ancho-Orange Pan Sauce
We’re not suffering for dinner just because it's a Tuesday. These thick, bone-in pork chops get a screaming-hot pan sear before we deglaze the skillet with a sticky, sweet-and-smoky ancho and orange juice pan sauce. Served over a quick smear of creamy black beans and topped with a bright lime-cabbage crunch to cut the richness.
15-Minute Skillet Chicken Tinga Tostadas (The WFH Lunch Rescue)
Listen, working from home or scrambling on a Tuesday does not mean you have to eat a sad desk sandwich. We are not suffering for lunch. This is my 'Bodega Mode' Chicken Tinga: a lightning-fast, smoky, chipotle-tomato sauce quickly simmered with shredded rotisserie chicken. We rely on pantry heroes like fire-roasted tomatoes and canned chipotles to build deep, slow-cooked flavor in 15 minutes flat. Piled onto crunchy tostadas with a bright, limey cabbage slaw, it hits every single texture note: crispy, creamy, smoky, and bright.
Skillet-Crisped Oyster Mushroom 'Chicharrones' (Friday Night Botana)
Friday night means we need snacks that feel like a party but take 15 minutes to pull together. We're taking torn oyster mushrooms, screaming-hot heat, and a little flavor logic to create jagged, shatteringly crisp 'chicharrones' without deep frying. Scooped up with bodega chips and a quick blender avocado crema, it is the ultimate weeknight botana.
15-Minute Flash-Seared Shrimp "A la Crema" with Blistered Zucchini
This is coastal Oaxacan comfort food on a Tuesday timeline. We’re flash-searing shrimp so they actually snap, then dragging them through a smoky chipotle crema that tastes like a two-hour reduction but takes exactly three minutes in the blender. Serve it with blistered spring zucchini to lighten it up. We are not suffering for dinner, people.