Hunter S. Thompson’s classic huevos rancheros recipe
The recipes most closely associated with Hunter. S Thompson is more chemical than substantial. His infamous daily diet of cocaine, some more cocaine, a bit more cocaine, and Dunhill cigarettes routinely does the rounds, one of the last greatest American myths.
A man obviously needs more than swigs of champagne and a tab of acid to keep him going. As fun a day you’d have following his dubious daily routine, the following recipe will come in handy the next day when you’re done punishing your tattered dopamine receptors and decide to eat something that doesn’t come with a psychoactive aftertaste.
This will obviously be done at breakfast, which Thompson took well into the afternoon. Despite being lax on the timings, it was a sacred meal to the gonzo journalist. In The Great Shark Hunt, he wrote: “Breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone and in a spirit of genuine excess.”
Choice meals he listed include: “four Bloody Marys” (not a meal), “a pot of coffee” (not a meal), and “two margaritas and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert” (sadly, also not a meal). He makes you work hard to find what exactly he ever ate, and once you push past the wild drug-taking mythology, you’ll discover Thomspon was quite partial to huevos rancheros.
His wife Sandy seemed to dispel the idea he ran on pure pharmaceuticals, saying: “He had some very specific ideas about what breakfast should be, and there were maybe four different ones that he liked.”
One of his favourites, the huevos rancheros, even appeared in The Great Shark Hunt, where he says he nearly caved and ordered it with a double side of bacon but “settled for grapefruit and coffee”. His friends then filled in the rest, recalling that a bottle of gin often followed the minimalist breakfast.
When he wasn’t out ordering gin and bacon, he could be found enjoying breakfast at home in the garden. Ideally, as he wrote: “In the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked”. While he willfully misremembered his actual eating habits, his wife and son, Juan, didn’t.
Juan remembered polishing off his own dinner and then doing some homework, at which time Thomspon would get breakfast going. “He’d be eating bacon and eggs and reading the paper, and I’d be finishing my dinner or doing my homework before bed,” he said. “My friends at school thought that was funny.”
Hunter S. Thompson’s huevos rancheros recipe:
Ingredients:
- 4 slices bacon
- 4 corn tortillas
- 1 (14- to 15-ounce) canned whole tomatoes in juice
- 1/4 cup chopped white onion
- 1/8 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus additional for sprinklingOne1 tablespoon chopped canned chipotle chilesOne1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- Avocado
- Cheese
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 200°F
- Cook bacon until crispy, set aside, and dry off the oil with a paper towel.
- Heat tortillas in remaining bacon fat, wrapping in foil to keep warm. Repeat with all remaining tortillas.
- Purée the tomatoes, onion, cilantro, chipotle, garlic and half the bacon in a blender until smooth. Simmer in a hot skillet until the salsa is slightly thickened.
- Heat another skillet and cook eggs as desired, then season.
- Spoon salsa onto each plate and top with tortillas, eggs, remaining bacon, extra cilantro, extra salsa, sliced avocado and cheese.
Alternatively:
- Procure cocaine
- Take said cocaine.
- Repeat, adding in occasional cigarettes and beers for garnish.
