Preparing a Rancheros Sauce that’s thick and rich enough to cradle an egg makes this a no-fail way to make Huevos Rancheros. Tomato based and full of fresh and lively chopped vegetables, Mexican eggs never had it so good.
And if you’re looking for an even easier Mexican breakfast, take a look at Heuvos a la Mexicana, an easy Mexican scrambled egg recipe.
What Is Rancheros Sauce?
Ranchero sauce is a flavorful tomato and vegetable based sauce that originated in Northern Mexico. It’s seasoned with your favorite Mexican spices and it’s most popular use is as a base for Huevos Rancheros.
When you make ranchero sauce, you’re basically making a Mexican sofrito. A tomato based sauce that seasoned with all of your favorite fresh veggies. Just like a sofrito to make the Spanish dish, Paella.
What You Can Expect From This Recipe
Why should you trust this recipe? It comes from a very old Mexican Cookbook I purchased nearly 40 years ago. Chock full of recipes from south of the border, some of our favorite authentic Mexican recipes have come from this book.
One of my big take-aways from this cookbook was this recipe for how to make rancheros sauce for baked huevos rancheros. A classic Mexican Breakfast where eggs are served with a warm tortilla and salsa = Ranch Eggs.
Most recipes call for tortillas topped with rancheros sauce, then fried eggs. What I liked about this recipe is the hands-off factor. The process becomes easier as the eggs are tucked into this chunky thick sauce, then baked. Less fuss, less clean-up.
The end result is a little different than the Huevos Rancheros that you might find in a Tex-Mex style restaurant, as there’s no refried beans, no fried eggs that require a juggling act to prepare and plate at the same time.
It’s an easy method for making skillet baked Huevos Rancheros.
Let’s take a look.
Huevos Rancheros Sauce Ingredients
This rancheros sauce starts with a sauté of sweet orange bell pepper, onion, garlic and Poblano chiles cooked until almost caramelized. Cumin and Mexican Oregano are added to season the sauce. Add the eggs and it’s off to the oven.
- Tomato Paste: Rich tomato paste may be my favorite pantry item of all times. It’s concentrated, it’s rich in flavor and adds nuance and body to this easy ranchero sauce.
- Peppers: Orange Bell Pepper: Choose an orange bell pepper for it’s sweetness and the color variation it adds to the overall appearance of the sauce. Poblano Peppers: One of my favorite chile pepper varieties I use in Mexican recipes. Earthy, and similar in flavor to green bell peppers, Poblano peppers bring a kick of heat.
- Diced Tomatoes: Any canned chopped tomatoes will work, but I choose Red Gold Brand because they are chopped smaller and will break down quicker to make any sauce. (I’ve received no compensation for mentioning this brand
- Cotija Cheese: Cotija is a Mexican crumbling cheese, dry in texture and salty in flavor. Its makes a great topping for any Mexican entree.
Pro-Tip: With it’s sticky texture, garlic can be a chore to chop. Try grating peeled garlic using a micro-plane zester, or thin slicing it with a Mandolin Slicer.
Ingredient Substitutions and Swaps
- Chile Pepper: If you want to bring more heat to the overall flavor, substitute Jalapeno Peppers for the poblano peppers. I would still devein and remove seeds to temper the heat a bit. Use 4 good sized jalapenos. Anaheim chile peppers are milder and can be used. And to make things even easier, use 2 4-ounce cans of chopped Hatch Chile peppers, which can easily be found on the Mexican food aisle at the grocery store.
- Oregano: Mexican oregano is preferred because of the lemon and citrus flavor it brings, which compliments almost any Mexican food recipe. If you don’t have it, substitute with marjoram, which carries a similar flavor profile.
- Chipotle: Trying adding a healthy teaspoon sauce from a can Chipotles in Adobo. This will add a lovely smoky flavor to the ranchero sauce.
- Fresh Tomatoes: If you’re smack dab in the middle of fresh tomato season, by all means use those beauties. You’ll need about 8 medium sized tomatoes. Just chop them and don’t forget to scrape all of that juice from the cutting boards into the recipe.
Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy
Starting with fresh produce and adding the rich flavor of tomato, this rancheros sauce is a true treat. This is a chance to hone those knife skills.
- Step 1: Start making the easy ranchero sauce by chopping and sauteeing the vegetables in oil until tender.
- Step 2: Add the tomato paste and the chopped tomatoes.
- Step 3: Add the water (or stock). Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium heat and simmer until the sauce thickens into a lush gravy type consistency.
- Step 4: Using a large spoon, or soup ladle, make wells in the sauce. Carefully break eggs into the wells. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until eggs have cooked to desired doneness. Use a large serving spoon to scoop out individual portions to plates and voila! You have an easy huevos rancheros recipe for breakfast.
Ranchero Sauce FAQ’S
The instruction in this recipe call to bake these eggs for 10 – 15 minutes depending on the doneness you’re seeking. For soft yolk eggs, bake 10 – 12 minutes. For medium yolk eggs, cook for 15 minutes. For hard yolk eggs, cook for about 18 minutes.
Not in my books. Rancheros sauce is a thick luscious combination to tomato paste and sauce combined with copped vegetables, rather than blended vegetables. The result is much different than salsa that you’d serve with tortilla chips.
Even though both sauces are tomato based, Enchilada Sauce is a much thinner product traditionally made with tomato sauce, broth and seasonings rather than tomatoes, tomato paste and vegetables.
Using Poblano Peppers will insure that this sauce is of medium spice. If you want it spicier, use Jalapeno Peppers.
Tips For Success:
- Knife Skills: Try chopping the vegetables in even pieces. This will insure even cooking, a professional appearance, and pride in skill set.
- Tortillas: Serve this with warmed flour or corn tortillas. For a complete traditional Mexican breakfast, serve with refried beans.
Storage
If you have leftovers, store Rancheros Sauce in an air-tight container for up to 5 days. It will also freeze well for three months.
Ranchero Sauce for Huevos Rancheros
I hope you give this Mexican sofrito version of rancheros sauce a try. Once the dicing and chopping is all done, it makes for an easy method to prepare baked Huevos Rancheros.
You’ll see a lot of rancheros sauce recipes that call for blending using an immersion blender or food processor. I love this authentic version by keeping the sauce thick and chunky.
More Mexican Breakfast Recipes:
And if you’re looking for even more breakfast recipe ideas, don’t miss my Breakfast Category. You’ll find lots of eye opening, welcome the morning ideas. Including the most popular breakfast recipe on my site for Home Fried Potatoes with Ham.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below and leave a comment. I always appreciate your feedback and hearing how everything went.
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Ranchero Sauce for Huevos Rancheros
Ingredients
- 2 small Sweet onions chopped, about 1 ½ cups
- 3 cloves Garlic chopped
- 2 Orange bell peppers chopped
- 2 Poblano peppers deveined, deseeded, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil or shortening
- 2 teaspoons Mexican Oregano dried
- 1 teaspoon Cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 14.4 ounce Canned tomatoes diced, or two large ripe tomatoes chpped
- ½ Cup Tomato paste
- ½ Cup Water or chicken broth
- 6 large eggs
- Cilantro leaves, sliced avocado and cotija cheese for garnish chopped
Instructions
- In an oven safe skillet (cast iron works great) Saute the onions, garlic, bell peppers and chiles in the oil until soft and golden.
- Add the oregano, cumin and salt/pepper. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste together with the water (or stock). Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.
- Using the back of a large serving spoon or soup ladle, make six wells in the sauce.
- Carefully break the eggs into the wells.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until eggs have cooked to desired doneness.
- Use a large serving spoon to transfer eggs/tomato sauce to serving plates. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro, crumbled creese, avocado slices and a warm flour or corn tortilla.
Notes
- Knife Skills: Try chopping the vegetables in even sized pieces. This will insure even cooking, a professional appearance, and pride in skill set.
- Tortillas: Serve this with warmed flour or corn tortillas.
Nutrition
Huevos Ranchero Sauce … It’s What’s for Breakfast.
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
Your version of huevos rancheros is great when you are cooking for a crowd.
Love this dish! And it’s so versatile and flexible too — loads of ways to vary it. This looks wonderful — thanks.
Wow that looks fabulous! I could eat that for dinner too. Cotija cheese rocks my socks too, it’s salty and has a touch of umami to it.
I agree Chris. Love Cotija.
What an incredibly delicious breakfast! I’ve never made huevos rancheros at home but would love to try it.
This is a pretty easy version Susan. I’ve tried others that were somewhat of an “ordeal”
I love huevos rancheros and your recipe sounds especially good.
Why thank you Karen. 🙂
Oh yum, I love Mexican food and this is one of my favorite dishes. I can think of all kinds of ways to use that sauce.
About that sauce: me too Kathy. I always use it on something. Burritos, fish … it’s very good.
“I’d urge you to give this a try.” – count me in. Super good looking and sounding breakfast LA and I like the baked part. I can see that sauce going well with many things or just eating it with a spoon :-). I’m headed over to check out the Cowboy Beans next.
Larry, I hope you try it and I hope you let me know how you like it. It’s one of my favorite and I was surprised when I realized I had never blogged about it. Those Cowboy beans are good and easy. Do you have a crockpot?
I’ve always wanted to try this!
This is an easy and uncomplicated version Pam.
I have been craving a good mexican breakfast. This looks yummy!
Thanks Karen. Hope you give it a try.
Huevos Ranchero is my all time favorite breakfast. I can’t wait to try this version, it looks just about perfect….
This is an easier version than some Karen. Hope you like it.
Love, love, love huevos rancheros! Now I am starving. Off to the store for eggs.
Pick me up some too. 😉
That looks amazing, Lea Ann! The best plate of Huevos Rancheros I’ve seen in a long time 🙂
I hope you give it a try Jenn.
My kinda breakfast. What an awesome recipe. I’ll have to try this one! Pinned it for you too.
Thanks so much for that Pin Curt. I appreciate that.
That is my kinda dish! I love anything with eggs, that sounds fantastic 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Me too Eric! I’m pretty sure I could eat them every day.
I finally tried Huevos Rancheros last summer and loved it. Now I’m dying to give this version a try. Looks really delicious! BTW, how attached are you to that red and green plate? 😉
Thanks Vickie. This is an easier version than some recipes. And LOL, you’ve commented on those plates before. You might find them in the mail one of these days.
🙂