How to Make and Wrap a Breakfast Burrito
Discover > Texas Recipes > How to Make and Wrap a Breakfast Burrito
Breakfast burritos (or tacos depending on where you live) are debatably the most popular dish to buy off a cafe or food trolley in Texas. It’s so popular that many, many fiery and very public arguments and battles broke out between cities claiming to be the home of the south’s favorite breakfast.
Regardless breakfast tacos are one of the most delicious, easy, and convenient breakfasts you can make and take and they’re almost endlessly customizable.
Breakfast Burrito Background
Breakfast burritos really hit the scene in Texas in the 80s and since then particular cities in Texas have been at all-out war with each other for who is home to the best breakfast tacos. There is also a particularly big argument on whether to call it a breakfast burrito or a breakfast taco. While the name taco or burrito depends on where you are in Texas, the real answer is pretty simple, a taco is folded, a burrito is wrapped. Personally, I prefer the burrito because when you’re eating breakfast on the go, a wrap is significantly more convenient.
The breakfast taco beef that burns hottest between Austin and San Antonio has been going for decades without any signs of slowing. In fact, the tussle came to a pretty hard climax after Eater Austin wrote and posted ‘How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco’ back in 2016 causing San Antonio (who also consider themselves the home of breakfast tacos) to have a more than bitter response. So much so that a petition was created on change.org calling the article a ‘churlishly negligent treatise’ and calling for the City of Austin to throw Matthew Sedacca out of an unmarked van well outside the boundaries of the state. So as you can tell, we take breakfast tacos very seriously in the south.
What Can you Add to a Breakfast Burrito?
When you buy a breakfast taco/burrito off a street vendor, most of the time they’re just eggs, potato hash, and sausage or bacon (how long does bacon last?) wrapped in a flour (how long does flour last?) tortilla. More often than not condiments like hot sauce (how long does hot sauce last?) and salsa are also served with them.
When you make a breakfast wrap at home you have the freedom to ultimately customize the burrito by throwing in thinly sliced avocados, fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, even fresh sweetcorn.
How to Fry Potato Hash
Potato hash is perfect for breakfast tacos and a wide variety of other dishes. To make it just finely dice a couple of large starchy potatoes, place them in a saucepan into salted water, then boil the dice for 7-8 minutes. If you have extra time on your hands, soak the potato dice in cold water for up to an hour before boiling.
Meanwhile, combine all-purpose flour with your favorite spices (salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, etc). Drain the potatoes and give them a shake in your strainer so that the outside gets nice and fluffy, then evenly coat in the seasoned flour.
Heat some peanut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and bring it up to 350°F. Use a spider to drop the seasoned potatoes into the hot oil and fry until golden brown and crispy. Drain the potatoes on a paper towel and keep them in a warm oven to prevent them from going cold.
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How to Make Scrambled Eggs
Soft scrambled eggs are one of the keys to a good breakfast taco. The key to soft scrambled eggs is simply not to overcook them, which is easier said than done.
Whisk a couple of eggs together in a bowl with a splash of whole milk and a pinch of salt and pepper then place a saucepan over low heat and melt a small knob of butter.
Pour the eggs into the saucepan and leave it to cook for around 30 seconds before removing it from the heat and whisking. Place the saucepan back into heat for another 30 seconds to a minute then take it back off and keep stirring. Repeat this for around 3 ½ minutes until the eggs are just underdone, keep mixing while the residual heat cooks the eggs then grate and melt in your favorite cheese.
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Adding Meat
There is a lot of delicious meat you can wrap in one of these. The most common is bacon or sausage but I’ve seen everything from pulled pork, to shredded chicken, to minced beef and brisket. The easiest and quickest way to add a little meat is to cook up some bacon, chop it up, then mix it into the cooked eggs. Frying up some small buttons of breakfast sausage meat requires a couple of extra steps but is well worth it.
Adding Condiments
Making a beautiful, homemade salsa is a classic way to bring those phenomenal breakfast ingredients together but there are a lot of ways you can go. Jalapeno relish, homemade or store-bought hot sauce, pico de gallo, refried beans, guacamole, and sour cream are a couple of the long list of things that taste amazing wrapped in or topped on a fresh burrito.
How to Wrap a Burrito
The amount you wrap into a tortilla depends on the size of the tortilla. The ideal size for a burrito I found is between 7 and 9 inches in diameter, although most store-bought tortillas are around 4-6 inches in diameter.
To wrap any kind of burrito starts with lightly toasting the tortilla to make it more malleable. The easiest way to do that is to toast it on either side for around 30 seconds on each side. Make sure you don’t overdo it because it will make the tortilla brittle and have an adverse effect. Also, have a square piece of foil at the ready to wrap the burrito in without any hassle.
Lay the warm tortilla onto a flat surface then scoop the breakfast ingredients onto the tortilla just slightly south of the center.
Fold the left and right sides of the tortilla into the center then fold it upwards toward the center and finish rolling the burrito.
Place the burrito knot the foil then use the same method you used to wrap a burrito in the foil.
