Breakfast Burritos with Egg, Cheese and Potato: Step-by-Step Instructions

Instructions

1. Cut the potatoes into even 1 cm cubes, rinse them under cold water until the water runs clear, then dry them thoroughly on a tea towel. The rinse removes loose surface starch and the drying removes the water that would otherwise steam the cubes instead of frying them.
2. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the potatoes in a single layer. Leave them alone for the first four minutes without stirring, then turn them every two or three minutes until deep gold all over, about 14 minutes in total. Stirring too early breaks the crust before it has formed.
3. Take the pan off the heat and only now stir through the smoked paprika, garlic powder and half the salt. Ground spices scorch and turn bitter in hot oil, so they go in at the end where the residual heat is enough to wake them up. Tip the potatoes onto a tray.
4. Cook the bacon in the same pan until properly crisp, then drain it on kitchen paper and chop it roughly. Limp bacon releases fat and moisture inside the burrito; crisp bacon stays crisp even after freezing. If you are using sausages, crumble the meat and fry it until browned and dry.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk, the rest of the salt and the black pepper until the yolks and whites are completely combined. The milk turns to steam in the pan and gives you a looser, softer curd than eggs beaten alone.
6. Melt the butter in a non-stick pan over a low heat, pour in the eggs and stir slowly with a spatula, pushing the set edges into the middle. Pull the pan off the heat while the eggs still look glossy and slightly wet. They will keep cooking in their own heat, and they will cook again when the burrito is seared and once more when it is reheated.
7. Spread the potatoes, bacon and eggs out on a tray and let everything cool to room temperature, around 15 minutes. Warm filling releases steam into the tortilla and turns it soft and tacky, which is the main reason home-made burritos fall apart.
8. Warm each tortilla for 10 to 15 seconds in a dry pan or 20 seconds in the microwave, covered with a damp tea towel. A cold tortilla cracks along the fold line; a warm one stretches.
9. Build each burrito in the lower third of the tortilla, leaving a clear 5 cm margin on each side: a line of potato, then egg, then bacon, then a generous handful of cheddar, then a tablespoon of well-drained salsa and a few spring onions. Keep the filling to a tight log. An overfilled burrito cannot be rolled tightly and will always split.
10. Fold the two sides in over the filling, then lift the bottom edge up and over and roll forward firmly, tucking as you go. Sear each burrito seam side down in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 2 minutes, then turn and give the other side 1 to 2 minutes. The heat welds the seam shut and melts the cheese into glue, which is what lets you eat it in one hand.

Recipe Variations

Chorizo and potato. Replace the bacon with 200 g of cooking chorizo, crumbled and fried until its orange fat runs, then fry the potatoes in that fat instead of oil. Leave out the smoked paprika, as the chorizo brings its own.

Green chile. Stir 150 g of roasted, chopped green chillies through the potatoes. This is the New Mexico version and it changes the whole character of the burrito for very little effort.

Vegetarian. Black beans rinsed and dried in a hot pan, plus a handful of baby spinach wilted and then squeezed hard in a tea towel. Squeezing is not optional; spinach holds a surprising amount of water.

Sweet potato. Swap half the potato for sweet potato cut slightly smaller, as it cooks faster. Pairs well with a pinch of chipotle in place of the paprika.

Hash brown shortcut. Frozen cubed hash browns cooked according to the packet save about 15 minutes and crisp reliably. Season them the same way.

Extra heat. A thin line of pickled jalapenos along the filling, or a hot salsa in place of the mild one, drained just as thoroughly.

Serving Ideas

Eaten fresh, a breakfast burrito wants something cold and sharp beside it. Soured cream, sliced avocado or a bowl of the salsa liquid you drained off earlier all work, and so does a plain wedge of lime squeezed over the cut end.

Cut on the diagonal and stood upright on the plate, they look considerably better than they do lying flat, and the cross-section is the most appetising part of the dish. If you are feeding several people at once, slice each one in half so everybody can take two different fillings.

For a weekend breakfast table, set out a tray of the burritos alongside a jug of coffee, a bowl of hot sauce and a plate of quartered oranges. For a weekday, wrap one in a square of greaseproof paper, fold the end over, and eat it on the way out of the door. That portability is the whole reason this recipe exists.

Keeping It Fresh

In the fridge, wrapped in foil, the burritos keep for three days. Reheat them whole in a dry pan over a medium-low heat for about four minutes a side, or split the difference with 45 seconds in the microwave followed by two minutes in the pan.

Freezing. Let the finished, seared burritos cool completely on a rack, not on a plate, so the bottoms do not sit in their own condensation. Wrap each one tightly in greaseproof paper first, then in a layer of foil or clingfilm, then put the wrapped parcels into a freezer bag with the air pressed out. The paper stops the tortilla sticking to the foil, the foil blocks the air, and the bag keeps freezer smells out. Label the bag with the date and freeze for up to three months. After that they are still safe but the tortilla starts to go leathery.

Why the eggs are under-cooked. Freezing is hard on scrambled eggs. The water held between the set proteins turns into ice crystals that push the protein network apart, and when it thaws that water runs out as a grey liquid, leaving the eggs rubbery and the tortilla soaked. The less set the curd is when it goes into the freezer, the less of that structure there is to damage and the more moisture the eggs hold on to. Pulling the pan off the heat while the eggs are still glossy means they finish cooking during the sear and again during reheating, so they arrive at the table properly done rather than overcooked three times over.

Reheating from frozen. Unwrap the burrito completely, including the paper, and wrap it instead in a slightly damp piece of kitchen paper. Microwave on full power for 1 minute, turn it over, and give it another 1 to 2 minutes until the centre is hot. Then move it to a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 2 minutes a side. The microwave thaws the middle, which a pan alone cannot do without burning the outside; the pan drives off the surface moisture the microwave leaves behind and brings the tortilla back to something close to freshly made. Skipping the pan stage gives you a hot but soggy burrito, which is the usual complaint about frozen ones.

If you prefer the oven, thaw overnight in the fridge, then bake wrapped in foil at 180 C (350 F) for 20 minutes, opening the foil for the last 5 minutes to dry the outside.

Reader Questions Answered

Why do my burritos always burst open?

Almost always too much filling, or filling placed in the middle of the tortilla rather than in the lower third. Keep the filling to a compact log with a 5 cm margin at each side, roll firmly rather than loosely, and finish seam side down in a dry pan so the seam sets.

Can I make these without meat?

Yes. Replace the bacon with 250 g of black beans, rinsed and dried in a pan for a few minutes, or with sauteed mushrooms cooked until all their water has gone. The point is a dry, savoury element, not the meat itself.

Which potatoes work best?

A floury variety such as Maris Piper or Russet gives the fluffiest inside under a crisp shell. Waxy potatoes hold their shape but stay dense. Leftover boiled potatoes work well too, and fry faster because they are already cooked through.

Do I have to drain the salsa?

Yes, if you plan to freeze them. Salsa is mostly water, and that water goes straight into the tortilla. Drain it in a sieve for 10 minutes and use the thick pulp that is left; serve the liquid alongside as a dip.

Can I use smaller tortillas?

You can, but you will get eight or nine small burritos rather than six, and they are harder to fold tightly. If 25 cm tortillas are hard to find, use 20 cm ones and reduce the filling by about a third per burrito.

Wrapping Up

Fry the potatoes dry and crisp, scramble the eggs short of done, cool everything on a tray, roll tight and sear the seam. That is the entire recipe, and each of those five instructions exists to solve a problem that shows up a week later rather than at the table.

An hour on a Sunday gives you six breakfasts that reheat in four minutes. Once you have done it once, the batch tends to get bigger rather than smaller.

Related recipes: Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip with Three Cheeses, Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs with Lemon, Chicken Cobbler with a Golden Biscuit Top, Chicken Gnocchi Soup with Spinach and Carrots, High Protein Jello Cups Greek Yogurt.

Learn more: Breakfast on Wikipedia · food storage & safety (FoodSafety.gov).