A breakfast burrito lives or dies on two things: whether the potatoes are actually crisp, and whether the thing stays shut. Everything else is filling and preference. This makes four fat burritos in about half an hour, most of which is the potatoes doing their thing in a skillet while you get on with the rest.
One rule before you start. Every component goes in warm and none of it goes in wet. A wet filling steams the tortilla from the inside and by the time you sit down it has gone limp.
Ingredients
- 4 large flour tortillas, the 10-inch burrito size, or they will not close.
- 8 large eggs, whisked with a splash of milk.
- 2 tablespoons milk, for softer curds.
- 2 medium russet potatoes, diced into 1/2-inch cubes.
- 1/2 pound bulk breakfast sausage, or bacon, or chorizo.
- 1 cup shredded cheddar or a Mexican blend.
- 3 tablespoons oil, divided, two for the potatoes and one for the eggs.
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika for the potatoes.
- Salt and black pepper, seasoning at each stage rather than at the end.
- 1/2 cup salsa, drained of its loose liquid.
- 1 avocado, sliced, optional.
Instructions
- Dice the potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes and pat them dry on a tea towel. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, add the potatoes in a single layer, and season with salt, pepper, and the smoked paprika. Leave them undisturbed for the first 4 minutes so a crust forms, then stir every couple of minutes for another 8 until deep gold and tender. Move them to a plate.
- Crumble the sausage into the same pan over medium heat and cook for about 6 minutes, breaking it up as it browns. Tip it onto the plate with the potatoes and pour off all but a film of fat.
- Whisk the eggs with the milk and a pinch of salt for a good 20 seconds, until no streaks of white are left. Wipe the skillet, add the last tablespoon of oil, and drop the heat to medium-low.
- Pour in the eggs, wait 15 seconds, then push them slowly from the edge to the middle with a spatula. Take them off the heat while they still look slightly wet, around 2 minutes. They keep cooking in the pan.
- Warm the tortillas one at a time in a dry skillet, 20 seconds a side, until soft and floppy. A cold tortilla splits along the fold every time.
- Lay a line of eggs across the lower third of each tortilla, leaving 2 inches clear at each end. Top with potatoes, sausage, a quarter of the cheese, a spoonful of drained salsa, and avocado. Resist adding more, because an overfull burrito will not roll.
- Fold the two sides in over the filling, hold them there, then bring the bottom edge up and over and roll away from you, keeping constant pressure. Set the finished burrito seam side down in a dry skillet for 60 to 90 seconds to toast the seam shut.
Rolling It So It Stays Rolled
The sides go in first and stay in. That is the whole trick, and it is the step people reverse. Roll the bottom up before tucking the sides and the filling has somewhere to escape to.
Keep the filling in a rectangle rather than a mound, roughly 5 inches by 2. As you roll, pull the tortilla back towards you with your fingertips to tighten the parcel, the way you would tuck a bedsheet. Loose burritos fall apart; tight ones do not.
The seam-down minute in the dry pan is not optional either. The heat dries the overlap and glues it shut.
If the eggs are the weak link, the folding method in my scrambled eggs notes gives bigger, softer curds that hold their shape inside a wrap.
Wrap Now, Eat on Thursday
These freeze better than almost anything else I make. Build them without avocado or salsa, since both go watery, and cool each one on a rack for 20 minutes before wrapping. Warm burritos wrapped in foil sweat and end up soggy.
Wrap in foil, then bag. Three months. To reheat, unwrap, microwave 90 seconds, flip, another 60, then 3 minutes in a dry skillet over medium heat for the outside. Salsa and avocado go on after, not before.
Doubling costs almost no extra time: the potatoes are the bottleneck and a 12-inch pan takes four as easily as two with an extra 4 minutes. Crumble in homemade sausage patties and you control the fennel and sage yourself, or skip the dice and use shredded hash browns, squeezed hard first. A spoonful of proper guacamole on the side beats sliced avocado inside if you are eating straight away.