chorizo breakfast burritos

chorizo breakfast burritos

I associate breakfast burritos with being on the go – heading to some sort of adventure.  I love road trips, I love camping, and I love weekend adventures.  And sometimes those things call for early mornings on the road where you just need someone else to make your breakfast and your coffee for you.  So good coffee shops (that offer dark roast coffee mind you, don’t get me started) that have either killer breakfast burritos or breakfast sandwiches will spur in me the ability to stave off hunger until I can get to them or go out of my way to visit them.  They become a memory of the road trip or adventure in and of themselves.  So much so, that when someone says breakfast burrito, the immediate memory that usually comes to mind is a coffee shop in McCall, Idaho that I visited with friends probably 15 years ago where I had a great breakfast burrito and a great cup of coffee on my way to some adventure because that’s what you do in places like McCall.

Trips, food, and experiences outside our homes inspire what we do inside our homes.  That’s the beauty of the balance of time away and time at home.  Both are necessary and the balance is delicate.  It’s like adjusting the focus on a nice set of binoculars, it just needs a slight adjustment to be either in or out of focus. 

Breakfast burritos are like pizza or enchiladas or tacos – you can make 1,000 variations of them that are all good.  This is a recipe that we’ve discovered and love to make at home.  The recipe takes you through turning ground pork into chorizo.  I don’t know about you, but every store-bought version of chorizo I’ve had is really greasy and not very meaty.  This is the opposite.

Chorizo Breakfast Burritos
Yield: 8 servings

Chorizo Breakfast Burritos

These are one version of a killer breakfast burrito. They'll take you straight to a mountain town coffee shop that serves breakfast burritos (at least that's what they do for me)!

Ingredients

Potatoes

  • 2 russet potatoes, diced
  • 2 TSP chili powder
  • olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Chorizo (see note)

  • 2 LBS ground pork
  • 4 dried Ancho chiles
  • 5 dried New Mexico chiles
  • 1/2 yellow onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 TSP dried oregano
  • 1/2 TSP ground cumin
  • 1 TBSP salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • splash of water

Burritos

  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 jalapenos, finely chopped
  • 16 eggs
  • 8 flour tortillas
  • cheese (cotija, jack, or cheddar)
  • 1 TSP salt
  • black pepper
  • salsa or hot sauce of choice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F. Combine the potato ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat well. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, flipping them about halfway through. Set aside after cooking.

To make the chorizo. Destem and deseed the chiles and toast them in a hot skillet for 60 seconds. Place them in a bowl and cover with hot tap water. Place a small bowl or plate on top of the chiles to keep them submerged. Allow to soak for 30 minutes. Drain the chiles and discard the soaking liquid. Add the chiles to a blender along with the remianing ingredients (except the pork). Blend until if forms a thick paste. Combine the paste with the ground pork. Divide into two 1-LB servings, freeze one and sauté the other pound in a skillet for this recipe.

Saute the onion and jalapeno over medium heat until tender. Whisk the eggs and add to the onion mixture along with salt and pepper, cooking over medium heat until done. Set aside.

To build the burritos, heat up a tortilla in a hot skillet. Add the eggs, potatoes, chorizo, cheese and salsa or hot sauce of choice. Roll tight and saute in a dry skillet until each side is crispy and golden brown. Serve immediately.

Notes

Chorizo: You don't have to make this, feel free to buy it for a shortcut.

Inspired by: The Fogglifter Cafe (McCall, ID) and mexicanplease.com