For too long, I’ve searched for delicious breakfast tacos outside of Texas. Believe me when I tell you my wife and I ate these multiple times a week, so it was hard to leave them behind when we moved. It’s such a specific combination of fluffy flour tortillas and perfect fillings, so it has to be spot on for them to taste right. There are two very distinct styles of breakfast tacos that you see all over Texas, and I’ve got classic recipes for both.
Next time you want the best possible Saturday breakfast, you should give these a shot.
Ingredients for first style
Beans
1 can pinto beans
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp bacon grease or butter
1 tbsp chipotle in adobo
season with garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, pepper
Potatoes
1 large russet potato for every 3 tacos
Butter/ oil for sauteing
Garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper
3 eggs for every 2 tacos
20g shredded jack cheese for each taco
1-2 strips of bacon per taco
Ingredients for second style
Migas
3 corn tortillas (taco sized)
1 medium tomato
1/4 red onion
1/2 jalapeno
1 clove garlic
5 eggs
Salt and pepper
Avocado for topping
Potato Version
1 russet potato (peeled and parboiled)
4 strips of bacon
5 eggs
Garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper
Avocado for topping
Tortillas - makes about 10 tortillas
300g all-purpose flour
4.5g kosher salt
3g baking powder
43g lard
138g warm water
To make the tortillas, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in your lard until it forms the texture of wet sand. Add your warm water and knead for about 5 minutes. You will see the dough form a semi-smooth ball. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it rest for an hour for the dough to hydrate. After the hour, separate the dough into 45g balls for taco sized tortillas. Preheat a cast iron pan on medium heat until very hot. On a floured surface, roll your dough as thin as possible. To do so, roll the dough from middle moving north, then turn the dough 90 degrees and roll north again. Continue this process until thin and round. Place the rolled tortillas into the cast iron pan and let them sit on the first side for a minute (you'll see lots of bubbles form). Flip the tortilla and cook another minute until browned on both sides. Store in a towel inside a dutch oven or tortilla warmer until you're ready to use them.
Bacon, Egg, Potato, Cheese
We need to start with the longest cooking ingredients first, which means peeling and dicing our potatoes. Once diced place them in a pot of cold salted water. Get those up to a simmer and let them cook until tender but not falling apart (roughly 8 minutes). Drain them and let them cool while we prep the rest of the ingredients.
Cook your bacon however you like so it's crispy and can be broken into large pieces.
Get a skillet over medium heat with a tablespoon of butter and a half tablespoon of olive oil. Gently add your potatoes and let them sit on the first side for as long as they need to form a crust, usually a few minutes. Monitor the color as you go and add salt and pepper. Flip them over once the first side is browned and let them sit again for another few minutes. Now that our crust has formed, we can be a little less gentle and we can season them with garlic powder, cumin and smoked paprika. Continue tossing and frying until completely crispy, roughly 12 minutes in total.
Shred your cheese and prep any salsas you like with this:
Scramble the eggs in a bowl until completely combined, add a heavy pinch of salt per egg. Put a skillet over medium heat high heat with enough butter to coat the pan and then some. Let the butter get foamy then pour in your eggs. Begin stirring immediately because these will start cooking quickly. Turn off the heat when they are over half cooked because they will continue cooking as they cool down. Add a hefty amount of pepper and stir that in.
To build the taco, place a layer of scrambled eggs on a flour tortilla. Add a handful of potato and bacon, then top with shredded jack cheese. Wrap these in tin foil and let them sit for a few minutes to steam the entire taco. Devour these with any salsa or hot sauce you prefer.
Bacon, Egg, Bean, Cheese
Drain a can of pinto beans and add them to a small saute pan or cast iron. Add ¼ cup of water and add a tablespoon of butter or bacon fat. Season this with cumin, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Add a tablespoon of chipotles in adobe and mix. Grab a fork or potato masher and begin mashing the beans until roughly 70% of them are smooth. Let this stay warm on the stove and add water to adjust the texture as needed.
Cook your bacon however you like so it's crispy and can be broken into large pieces. Scramble your eggs the same as above.
To build this taco, smear on a layer of the beans first, then top that with your eggs, bacon, and cheese. Wrap these in tin foil and let them sit for a few minutes to steam the entire taco. Enjoy the extra creamy saltiness that the beans bring to this!
Migas
To make these, we can cut three corn tortillas into squares. Along with that, we need 1 tomato, or a handful of cherry tomatoes cut into a medium dice. Dice a quarter of a red onion with half a seeded jalapeno and one clove of garlic.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat, and add your tortillas once hot. Add a heavy pinch of salt, and let these fry for a few minutes while mixing. These need to be deeply crunchy so they can maintain texture when mixed with everything else. Remove the crunchy tortillas from the pan and add your chopped vegetables. Let those cook for a few minutes until they have slightly changed color, we want them to retain some nice texture. Add your tortilla strips back to the pan and mix. Crack 5 eggs into the pan and immediately begin scrambling. Season this with more salt and pepper and shut of the heat once the eggs are cooked.
Place this filling in a warm flour tortilla, top it with shredded cheese and avocado. This is a really delicious vegetarian option filled with a lot of crunchy texture.
Mixed Bacon, Egg, Potato
Peel 1 large russet potato and dice into bite size pieces. Place into a pot of cold salted water and simmer for 5-8 minutes. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Fry 4 strips of bacon in a skillet over medium heat. Cook these until they are about 60% done and move them to the side to make room for the potatoes. Add a little more cooking oil if your bacon wasn’t fatty enough and add parboiled potatoes to cover one layer of the pan. As soon as the bacon is crisp, take it out of the pan and cut it into bite sized pieces. Continue cooking the potatoes until they’re crunchy and tender. Just like the migas, we’ll add the eggs directly to the top of the mixture and scramble over medium heat. Same 5 eggs and same salt/ pepper.
Place this filling in a warm flour tortilla, top it with shredded cheese and avocado. This one specifically reminds me of Austin in a big way, so if you're missing that style, try this taco out.
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