Last Christmas, I gave my husband one of the weirder gifts I’ve ever given*: a stash of burritos.
I was feeling bad about leaving him in snowy Boulder for three weeks while I trained in the Texas tropics. So naturally, I decided to assuage my guilt with two dozen frozen breakfast burritos, ready to be zapped and inhaled at a moment’s notice. Like many of my kitchen endeavors, this one began at Smitten Kitchen, where the inspiration for the following recipe came from.
To keep it interesting, I made three different kinds: Bacon, Sausage, and Black Bean—each stuffed with scrambled eggs and topped with salsa, cheese, and cilantro.
The awesome thing about these is that they’re completely customizable. If you don’t eat meat, go wild with the veggies! If you’re a sucker for heat, add extra jalapenos and/or a fiery salsa. And if you’re a breakfast burrito purist, there’s nothing wrong with straight-up eggs and cheese. Use my recipe below as a launchpad, and make these your own.
Notes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
- 4 russet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped small
- 2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped small
- 3 onions, chopped (I used red, but any will do)
- 2 bell peppers, chopped (I used 1 red + 1 green)
- 2 jalapenos, diced (only if you like spicy!)
- 16 oz. mushrooms, chopped
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 1/2 pound breakfast sausage
- 1/2 pound bacon
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 3 dozen (36) large eggs
- 24 large flour tortillas
- 1 pound grated cheese (cheddar or a blend)
- Jar of your favorite salsa
- Cilantro, chopped (optional)
Instructions
- ROAST VEGGIES: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In one large bowl, add russet potatoes, 2 onions, and 1 jalapeno (all chopped). In another large bowl, add sweet potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, 1 onion, and 1 jalapeno (all chopped). Drizzle olive oil into each bowl, season generously with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Spread each bowl’s contents onto a baking sheet (or 2 for the russets) and bake until potatoes are fork tender, about half an hour.
- COOK MEAT: Fry sausage in a skillet, and cook bacon in the same skillet or on a baking sheet in the oven while veggies are roasting. Once cooked and cooled, chop meat into small pieces and set aside.
- SCRAMBLE EGGS: Crack all eggs into a giant bowl, let it rain salt and pepper, and beat well. Heat the biggest nonstick skillet you’ve got to medium low. When it’s hot, scramble eggs until they’re nice and firm. Remove from heat and get ready to roll!
- ASSEMBLE BURRITOS: Get 24 large squares of foil ready and, working in batches of 8, prep the tortillas. For each bacon burrito, layer filling down the middle of a tortilla in the following order: scoop of russet potato mixture, scoop of eggs, crumbled bacon, grated cheese, salsa, and cilantro. Fold each tortilla into a burrito (sides first, then roll up) and wrap tightly in foil. Repeat for each sausage burrito, replacing the bacon with sausage. Repeat for each black bean burrito, subbing the sweet potato mixture for the russets, and black beans for the meat. If you want, label each burrito with a Sharpie.
- FREEZE & REHEAT: Except for those you’ll eat in the next couple of days, divvy up burritos into large freezer bags and freeze for up to 2 months. To reheat straight from the freezer, bake burritos (still in foil) for 30-45 minutes in an oven heated to 350 degrees F or microwave burritos (foil removed) for 3-4 minutes, flipping burritos halfway in either case. Eat warm, adding fresh salsa or guacamole as desired.
*These burritos were kind of weird, but not even the weirdest burrito-related gift I’ve given. When my older brother Matt went off to college, he complained that the Chipotle near the UT campus wasn’t the same as the one back home. Obviously, my solution was to mail him one from his trusted Dallas spot. He said it was tasty, old and squashed as it was when it arrived… but I never did hear him complain about Chipotle again.
