"Write Now Wednesdays" is the day I take time to explain facets of Burrito Life or expand opinions touched upon in previous articles.
I’ve been thinking a lot about breakfast burritos. What is the secret combination? Does everything on the burrito have to be prepared just right? Is there a unifying goodness that everybody can appreciate? Hash browns or country potatoes?
Unlike most burritos, it seems there are so many ways to go wrong in a BB. Slimy scrambled eggs could over saturate the potatoes and ruin the bite. Hash browns aren’t cooked-through, so raw potato flavor masks any good inside the burrito. Or the biggest offender: grease pouring out of the meat and soaking the entire tortilla.
The chemistry is daunting. It is no wonder fast food restaurants can skate by with mediocre baby burritos and dime store hot sauce.
I imagine my perfect breakfast burrito would start with country potatoes. Not only are they easier to prepare, in theory, but the atmosphere inside a tortilla gets pretty humid. The body of a well done potato holds up as opposed to the suspect crunchiness in hash browns.
Scrambled eggs are better cooked down for similar reasons. Get as much moisture out of the eggs before wrapping them in the tortilla to avoid a big wet bite. This also allows for better inclusion of other ingredients because real estate is not being relegated to a small omelette.
Cheese and pico de gallo are things better left to burritos later in the day. Most places that put PDG in their burritos shouldn’t have, and the few that know what they are doing are only gilding the lily.
That said, a spicy red hot sauce goes a long way in cleaning up any burrito. With the right salsa, anything is possible.
On the regular, I choose sausage as my meat of choice in a breakfast burrito, but that is only because most places don’t offer a hot link burrito, Hot link sausage is low on grease and high on flavor; something lacking in almost every other breakfast meat.
Sausage, in general, is the great equalizer between flimsy grease slabs of ham and tiny sharp bacon crumbles that do more to remind you of what bacon tastes like rather than satisfy any bacon cravings. Even cheap store-bought sausage can be chopped up and make great burritos with enough love.
What’s your opinion? What is an ideal breakfast burrito to you?
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