These Easy Breakfast Burritos are a delicious combination of crispy fried potatoes, spicy homemade Mexican chorizo, perfectly cooked scrambled egg and tangy cheddar cheese, all wrapped in a tortilla and baked in the oven. Ready in just 45 minutes and easy to freeze and reheat – so PERFECT for meal prep – this recipe is set to be your new favourite breakfast!
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The perfect breakfast burritos
I am not ashamed to say, I am a little bit obsessed with breakfast burritos. They truly are one of those ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ type recipes.
Lately I’ve been on a quest to develop the ‘perfect’ breakfast burritos. I say ‘perfect’ because, of course, ‘perfect’ is different for different people. And breakfast burritos can have a huge variety of different ingredients, depending on who is making them!
But these breakfast burritos are perfect to me. They combine crispy fried potatoes, spicy homemade Mexican-style chorizo, perfectly cooked scrambled egg and tangy cheddar cheese, all wrapped in a tortilla and then, to keep things simple, they are baked in the oven rather than pan fried. (Though feel free to pan fry them if you prefer!)
How to make breakfast burritos
These breakfast burritos are surprisingly simple to make.
First you par boil and then fry the potato cubes. Then you make scrambled egg. Then you make my easy homemade Mexican chorizo and grate some cheese.
Once you have all your fillings made, all you need to do is place 1/8th of each filling in a large burrito-size tortilla and roll each tortilla up. (See below for step by step instructions on how to roll up a burrito.)
Finally place all your burritos on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
How to roll up a breakfast burrito – step-by-step
Rolling up a breakfast burrito can be a bit tricky, but not with my easy peasy step-by-step method!
The first thing to get right is to buy the LARGE burrito-size tortillas (at least 23cm / 9inch diameter). If you buy the smaller taco or fajita size ones, you are going to have a lot of trouble!
The second thing to get right is to ensure you don’t over-fill the tortillas. If you follow my recipe below, that won’t happen.
Next, make sure you place all your fillings just below the centre of the tortilla with a good border below and to the sides of the fillings.
Then follow these steps:
- Fold in both sides of the tortilla.
- Fold up the bottom of the tortilla.
- Roll the tortilla from the bottom up to make a burrito shape.
- Place the burrito, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet.
- Continue in the same way with the remaining ingredients until you have 8 burritos on your baking sheet.
And voila! You have 8 perfectly rolled burritos ready for baking.
Keeping the washing up to a minimum
Because I am a home cook, rather than a chef who has minions to do the washing up, I am very mindful of keeping the washing up to a minimum. (Please don’t get me started on ‘cheffy’ recipes which use every pot, pan and utensil in the house!)
This is not easy with breakfast burritos as they, by their very nature, contain lots of separate elements… however, by being clever with re-using pans, I’ve kept it down to the absolute bare minimum.
Specifically, I reuse the pan you par boil the potatoes in for making the scrambled egg (because you’ve just boiled potatoes in it, it won’t really be dirty) and I reuse the frying pan you fry the potatoes in for frying the homemade chorizo.
This means you’ll only have a couple of pans, a grater, a baking tray and a chopping board to wash up, rather than the usual mountain of washing up that breakfast burritos usually create!
My homemade Mexican chorizo
You’ll notice one of the fillings is homemade Mexican chorizo.
Now, the first thing to say is that Mexican chorizo is very different from Spanish chorizo.
Spanish chorizo is a dry-cured sausage, made from pork, smoked paprika and garlic, and is ready to eat without cooking.
Mexican chorizo is a fresh, uncooked sausage, made from ground pork, chilli, garlic and various different herbs and spices – for example paprika, cumin and oregano. Mexican chorizo needs to be cooked before you can eat it.
I have never seen Mexican chorizo available for sale in the UK, so I have made my own homemade version. (Which also means it only has good ingredients in it!)
Typically Mexican chorizo is made by adding chilli, spices, garlic and oregano to pork mince and THEN frying. However, I found when I did that, I couldn’t fry the pork mince on a high enough temperature (to give the pork a good flavour) without burning the garlic.
To get round this, I’ve slightly tweaked the recipe. I fry the pork mince first and THEN I add the chilli, spices, garlic and oregano. I find this allows me to brown the mince nicely without burning the other ingredients. (It also means I don’t need to dirty a mixing bowl!)
But feel free to do it the regular way if you prefer!
Perfect for meal prep
These Easy Breakfast Burritos are PERFECT for meal prep.
I like to bake the burritos first, then allow them to cool, then wrap them individually in foil and then freeze them. I find if you don’t bake them first, they can go soggy when you reheat them.
They can then be reheated directly from frozen in their foil wrapping. Simply pop the frozen burrito into an oven heated to 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) for 20 minutes. Then unwrap carefully (taking care not to burn your fingers!) and place back in the oven for a further 10 minutes, or until piping hot all the way through.
How to wrap a burrito in foil to put in the freezer
Wrapping a burrito in foil to go in the freezer is very similar to folding a burrito:
- Place the burrito near bottom of a piece of foil that is roughly 28cm by 22cm (11inch by 8inch)
- Fold up the bottom of the foil
- Fold in the sides of the foil
- Roll the tortilla from the bottom up until it is completely wrapped
- Either put the burrito into your freezer ‘loose’
- Or put the wrapped burritos into a plastic freezer bag first, then into the freezer
What to serve with breakfast burritos
I like to serve these breakfast burritos with salsa – either homemade salsa or shop bought.
My favourite shop bought salsa is Gran Luchito Chipotle Salsa. I love the smoky flavour and it’s not too sweet. Plus it has good, normal ingredients (and no weird unpronounceable ones!)
But if you want to turn these burritos into a bigger meal you can add some or all of the following:
(You can see all my Mexican and Tex-Mex recipes here.)
Breakfast burritos – make them your own!
These breakfast burritos are very flexible and you can absolutely tweak them to suit your own personal tastes / what you have in your kitchen. For example, you could:
- Use beef mince, turkey mince or chicken mince instead of the pork mince
- Use sausage or Spanish chorizo instead of the Mexican chorizo
- Use cooked rice instead of the potatoes
- Add refried beans and/or guacamole
- Add fried veggies, such as peppers, onions and/or mushrooms
- Replace the mince with fried veggies for a vegetarian version
- Use a different type of cheese (use Mexican cheese like Oaxaca and Cotija if you can get hold of it – sadly this is not available where I live!)
Love easy Mexican and Tex-Mex food?
Then you’ll definitely want to check out these recipes…
- Chicken Tinga Tacos
- Easy Refried Bean Quesadillas
- Easy Peasy Chilli Con Carne
- Easy Beef Enchiladas
- Mexican Chicken Traybake
Chicken Tinga Tacos
What to do with leftover breakfast burritos
If you end up with leftovers, let them cool down fully then wrap in foil (see above) and place in a plastic bag or box.
You can either refrigerate them, where they will keep for up to 3 days, or you can freeze them, where they will keep for up to 3 months.
To reheat from fridge temperature, place the foil wrapped burrito in a pre-heated oven at 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) for 10 minutes, then unwrap carefully (taking care not to burn your fingers!) and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until piping hot all the way through.
To reheat from freezer temperature, place the foil wrapped burrito in a pre-heated oven at 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) for 20 minutes, then unwrap carefully (taking care not to burn your fingers!) and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until piping hot all the way through.
Can you freeze breakfast burritos?
Absolutely – they are an excellent ‘fill the freezer’ recipe.
See above for instructions on how to store, freeze and reheat from frozen.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Easy Turkey Fajitas
- Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- Easy One Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta Bake
- Easy Homemade Salsa (Salsa Roja)
- Easy 4 Ingredient Guacamole
Easy Turkey Fajitas
Easy Breakfast Burritos
Ingredients
Crispy Fried Potatoes
- 2 baking potatoes peeled and chopped into cubes (roughly 1cm cubes - see Note 1)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
Scrambled Eggs
- 6 medium eggs
- Small knob of butter
Homemade Mexican Chorizo
- 500 g pork mince
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons mild chilli powder (See Note 2)
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 2 cloves garlic
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 4 tablespoons good quality salsa (See Note 3)
Assembly
- 100 g cheddar cheese grated
- 8 large tortillas (I use THESE ONES – See Note 4)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
Crispy Fried Potatoes
- Place the cubed potatoes in a medium-size saucepan and pour over boiling water to cover. Place the saucepan over a high heat and par-boil for 5 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and allow to steam dry for a minute while you heat the oil.
- Place the olive oil in a very large frying pan or wok and heat over a high heat for 1 minute.
- Tip the drained potatoes into the frying pan and add a little salt and pepper. Turn down the heat to medium and fry for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until lightly browned and crispy, and just cooked on the inside.
- When the potatoes are done, tip them onto a plate.
Scrambled Eggs
- To save on washing up, you can use the saucepan you just boiled the potatoes in to make the scrambled egg.
- Melt the butter in the saucepan over a medium heat.
- Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a jug and lightly whisk with a fork to ensure all the yolks and whites are well mixed together.
- Once the butter is melted, swirl it around the base of the pan and then add the beaten egg to the pan.
- Stir regularly and vigorously to ensure the eggs scramble nicely and don’t stick to the bottom or burn.
- When the eggs are nicely scrambled, tip them out onto the plate.
Homemade Mexican Chorizo
- To save on washing up, you can use the frying pan you just fried the potatoes in to make the homemade chorizo.
- Place the frying pan over a high heat and add the pork mince. Break up the pork mince using a spatula and stir regularly until the mince is nicely browned all over. This should take about 4 minutes.
- When the mince is nicely browned, turn the heat right down low and add the cumin, chilli powder, smoked paprika, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Fry for 1 more minute.
- Finally, stir in the salsa and turn off the heat.
Assembly
- Place 1 large tortilla down on your work surface.
- Put 1/8th of the fried potatoes just below the middle of the tortilla. (See step by step photos above.)
- Put 1/8th of the homemade chorizo just below the potatoes.
- Put 1/8th of the scrambled egg on top of the potatoes/chorizo.
- Put 1/8th of the grated cheese on top of the scrambled egg.
- Fold in both sides of the tortilla.
- Fold up the bottom of the tortilla.
- Then roll the tortilla from the bottom up to make a burrito shape.
- Place the burrito, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet.
- Continue in the same way with the remaining ingredients until you have 8 burritos on your baking sheet.
- Place your baking sheet into your pre-heated oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- OPTIONAL: For crispier tops you could lightly brush or spray the tops of the burritos with oil.
- Serve immediately with extra salsa on the side OR leave to cool before wrapping in foil and placing in the freezer. (See Note 5.)
Notes
- I find the best potatoes to use here are the ones sold as ‘baking potatoes’ in supermarkets.
- If you possibly can, I recommend you use chipotle chilli powder. But this recipe will still taste good with regular ordinary chilli powder from the supermarket! I recommend you use mild chilli powder in this recipe. But if you like things hot, by all means use hot chilli powder!
- Either use a good quality shop-bought salsa (I like Gran Luchito Chipotle Salsa) or make your own homemade salsa.
- Take care to buy the correct size tortillas, or the filling won’t fit in. You need tortillas which are at least 23cm / 9inch in diameter. These are often sold as ‘large’ tortillas or ‘burrito size’ tortillas. I use THESE ONES from Tesco which are perfect.
- Suitable for freezing. Allow the burritos to cool completely, then wrap individually in foil before placing in a freezer bag. For reheating instructions, see the section immediately above the recipe card.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Disclosure
This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
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