How to Make the Ultimate, Austin-Style Breakfast Taco

This breakfast staple should immediately become part of your routine if it isn't already—but you want to make sure you're doing it right.

The legend of the breakfast taco looms large over central Texas, and plenty of Texans start their day with these egg-stuffed tortillas. (Whether they prefer them in Austin or San Antonio is another matter entirely.) Tourists arrive prepared with lists of breakfast tacos they want to check off before they leave. And Tex-pats—as they’re called—conduct epic searches, wandering to the suburbs of DC or San Francisco to visit taquerias rumored to serve them.

But all the hype surrounding breakfast tacos obscures the fact that they are a ultimately simple food. And honestly? Not that hard to make at home—even if your home is not in Texas.

There are a million different ways to make a breakfast taco, and in many ways they boil down to personal preference. But for all of them, there are two overarching concepts to keep in mind: quality and balance. Use the highest quality ingredients you can find, and don’t go nuts with any particular one of them. Remember that two ingredient (egg, bacon) breakfast tacos are much more common than six ingredient breakfast tacos for a reason.

Here’s how I make simple, satisfying, Tex-Mex style breakfast tacos at home. If you want something fancier (migas, anyone?) you’re going to have to consult some experts.

Got it? Here we go.

The Meat
If you’re a vegetarian, skip to the next step. Meat lovers, hello, how are you? You have a few options for breakfast taco meat, with bacon and Mexican chorizo being most common. You can either chop the bacon or leave it whole in strips, but in my opinion chopped makes for an easier eating experience. Go easy with the meat: you want about a strip of bacon or a golf ball-sized hunk of chorizo per taco. Brown the meat in a pan (non-stick or cast iron) before you cook your eggs; this way you can cook the eggs in the meat fat when you’re done. When the meat is cooked, remove the meat from the pan, chop it up if need be, and pour off all but a spoonful or so of oil.

Pre-Egg Ingredients
Garlic, onions, jalapeños and other chiles: all of these take longer to cook than eggs and therefore should be cooked before the eggs. If you want to include any of these in your taco, chop them up and sauté them in the meat fat (or a bit of cooking oil) until softened.

The Eggs
Budget about an egg and a half per taco. If the math doesn’t work right—say you’re making 3 tacos—it’s better to round down. Too many eggs and you’re heading toward breakfast burrito territory (which I will respectfully leave to Californians). Crack them all in a bowl and whisk them with a bit of salt and pepper. Cook the eggs over medium heat, moving them around with a spatula, until they’re more or less cooked but still wet. Then add your meat. Finish cooking (but don’t let the eggs brown at all—once they do, they're overcooked), turn off the heat, and use the spatula to separate the eggs into a pile for each taco.

The Cheese
You want something supremely melty: cheddar (white or orange, sharp if you must but probably mild), Monterey Jack, Oaxacan cheese, or Colby will all work. American cheese is also an option, if you’re in the mood for it. Sprinkle a bit of shredded cheese on top of each eggy pile of breakfast taco filling, and then put a lid on the pan so the cheese melts while you heat the tortillas.

The Tortillas
Corn or flour, whichever you prefer (I prefer flour). If you’re having trouble deciding, go with the highest quality tortilla you have access to, whether it’s flour or corn. (This means looking for stuff that's made near you, recently.) Heat the tortillas in a dry pan until warmed through, maybe even a bit toasty. Load them up with your fillings.

The Toppings
Salsa or hot sauce: so long as it’s spicy and bright, it’ll complete your breakfast taco. Avocado slices or chopped cilantro are optional, but nice.

Now eat, rejoice in the excellent taco breakfast you have made, and move on with your day.

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