Those poor Downundrians! :eek: Something must be done! I suggest posting your favourite breakfast burrito fillings so our Antipodean friends can make them and spread the goodness that is the breakfast burrito – much as they have spread the goodness that is Vegemite! If you’re an ex-pat, maybe mention regionally-adapted fillings.
The best breakfast burritos I’ve had were made by a Philippine woman on a catering truck near the office in the mid-1980s. They had eggs, hasbrown potatoes, cheese, bacon and sausage and ham. For two dollars. I’d add some of those Mexican hot carrot chips, and then give it a smear of Vegemite when I got back to my desk. When I make BBs at home I don’t have the hot carrot chips, so I use hot sauce; and I just use bacon for the meat.
The other breakfast burritos I make at home are chorizo (extra red pepper added) and diced potato. Sometimes I use vegetarian chorizo. No cheese. Absolutely no cheese with chorizo. Most people would add scrambled eggs, but I don’t. It’s still a breakfast burrito to me.
So basic recipe, Aussies and Kiwis: Flour tortilla, eggs, potatoes, cheese, meat, hot sauce. Let’s see what Dopers more creative than I like to make. Then get rolling!
Flour tortilla, heated in a nearly dry pan until puffy
Eggs, scrambled with cream cheese
Bacon, fried crisp; at the end of frying I sprinkle chili spices on top to cook for a few seconds
Cilantro
Hot sauce
I also like the ones made down the street at a food cart:
Flour tort
scrambled eggs
bacon
sausage
fried potatoes
onions
peppers
pico de gallo
I worked assembling breakfast burritos my freshman year, and part of sophomore year. Had it down to a science!
The real trick is having a thin line of white gravy (preferably with sausage) over the scrambled eggs. Diced red pepper (capsicum, for the Aussies) is delicious, but we rarely had it at work. Diced tomatoes are a must for me. Just a little diced onion. For meat, a torn up sausage patty (we had Sysco’s house brand; Jimmy Dean is good too) plus another half patty. Just enough medium hot salsa so you know it’s there. Cheddar cheese, shredded, even though it has nothing to do with Mexico. Oh, and one of those triangle hash brown things, split in half and flipped over to make a rectangle, if that makes sense. (Use tater tots if you’re desperate but then cut back on the salt or add more vegetable). Maybe a little sour cream too.
Nowadays my breakfast burritos are usually just eggs scrambled with spinach, a little sour cream and some salsa, but the college food was best.
So what makes it a breakfast burrito, anyway? I’ve just had a burrito for breakfast, but it wasn’t a ‘breakfast burrito’. Bacon, sausage, ham, and/or eggs are breakfast foods. But chorizo con papas burritos don’t have breakfast meats or eggs, and I only eat those for breakfast. Is it the potatoes? Lots of people eat potatoes in non-breakfast burritos. (Personally, I don’t care for ‘filler’ like rice or beans or potatoes in my non-breakfast burritos.) I know when I’m eating a breakfast burrito, and can give examples; but what is a breakfast burrito?
Also, do they have ‘breakfast burritos’ in Mexico? Often the only thing ‘Mexican’ about them is the tortilla.
The gas station (used to be Toad’s, now it’s three letters whose meaning I don’t know) makes ‘country-style’ breakfast burrito. Eggs, potato, sausage patty, and white gravy. I don’t recall if they add cheese. I’ve had their ‘southwestern’ BB, but the salsa is basically chunky catsup. No heat at all. bleh (No heat in the ‘country-style’ either, but it has the gravy.)
Since it’s just me and the fiancé in the house, I never have onions around- they go off too quickly. I do throw on green onions from time to time. If I’m gettin real classy I’ll have sautéed shallots in the mix.
How about a breakfast quesadilla? Any love for them?
As a simple, minimalistic and quick one - Start as if making a classic 1 egg omelette in an 8 inch nonstick, add shredded cheese when egg is half set, cover with a corn tortilla. When you can shake the egg free from pan, flip with spatula, add more cheese, fold and brown both sides to taste.
If desired, cook diced bacon, ham or sausage in pan before adding egg. Can also be enhanced with all the standard stuff - cilantro, guacamole, sour cream, Pico de gallo and so on.
I do something similar – brown a corn tostada on one side, flip, crack an egg over it, sprinkle over a little cheese if you want, then cover and cook until the egg is done to your liking. I think your method of cooking the eggs and extras before topping with a tortilla sounds clever.
You’re going to have to be a bit more explicit with some of these ingredients. To Aussies, hashbrowns are something from the McDonald’s breakfast menu, sausages are what you burn on a BBQ, and white gravy surely must have something wrong with it.
The concept of a “Breakfast Burrito” is something new to me, I’d heard of it but assumed that it was just a normal burrito that some people ate at breakfast time (like a breakfast beer or breakfast pizza) not a special type of burrito
Thanks for the thread and the contributions.
I’ve just noted Tellyworth’s comment and I was just thinking the same thing.
The “Sausage” one really flips me, I can’t get my head around what the comparable Aussie word is, if there is one because I’m pretty sure you don’t mean what we call sausages.
Hashbrowns are shredded potatoes with the water squeezed out, fried in a flat patty with onions sprinkled in.
White gravy is usually browned ground pork with sage (breakfast) sausage, and flour added to make a roux, then milk whisked in with lots of salt and black pepper. Milk sausage gravy! Try it over biscuits. (American biscuits, the fluffy scone-like things. Not cookies.)
I presumed in this context that ‘sausage’ was like the mystery meat that Macca’s puts on its Sausage and Egg muffin. A vaguely beef tasting patty.
As to the breakfast burrito - sounds vile Why would you put hashbrowns in with the bacon and eggs. Some fast foods places over her offer wraps or burgers like that from time to time. Hashbrowns are a side dish! (IMO anyway)
Yeah, I could go there but I’ve also seen people on US TV shows refer to sausage pizzas, so I was leaning toward some sort of preserved meat like a salami.
I’d hoped that referring to it as breakfast sausage would be enough. McDonald’s ‘mystery meat’ should taste a bit like pork, not beef. Sausage on pizza is Italian sausage that is usually removed from the casing and crumbled. Hashbrowns are fried, shredded potatoes McD’s and other fast-food versions are basically that, only greasier.
Why put potatoes in a breakfast burrito? Because it tastes good!
It’s just sausage meat that hasn’t been stuffed into casings or removed from its casings. We sometimes just call it “bulk sausage” if it’s just the spiced ground pork. And, of course, this is “fresh” sausage - not cooked, smoked, or cured. Just ground meat & seasonings.
Why would you put hashbrowns in with the bacon and eggs. Some fast foods places over her offer wraps or burgers like that from time to time. Hashbrowns are a side dish! 
(IMO anyway)
