Perfect Breakfast Taco
Ingredients:
flour tortillas (Central Market and HEB bakery tortillas are fire)
Monterrey jack cheese, shredded
thick-cut bacon (check out Kiolbassa from San Antonio)
Yukon gold potatoes
eggs
sliced avocado
salsa or chipotle Tabasco
The Beta:
Start by frying the bacon on medium heat in your favorite pan — one slice per taco. While the bacon fries, dice the potatoes fairly small so they cook relatively quickly. You’ll want about 1/3 of a small potato per taco. After the bacon has cooked, set aside in a warm oven, retaining some of the fat to cook the potatoes in. Sauté the potatoes over the same low heat until browned and tender.
While the potatoes cook, place a non-stick or cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, drop a healthy portion of shredded cheese into the center. Next, set a tortilla on top of the cheese and press it flat with a spatula. It only takes a minute or so to get the golden-brown cheese you’re looking for here. When the cheese has crisped the way you want it, remove the tortilla to a baking sheet in a warm oven, cheese side up. Wipe your skillet to remove excess grease, and repeat the process until you have enough tortillas to go around. If your cheese is burning or cooking too slowly, adjust the heat accordingly.
When the potatoes have finished cooking, set them aside with the bacon in the warm oven. In the same pan, fry up some eggs the way you prefer them — one per taco. Scrambling eggs is always easier for large groups, but you really can’t beat an over-medium egg on this taco when time allows.
Once everything is complete, assemble your tacos. We typically start with the eggs and then add potato, bacon, and avocado in that order. Finish everything off with your favorite salsa, and your taco is complete.
Before You Start Yelling
Nothing is perfect. Let’s just clear the air and get that out of the way. To claim to have made the perfect breakfast taco would raise a lot of eyebrows, especially considering the source is a white dude and a Vietnamese guy, neither of which grew up making tacos. When I say perfect, I mean for our household. This thing hits all the right mouth feels and flavors and a comfortable satisfaction in your belly — no gut bomb regrets.
Tacos are a hot topic of conversation in Texas, and for sure in Austin. I know it happens elsewhere, but I’m not privy to conversations about San Antonio and Houston tacos, so we’re keeping it local. People get fired up talking about who has the best taco or the best salsa. We’ll argue about what constitutes a real taco and how authentic a place is if they’re idea of a taco is fried chicken and queso inside a flour tortilla. I’ve gone back and forth on all these ideas, and the bottom line for me is this: eat what you want and don’t get caught up in the semantics. That said, I think there’s value in knowing what a thing should taste like in its truest form, so please please please visit Discada, Veracruz All Natural, or any of the other awesome taco stands around town.
This taco was inspired by the crispy cheese layer at Taco Flats, a personal favorite of ours. They don’t call it a crispy cheese layer, but if you order the Gringa or Pirata, that’s exactly what you’ll get. We took the same idea and started doing breakfast tacos this way. It’s evolved over time from a simple bacon, egg, and cheese situation to what you see now in its most perfect form. Hot tip: If you’re not a salsa person (you should be), whip up some chimichurri for your taco. We had leftovers from a steak night and no salsa, and the citrus and garlic really added to the experience.