New Mexican Breakfast Burritos

In New Mexico there is a special kind of magic. The skies are bluer, the sunsets are so more intense. The ground is mostly brown, but if you look closely you will see so many subtle, beautiful colors.

And in October, the whole sky fills with color when people all over the world come to Albuquerque for the International Balloon Fiesta. I am lucky to have experienced this beautiful event many times, and I have to tell you the story of how we used to do the fiesta.

At my office, we organized ahead of time, assigned each person something to bring. We would meet at a park near the festival. My boss would bring a campstove, and we would sip New Mexican champagne and drink coffee and Bailey’s while the burritos cooked in the dark before dawn. Then after we had eaten our fill of the spicy burritos, we’d pack up the cooking things and walk together to the fiesta.

We also had some fantastic brunches in New Mexico. I think I need to start a brunch club here … I miss those …

Breakfast Burritos, New Mexico Style

Warning: These burritos take a little prep time. You NEED green chile stew to make these properly. My method here is for cooking the burritos at home … if you are cooking these up on a campstove, just wrap all the ingredients in a tortilla and serve with napkins to wipe up all the messy juices.

• Large flour tortillas, warmed
• Bacon or breakfast sausage, cooked and crumbled (use lowfat sausage or bacon for healthier burritos)
• Scrambled eggs (add 1 T. of water for each egg to keep the eggs moist)
• Fried potatoes (or just cooked and diced if you want to cut down the fat content)
• Shredded sharp cheddar cheese (lowfat or vegan cheese works too, but doesn’t melt quite as well)
• Green chile stew (here’s my recipe for green chile stew)

First prepare your ingredients. Start with the green chile stew. Make that up ahead of time and reheat it on the morning you want to eat your burritos. Cook up your bacon and/or breakfast sausage (we would always have both on hand and we’d let people choose). Scramble your eggs. Fry up the potatoes. Shred the cheese.

Got that ready? Ok, let’s get started.

Warm the tortillas in a tortilla warmer or in the frying pan you used to cook up all those yummy ingredients. For each burrito, take a tortilla and add some scrambled eggs and sausage or bacon:

Top with potatoes and some shredded cheese and warm briefly in the microwave to melt the cheese. Sometimes I add a little chopped onion and maybe a bit of roasted green chile here too. Fold over the “short” edges.

Next fold in one of the long sides:

and then roll up the other side and flip it over, so the folded side is on the bottom.

Now, pour green chile stew all over the burrito and top with shredded cheese. Warm in the microwave till the cheese is melted.

If you are doing a bunch of these for a crowd, you can put the rolled burritos in a casserole dish, cover with green chile stew and cheese (like a tray of enchiladas!) and bake in an oven briefly to melt the cheese.

Oh look at that beautiful burrito! Doesn’t it just make you hungry? Now it’s ready to bite into …

These burritos are very hearty and filling, and you can make them as spicy or mild as you like by using mild or hot green chiles in the stew.

This recipe was shared at Recipe of the Week: Mexican Cuisine and Katherine Martinelli’s Mexican Blog Hop.