English Breakfast

Just a couple months ago, my husband and I eloped to Austin, Texas. We had a blast on our short trip, soaking up the SXSW music and eating some unforgettable Tex-Mex cuisine. I sought to recreate my favorite dish, breakfast tacos, back here in California, and the results were delicious!

Torchy’s Tacos is an Austin institution. Their tacos are king-sized and delicious, piled high with toppings both traditional and unexpected. If you’re ever in town, you must try their breakfast tacos, which are topped with scrambled eggs, beans, potatoes, salsa, bacon, and cheese. I’ve made my own version a few times now, and I've finally gotten the order of operations down pat.

Great tacos rely on great timing — they must be assembled just before serving for the best results. This is our favorite method for dishing up piping hot breakfast tacos to a table full of hungry brunch guests.

I've listed enough ingredients to serve four people. This makes two hefty tacos per person, piled high with scrambled eggs, well-seasoned pinto beans, crunchy home-fries, and all the fixings. Simply scale the quantities up if your guest list is larger (or if your four guests have lumberjack-sized appetites). The method will be exactly the same. Look to the end of the recipe for a few notes about using larger cookware to accommodate more servings.

The components of the recipe are simple and they’re written out in a deliberate sequence so that everything will come together at the right time. Be sure to read through the recipe once or twice to get a feel for the kitchen ballet you’re about to perform. It’s not difficult, but it does take a little bit of planning.

I've also done my best to streamline the taco-making process, so you don’t need an extra set of hands to pull this off. I let the home-fried potatoes cook in the oven while I'm futzing with the beans and scrambled eggs, reducing the stovetop chaos. The beans babysit themselves nicely since they cook at a low simmer, allowing you to give full attention to the tasks requiring a hawk's eye: scrambling eggs and heating the tortillas just-so.

A couple tasks can be done a day in advance. Fry the bacon ahead of time if you like (but do save that bacon grease for the home-fried potatoes), and assemble your pico de gallo or buy a container from the store (my husband and I like the spicy variety from Trader Joe’s). As for the shredded Mexican cheese blend, it’s ready to go out of the bag, as are the tortillas, which are greatly improved by a brief charring over an open flame.