I know making breakfast tacos is not difficult. When I make them at home, they taste good, but I feel like they're just missing something. I want to know how I can take them to the next level, like they came straight from a greasy spoon gas station first thing in the morning. Any tips?

Crisco, probably

Definitely the green hot sauce.

And grease

Also - homemade tortillas - game changer

MichaelJ said:

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Also - homemade tortillas - game changer

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This is the correct answer.

It's the right cheese. That's what you're missing. I find it makes all the difference. A lot of places use Land O' Lakes cheapo pasteurized cheese product. It's a standard product from Sysco and it's what I'm guessing is used most places. This is not available on the retail market for us to buy at grocery stores.

The best thing I can find is HEB brand, White American cheese from the Deli. It used to be Hill Country Fare but now it's the 1905 or whatever. Store brand white american cheese from the deli. Start using that, and see what it does for your breakfast tacos.

As stated, home made tortillas are a biggie and for sure nothing compares. You can get a reasonable approximation of it using the pre-made tortilla dough in your grocery store's biscuit case. We like the Tia Cristina but the Mi Tienda stuff is pretty good too. I find I'm happy with fresh COOKED from raw tortillas, and that making them from scratch is something I only do on weekends or when we have guests and I want to show off.

Make sure you have plenty of grease in there. If doing bacon and egg, chop the bacon first (easier when partially frozen) and fry it up. If sausage or chorizo, dump it in and brown. Drain out most but not ALL the grease and then add your eggs. Having the meat and the eggs all cook together is WAY tastier than cooking them separately.

But yeah, no matter how good the insides are, if you put it on a lame tortilla, you'll ruin it.

-homemade tortillas or HEB bakery tortillas (minimum)
-grated cheese only, sharp cheddar (minimum), extra points if you get smoked cheddar from the deli
-applewood smoked bacon, plenty of brand options at the heb
-don't over cook your eggs, practice makes perfect.
-hash browns is an awesome egg alternative, great with chorizo and cheddar
-fresh cracked pepper to finish off

I've also from time to time make a small brisket in the oven for tacos. I'll sprinkle some leftovers with the bacon egg and cheese breakfast tacos to mix it up a bit. *chef's kiss

Oops wrong thread

I feel like this is fancier than your "standard" gas station or taqueria taco

sprinkle the tacos with shredded cheese and throw in oven to melt/char that cheese a little bit. Simple step that kicks it up a notch.

MichaelJ said:

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I feel like this is fancier than your "standard" gas station or taqueria taco

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Yeah, I have a hard time tasting the Applewood over the salsa and cheese.

Make sure you warm your tortilla on both sides before filling it up! Makes it easier to roll up and you can pack everything in better.

If you want to take them to the next level , throw corn tortillas in hot oil. Cook it just long enough to make it browned and chewy and you will never use a corn tortilla straight from the pack again. It also won't fall apart when you roll it

Slagathor said:

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I know making breakfast tacos is not diffuclt. When I make them at home, they taste good, but I feel like they're just missing something. I want to know how I can take them to the next level, like they came straight from a greasy spoon gas station first thing in the morning. Any tips?

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Lots of good suggestions on ingredients, but there's some big pieces of the puzzle missing.

Every Mexican restaurant and greasy spoon is cooking their eggs on a flat top. The better ones use clarified butter and/or fats from bacon, chorizo, etc. Blackstone/griddle eggs simply make better tacos - I'm not looking for perfect French scrambled eggs to stick in a tortilla. Also, you can properly warm your tortillas quickly on the flat top (or cook them from scratch). I go back and forth on cracking the eggs in a bowl and then scrambling on the griddle or beating the eggs in a bowl first for more homogeneous flavor. Either way, season with s&p in the bowl instead of after the eggs cook.

Foil wrap your tacos. You can get the wraps from Amazon or restaurant supply. A short rest in a foil wrap helps everything settle in together. Even if I'm serving them right away, I always wrap my tacos first.

Green sauce - Suggested above but I'll add an easy recipe as well. Simmer a mix of Serrano peppers and Jalapenos with a clove or two of garlic in salted water until tender. Drain & add to a blender then add fresh water to about half the level of the peppers. Blend until smooth. You can add avocado as well to soften the heat. Salt to taste

My cheese preference is 50/50 mild cheddar and deli American. Sharp cheddar does not make good breakfast tacos

LARD



man, yall just keep dancing around, just admit it. It's lard.

Thanks everyone! So many different things to try and they all look great. I will certainly get better tortillas and cheese to start. And will be putting a Blackstone on my Christmas list.

Breakfast tacos and some cold ones are on the menu for Gameday this Saturday.

Favorite flour tortillas: Guerrero fresqui-ricas ready to cook fajita size. Favorite salsa: Salsa El Gallo, 4 types available, comes in a pouch, from Weslaco,TX. Both available at H-E-B, cost a little bit more, but you can taste the difference.

Few of the gas station joints are using home made tortillas. Most are using Gurerro or similar pre-made ones.

Cook the eggs until they aren't quite done, you still want them to have a little big of liquidity to them.

Cheap ass bacon, chopped. They almost all use the cheapest, thinnest cut run of the mill generic brand bacon they can. Eggs are cooked in some of the bacon grease. Tortillas are warmed up on the grill with the same bacon grease.

Chorizo

Government cheese. Whatever salsa they buy from Cisco.

It's a gas station taco, not some Gordon Ramsay or Bobby Flay dish here. Ingredients aren't high end by any stretch of hte imagination, nor are most of them home made.

Lot of overthinking IMO - shortening or lard is going to make the eggs super yellow with a distinct texture and bacon somehow is chewy and crispy when fried with it too.

Sounds like you're going to crappy gas stations.

500,000ags said:

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Lot of overthinking IMO - shortening or lard is going to make the eggs super yellow with a distinct texture and bacon somehow is chewy and crispy when fried with it too.

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Thats a feature, not a bug.

I don't even like eggs anymore but cooking the eggs (or potatoes or beans if you're like me and don't do eggs) in some of the meat grease helps quite a bit.

Having made thousands of tacos in my life, I stand by the following stacking method...warm your tortilla up to whatever standard you have. For me, I use a dedicated comal. The last flip of the tortilla goes whichever side was on the comal last goes face up and immediately gets hit with cheese. Then, the rest of the filling(s) and a generous layer of salsa on top.

If you're worried about lard or other meat grease and eating breakfast tacos as a health thing, I don't know what you would do to improve on your kale and quinoa wrap, and I don't care if I ever know. But I wish you the best.

AgDad121619 said:

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If you want to take them to the next level , throw corn tortillas in hot oil. Cook it just long enough to make it browned and chewy and you will never use a corn tortilla straight from the pack again. It also won't fall apart when you roll it

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There is no place for corn tortillas in a discussion about breakfast tacos.

Corn tortillas in oil sounds like an enchilada step. But you have to be really careful doing that or you end up with realllllllllly greasy enchiladas...

Sorry for the derail, back to breakfast tacos...

MichaelJ said:

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Sounds like you're going to crappy gas stations.

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Maybe. But if I am, they are all pretty crappy then.

Except, obviously, the 5* joints you go to wherever you are I guess.

Ha - I live in Washington state - our Mexican sucks and breakfast tacos are non existent.

That said - I'm from Texas and Houston, and know that the good taco shacks/some of the gas stations are making their tortillas

La Familia at Barron and 6 in CS makes their own. Abuela knows what she's doing.

Getting serious around so I thought I'd share my expertise as a former breakfast taco cook and lifelong fan.

Package tortillas are fine. Most are better than Stripes laredo gas station homemade anyways. I heat mine directly over the gas for char. Into pan with fat or butter if none. Skip the char if you don't have gas. Im not going through much effort on weekday but the fridge pack at HEB mentioned before are good.

I'm not going outside on a weekday to cook breakfast either. Regular skillet will get you by just fine. Eggs straight in the hot pan though.

I prefer chorizo or bacon. Whatever you use have it hot. When eggs are close to done throw in the protein and mix in while you chop up the eggs.

Not a cheese fan so deflect there. But I'll throw in beans. They're more important than the meat. The B183 famous beans are great in them. I keep jar of refried in fridge. Warm it as eggs are cooking.

I have different preferences of hot sauce based on the other ingredients but it's a must. I even like picante.

Foil was mentioned above. I do it because I like to burn the tortilla and it helps soften it back up in chorizo grease.

With exception of chorizo I'll have protein already cooked for the week. Makes the process quick.

for breakfast --> flour
from a tortilleria is preferable

cook up bacon -- i personally preferred less crisp -- i prefer coarsely chop over the stick

warm up the tortillas on the stove -- ideally using bacon grease or ghee or lard etc

ratio of 1 egg : ~1 tbsp whole milk -- your season -- scramble em, dont overcook (key)


scoop warm egg onto the warm tortilla, put on bacon, sprinkle with cheese -- wrap that up in foil (key)

I'm not gonna go so far as to say I prefer it, but I do like corn tortillas for the right breakfast taco…

Looks like I'm in a minority…

Corn tortillas are for migas, not tacos.

DiskoTroop said:

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I'm not gonna go so far as to say I prefer it, but I do like corn tortillas for the right breakfast taco…

Looks like I'm in a minority…

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Corn tortillas for barbacoa are my preference. A bean & cheese on a slightly crispy corn tortilla is definitely "comfort" food in that I ate a ton of those growing up and still crave them now and then.

I like a good cubed ham and egg with a thin layer of refried beans on a Rosas tortilla.

I like to make them with a pre dawn pot of coffee. My trick is to make them ahead early in the morning undisturbed by the chaos of others and then wrap each tight in foil to meld all the flavors together.

Simply tortilleria tortillas, ground breakfast sausage, diced bacon, mexi melt grated cheese, diced potato hash browns, and cheap eggs. All cooked separately. We have an egg allergy in our family, but also we like fluffy eggs rather than the heavy greasy kind.

I will wrap and label each (B)acon, (S)ausage, (P)otato, (E)gg, (C)heese.
BPEC, BEC, SPEC, SEC, and lastly SBPC for my egg allergy son.

Toss in the warmer at 200 and dine whenever.

i think it's been mentioned. if you want, queso is also key. if you want a better tasting product, shred your own cheese. the already shredded stuff while convenient has a bunch of junk in it so that it doesn't stick together, holds it shape. yada. yada.