4 Levels of Breakfast Burrito: Amateur to Food Scientist

Epicurious

We challenged chefs of three different skill levels–amateur Onika, home cook Emily, and professional chef Saúl Montiel–to make their take on a breakfast burrito. We then asked expert food scientist Rose to explain each chef's choices along the way. Which breakfast burrito do you want to start your day with?

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Onika, and I'm a level one chef.

00:07Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a level two chef.

00:09Hi, I'm Saul, I've been a professional chef

00:11for the past 23 years.

00:15A perfect breakfast burrito to me

00:17is supposed to have sausage, cheese, eggs,

00:20spicy salsa, homemade flour tortilla.

00:23All the elements of it just need to mesh together

00:25like a dance party, but everyone has that one, two step.

00:28It's like, to the left.

00:30I think it's not a breakfast burrito

00:32unless you have eggs and a burrito wrap.

00:34Beyond that, world's your oyster, baby.

00:42So in order to make breakfast burrito,

00:44you make the tortilla.

00:46I don't really make my own tortillas.

00:48Why do you have to do anything from scratch at this point?

00:50It's 2025, why are we still scratching?

00:52The ingredients that I'm using today

00:54to make flour tortilla, it's all-purpose flour,

00:56a little bit of salt and pork lamb.

00:58Also, beet juice.

00:59I'm just going to warm these up with a damp cloth

01:01in a low oven for a few minutes.

01:04Take a little napkin sandwich.

01:06Pop that bad boy in.

01:13That was the hard part.

01:15Beet's gonna add that sweet flavor,

01:17and our salsa's gonna be spicy.

01:18And when you mix sweet and spicy, poof, love happen.

01:23Look at this.

01:24Now I'm gonna cover it with a towel.

01:25I'm gonna let it sit for 10, 15 minutes in the fridge.

01:29Ah, nice.

01:30Now I'm just gonna stretch it like pizza.

01:32We want something thick, but not so thick.

01:35Thin, but not so thin.

01:37What do you mean, chef?

01:38Yeah, exactly, that's what I mean.

01:40Okay, that looks like torrentes.

01:43Madre de Dios.

01:44I'm nervous.

01:46When you start seeing little bubbles,

01:48that's when the dough is telling you,

01:50hello, flip me.

01:52It's a crime to use the microwave to heat up a tortilla,

01:54because why you do that?

01:58She's ready.

01:59That's why you have a dry taco, a dry burrito.

02:03Don't tell anybody.

02:05And this is how it's supposed to look,

02:07a flour tortilla made from scratch.

02:10So hot.

02:11Time for a salsa party.

02:13Yeah.

02:14The way I make my salsa special is I take a regular salsa.

02:21Okay.

02:23Could somebody open this for me?

02:26All right.

02:27And then heat it up.

02:28But you have to heat it up with this guy.

02:31I'm not measuring.

02:32The hot sauce tells me when.

02:34With my sour cream, I just lime it up,

02:37but I give it a kick.

02:38I just like the way those flavors blend.

02:41And now, my sauces are ready.

02:44I'm about to make my tomatillo

02:46and chile de arbol salsa for my burrito.

02:49So we're going to start with boiling some tomatillos

02:50for five minutes.

02:51Just going to cut these in half.

02:53And then for my jalapenos, stem these.

02:56Char some onions, garlic.

02:59I'm just going to pop them in the broiler

03:00for 10, 15 minutes until they're looking charred.

03:02The reason why I'm charring these base tables

03:04is because it's going to taste sweeter and smoky.

03:07We're going to do the peppers, chile de arbol,

03:10and then we're going to do salt.

03:11I'm using a mortar and pestle.

03:13It's because I want to keep the consistency

03:15of the salsa a little chunky.

03:17You can put it on the blender and make it easier,

03:19but I don't want it to be a puree.

03:22Now I'm going to cook the sauce again,

03:24what I call sancochar.

03:26I also like to add a little bit of sugar.

03:28It's going to help caramelize it

03:29and also going to balance spiciness.

03:31Now we're going to cook this for like maybe 15 minutes.

03:35Look at the beauty, it's rich, it's soft, it's thick.

03:40It's sort of like chunky.

03:41Say hello to my delicious salsa.

03:43All right, so other than my eggs,

03:45I have two things that are going into this burrito.

03:47Some onion and chorizo.

03:49I find the onion just adds a nice like base note,

03:51just add a little funk.

03:53Most of the breakfast burritos I've had in my life

03:54that had meat had chorizo.

03:57So to me, it's just like the option.

03:59OK, so in my filling, I'm going to have bacon,

04:03but I'm going to stir fry it.

04:04It makes the sides crispier.

04:07This chorizo looks nice and crispy.

04:09My onions look cooked.

04:10Everything smells delicious.

04:11It's coming together.

04:13I'm going to use this same bacon grease for these veggies.

04:16I know these vegetables are like, what the hell is this?

04:19It's bacon grease, girl.

04:20You came to New York for a reason.

04:22So I'm adding spinach.

04:24It kind of just makes everything feel more alive.

04:27I could have chopped it up, but hey.

04:30But let me tell you what I'm doing now.

04:31This is the secret.

04:33Shredded potatoes.

04:35Don't tell anybody.

04:37Carbs get such a bad rap, but it's for energy, right?

04:42I'm going to be making my own chorizo, homemade chorizo.

04:46So it's very important that you soak your peppers

04:47because I want this paste to be nice and creamy.

04:51I'm using two types of peppers, poblano.

04:53It's a little bit smoky in a guajillo for color and texture.

04:58Eight cloves of garlic.

04:59When you add garlic and pork, forget it.

05:02Mexican dry oregano.

05:03If there's no Mexican oregano, you're not making chorizo.

05:05You're making something else.

05:06Dry thyme, cumin, comino, majoram.

05:10Half of cider vinegar.

05:12I should be taking two ounces of this every morning.

05:15I'm going to start tomorrow.

05:16It's not just going to cure some of the pork.

05:19It's also going to kill any spices from those peppers if they're spicy.

05:24Look how thick, rich this marinade looks.

05:27So I got some pork shoulder.

05:29I'm going to start by grinding my pork.

05:33There you go, the last.

05:34The key to make the best chorizo is that the marinade needs to be in the meat at least overnight.

05:40So the longer you let sit the marinade with the pork, it's going to be more delicious.

05:44In order to make an omelet, you've got to break some eggs.

05:48We're adding the Tonys, always adding Tonys, some pepper, and guess what?

05:53A smoked paprika to make it seem like the bacon is like smoke.

05:57I'm going to crumble in a little queso blanco.

06:00Now I'm going to do some of the sour cream, a little bit of heavy cream.

06:05I got to make sure I break the chorizo into little pieces.

06:08Let's melt some butter.

06:09We have butter.

06:10Why use a lot of butter?

06:12Because butter, good.

06:14Oh, I almost forgot my cumin seeds.

06:15Kind of blooms them and brings out some nice extra flavors.

06:18It's time for these two to get married.

06:21Padre del Hijo, Espiritu Santo.

06:23And now you've got to pour it in.

06:26So now you've just got to let her do her thing.

06:28For me, in a breakfast burrito, scramble is really the only option.

06:32Mix it all together, scramble eggs with chorizo, and then add some queso, chihuahua cheese.

06:37So this is my chorizo that I'm just popping in there, and I'm just going to fold this all together.

06:40Crumble in the bacon, veggies, potatoes.

06:44I'm going to put the cheddar cheese inside, and I'm going to put Colby on top.

06:49All right, so my process is this.

06:51This is very specific.

06:52I'm going to put an avocado line down the middle.

06:55So we're going to start with guacamole.

06:56It has to have some kind of creaminess.

06:59And what's better than guacamole for that?

07:01Some are beautiful, soft eggs.

07:03Egg chorizo.

07:05So I'm going to put a little extra cheese.

07:07Now for the sauce.

07:09Salsa verde down.

07:10Now it's time to wrap.

07:12We have to finesse this baby, okay?

07:14Give this a fold and a fold.

07:15Come around like this.

07:17Tuck it.

07:18Sort of like making like a Swiss roll or something.

07:20Get in there, egg.

07:22Get in there.

07:23You have to underfill it a little, because otherwise it will not burrit.

07:26I did it.

07:27I think I did it.

07:29So I'm going to cut it in half so you can see what it looks like inside.

07:32Look, you see the bacon.

07:34You see the spinach.

07:34You see the bell peppers, the onions, the egg.

07:37It's like a medley.

07:39Let's see how we did.

07:41Oh, don't you want to eat that?

07:44I kind of do.

07:45Right now.

07:46Look how beautiful that looks.

07:52It's perfect.

07:53And this is my breakfast burrito.

07:56And this is my version of a breakfast burrito.

08:00Let's get into it.

08:13I can't wait to dig into this.

08:14I'm just going to try it.

08:15See what happens.

08:16This is delicious.

08:21Oh, that's good.

08:22The egg, the bacon, even the potato has its own place here.

08:27You get, like, cumin in the warming spices from the eggs and the chorizo.

08:30It's, like, a little creamy.

08:31I mean, look at this, baby.

08:32It looks amazing.

08:33And when something looks amazing and it looks colorful and it looks inviting, guess how it's

08:37going to be?

08:38Don't trust people that don't eat Messi.

08:41It's the perfect protein bar, Mexican protein bar that you can have.

08:45It's delicious.

08:46Everything's in there.

08:47It's easy to eat.

08:48You can eat it on the go.

08:49And I'm going to do that.

08:50Breakfast burritos are made of eggs with lots of tasty additions wrapped in a flour tortilla

09:02and served hot.

09:03Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

09:07Onika and Emily used commercial flour tortillas, which contain glycerin, a food additive that

09:13helps to maintain moisture, which keeps the tortillas pliable.

09:16Sowell made red beet tortillas.

09:19They get their gorgeous and stable color from a class of betaline pigments.

09:24The beets add nutrient density to the tortilla with fiber, manganese, iron, and potassium.

09:32Onika used store-bought salsa with additives like calcium chloride to help the tomatoes maintain

09:37their diced shape and a citric acid as a preservative.

09:41Emily charred her tomatillos and peppers, which developed roasted, toasted, and smoky

09:46pyrazine compounds.

09:47The touch of acid from lime really brightened her green salsa.

09:51Sowell dry toasted his arbol chilies, dehydrating the chilies and thereby concentrating the flavor

09:57and spicy capsaicin.

09:59Capsaicin is contained in the ribs and seeds of the chilies, so removing them can lower the

10:04heat and allow for some of the fruity qualities of the arboles.

10:10Onika used crispy bacon with sauteed bell peppers and onions.

10:14Green bell peppers contain 2-methoxy-3-icbutyl pyrazine, which give a characteristic aroma and flavor.

10:21Emily added sliced avocado.

10:23Botanically, it's a fruit that's high in fat and green from the pigment chlorophyll.

10:28It browns easily when cut because of the enzyme polyphenyl oxidase, which is activated when

10:34the flesh is cut open and exposed to oxygen.

10:37Sowell's guacamole was straightforward, so the ingredients could really shine.

10:41Lime juice is fruity, but mostly add intense acidity that slows the browning process.

10:49Onika whisked her four eggs.

10:51Whisks have multiple concentric, looped wires that are designed to add air and stretch proteins

10:57as it moves through the liquid.

10:59Whisking action unwinds the globular egg white proteins and stretches them so that they can

11:03catch and coat air as it's mixed in, adding a bit of fluffiness to her eggs.

11:08Emily briefly sauteed her cumin seeds in the pan before adding her eggs.

11:13Aromatic, lipid-soluble flavor molecules like cumin aldehyde are expressed in the hot butter.

11:18You get the aroma almost immediately.

11:20She also added chorizo, a pork-based spicy sausage.

11:25It's got paprika, which is red from the presence of carotenoids like capsanthemum.

11:30Sowell added heavy cream to his eggs, which adds calories and richness and lightens the color of his eggs.

11:37Breakfast burritos are great for breakfast or any time of day.

11:41We hope you'll take some of these tips to make your breakfast burrito as fabulous as our three chefs' versions.

11:48podcast.com

11:50Willie碑

11:52Omar

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