Fried Breakfast Tacos Recipe

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so don't settle for a quick bowl of cereal and cup of coffee. You need (and deserve) a legitimate meal with plenty of flavor, not to mention plenty of protein to power you on into your day. And you have certainly found both of those things with these fried breakfast taquitos.

Now, that said, if you're looking for a super-simple dish you're going to make perfectly on your very first try, you may need to look elsewhere. "I would say these are at a moderate difficulty level," says Jamie Monkkonen, chef and recipe developer with Vibrantly G-Free. But stick with it and don't get discouraged! "It's important to recognize that these are very forgiving," Monkkonen explains, adding: "Many of them cracked [during frying] and were easily reshaped. They also taste way better than baked taquitos, which makes it totally worth mastering the technique! I may never bake a taquito again..."

The same may well be true for you once you have tried a bite of these tasty tubes. With the right ingredients, breakfast only gets better. "They are amazing with fresh salsa," says Monkkonen. "Since they're breakfast taquitos, I pair them with a fresh fruit salad. A fruit salsa (i.e., mango salsa) would be great with them too."

Making a big batch of these fried breakfast taquitos calls for a good number of ingredients. You'll need canola oil, a diced medium green bell pepper, ground breakfast sausage, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, eggs, milk, lots of corn tortillas, shredded cheddar cheese, and cilantro and salsa as options for garnish when serving.

And speaking of serving, best to plan to serve and enjoy them all, as they don't make great leftovers. "They are definitely best fresh because that's when they're the crispiest," says Monkkonen. "I did try reheating them in the oven, and while they were still delicious, they did not get very crispy."

Heat a large nonstick skillet on the stove on medium heat, adding two teaspoons of oil. Once it has warmed, add the diced bell pepper. Sauté the pepper for three to five minutes until it begins to soften. Then add the ground sausage, garlic powder, cumin, and chili powder and cook for about five minutes, stirring often while breaking the meat into small pieces, sautéing until the meat has all browned and cooked through. '

Remove the sausage and bell pepper from the skillet, and set aside for use in the filling momentarily.

Whisk together the eggs and the milk in a bowl, mixing them together thoroughly. Now remove three tablespoons of the egg mixture and set it aside to be used as an egg wash later. 

Next, soft scramble the eggs on medium-low heat in a nonstick skillet, stirring frequently with a spatula. This should take about five minutes. When cooked through, remove eggs from the skillet, and make sure not to overcook them, as they will cook more during the frying process.

Meanwhile, warm your tortillas by wrapping a stack of four to six tortillas in a damp towel and microwaving them for 30 seconds — this will make them more pliant and easier to work with in the next step.

Time to assemble the taquitos. Do that by adding one tablespoon each of the sausage mixture, the scrambled eggs, and the cheese to a warmed tortilla. Now gently roll the loaded tortilla into a taquito shape and brush the egg wash on the overlapping closure to help it seal. Repeat the process with all of the tortillas, then heat the remaining oil in a large skillet on medium heat.

Now place three taquitos, seam-side down, in the hot oil. Fry them, turning on occasion, until each taquito is golden brown and crisp on all sides, which will take about two minutes. Remove the cooked taquitos from the skillet and set them on a wire rack to drip and cool. Repeat the process until all of the remaining taquitos are cooked, then serve and enjoy.