Baked Breakfast Burritos — The Friday-After-Thanksgiving Breakfast

Thanksgiving in Sapulpa. I flew home Wednesday afternoon with Dustin in tow on a forty-minute drive from Sapulpa to the cafe that we’d booked back in October when we’d agreed in principle that he would come to my family’s for Thanksgiving and I would go to his family’s for Christmas Eve. Mama picked us up at Tulsa International at ten PM Wednesday. She hugged Dustin at the airport for a long time before she let him pick up his bag. She said in the truck on the drive back to Sapulpa, “Dustin, you’re welcome in this house. Don’t need an invitation after this trip.”

Cody and Dustin spent two hours Thanksgiving morning sitting in the living room watching the Macy’s parade on the TV with the sound low and talking about guitars — Cody picking quietly at the acoustic guitar he’d started playing again since coming home from the unit, Dustin offering small technique notes about fingering and showing him a chord variation Cody hadn’t known. They’d met for the first time twenty minutes earlier and were talking like they’d known each other since high school. I watched from the kitchen while I started the turkey-prep and felt the kind of relief I hadn’t known I was carrying about whether they would get along.

Aunt Linda and Roy drove down from Tulsa Thursday afternoon. Aunt Patty’s family came up from McAlester. Twelve at the table. The turkey — a fourteen-pound bird I’d brined for forty-eight hours in salt-sugar-and-aromatics — came out at one-sixty-five at the breast and one-eighty-five at the thigh, the same Cooks Illustrated reverse-sear method I’d used for the Christmas Eve prime rib last year, except scaled up for poultry. Cody made the cornbread dressing and the giblet gravy. Mama made the green-bean casserole and the dinner rolls. I made the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the cranberry sauce from scratch with orange zest, and a pumpkin pie with a maple-bourbon whipped cream that Roy said was the best pie he’d ever eaten in any context. Dustin had three slices.

Friday morning, the morning after Thanksgiving, I made baked breakfast burritos for the household because Mama and Aunt Linda were going Black Friday shopping at the Tulsa Hills Walmart and Target at six AM, Cody was sleeping in until ten, and Dustin was reading on the back porch with a cup of coffee. The burritos are the right Friday-after-Thanksgiving breakfast because they can be assembled Thursday night while the kitchen is already a disaster, baked Friday morning, and eaten by shoppers coming back at staggered times throughout the morning.

The technique is filling and rolling, then baking. The filling: a pound of fresh Mexican chorizo browned in a skillet (drained and reserved); the rendered chorizo fat used to scramble eight large eggs with a half-cup of milk, salt, and pepper, gently scrambled until just set; one bag of frozen hash browns crisped in a separate skillet for ten minutes until deeply golden at the edges; one can of refried beans warmed and slightly thinned with a splash of broth; a cup of grated sharp cheddar; a cup of homemade roasted-tomato salsa from the Sunday before.

The assembly: ten large burrito-size flour tortillas (warm them briefly in a dry skillet first to make them pliable; cold tortillas crack when you roll them). Down the center of each tortilla, layer in this order: a smear of refried beans, a scoop of the chorizo-egg scramble, a scoop of crispy hash browns, a sprinkle of cheese, a spoonful of salsa. Roll burrito-style, tucking in the ends — the tighter the roll, the better the bake.

Line the rolled burritos seam-side-down in a buttered nine-by-thirteen baking dish in two tight rows. Brush the tops with melted butter. Cover with foil. Refrigerate overnight (this is the make-ahead step that makes the dish the right Friday-morning breakfast for a household running on different schedules).

Friday morning at six-thirty, I pulled the pan from the fridge, removed the foil, and baked at four hundred degrees uncovered for fifteen to eighteen minutes until the tops of the tortillas had crisped to a deep golden and the bottoms had developed a similar fried-edge texture from the buttered pan. The burritos hold their shape, eat hand-held, and reheat well for the people who come back to the kitchen later in the morning.

Seven burritos went out the door with Mama and Linda in a thermal carrier. Three stayed for me, Cody, and Dustin. Dustin had two. Cody had one and a half. I had one. The pan was empty by ten-fifteen AM.

Roll tight, seam-side-down, butter the tops, foil for overnight. Bake uncovered at four hundred for fifteen. Here’s the build.

Baked Breakfast Burritos

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 large flour tortillas (10-inch)
• 8 large eggs
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup salsa, plus more for serving
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter or cooking spray
• Sour cream and hot sauce, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray or butter.
2. Scramble the eggs. Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin in a bowl. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat and add the egg mixture. Cook, stirring gently, until eggs are just set but still slightly soft, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Warm the tortillas. Wrap tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds to make them pliable and easier to roll without cracking.
4. Fill the burritos. Lay each tortilla flat. Spoon a portion of scrambled eggs down the center of each, followed by a scoop of black beans, a spoonful of salsa, and a handful of shredded cheese (reserve 1/2 cup cheese for topping).
5. Roll and arrange. Fold the sides of each tortilla in, then roll tightly from the bottom up. Place seam-side down in the prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
6. Top and bake. Spoon a thin layer of salsa over the top of each burrito and sprinkle with the reserved 1/2 cup cheese. Bake uncovered for 18–22 minutes, until the tops are golden and the cheese is bubbling.
7. Serve. Let cool for 2–3 minutes before serving. Top with sour cream and hot sauce if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 360 | Protein: 19g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 39g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 710mg