Chirizo Verde Breakfast Burritos

Have you ever had Chorizo Verde?  Neither had I, but I am so glad I tried it!  Now I want you to do the same...

I found my Chorizo Verde at the Story City Locker and it is literally green.  Don't let this scare you, though - Chorizo Verde is given it's unique color by the addition of spinach puree and a flavorful spice blend.  So give it a try with my filling and famous breakfast burrito recipe!  

I love these burritos because the recipe is great for a crowd, can be easily modified to suit every one's tastes and the finished products can even be wrapped up and frozen for a quick breakfast later.  They can also be made with any sausage your prefer - spicy Chorizo, Chorizo Verde, breakfast sausage, even vegetarian sausage.  I like a combination on half Verde-half spicy Chorizo, but use whatever you can get your hands on.  I have found that 1 pound of ground sausage will make 8-10 burritos, but as I said, they can be frozen, so cook accordingly!

What You Need

1 lb Chorizo Verde

14 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

2-2 1/2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar or pepper jack)

1/4 cup chopped ham, or deli ham torn into pieces

5 strips thick cut smoky bacon

salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

2 tbsp butter

2 1/2 cups hash browns (fresh or frozen)

8-10 soft flour tortillas (10")

1 jar of your favorite salsa

chopped fresh avocado and tomato

aluminum foil

Heat a large skillet on the stove over medium-high.  Add the Chorizo and break it apart as much as possible while it cooks.  Stir often until cooked through, about 10 minutes.  When chorizo is fully cooked, use a slotted spoon to transfer meat to a medium bowl lined with paper towels and set aside.  Carefully drain excess fat from the skillet.  Place skillet back over medium high heat.  Add bacon to the pan and cook until crisp, about 5-8 minutes, turning several times.  When bacon is cooked, carefully remove from skillet and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside.  Once it is cool, roughly chop the bacon.

While bacon is cooking, crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl.  Add milk, 1/2 cup of the cheese, chopped ham, and about 1/2 tsp each of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.  Scramble with a fork and set aside until bacon is finished.  When the bacon is out of the pan, reduce heat to medium-low and carefully drain some of the grease, leaving about 1 tbsp in the pan (you will now use this to cook the eggs).  

Pour the scrambled egg mixture into the pan and gently mix every few minutes until eggs are solid, but still moist, about 10 minutes.  When scrambled eggs get overcooked they begin to dry out, so keep an eye on them.  While eggs are cooking, add the 2 tbsp of butter to another skillet and heat to medium-high.  Once butter is hot, add the hash browns and spread them evenly in the pan.  Cook for about 5 minutes, the use a spatula to flip the hash browns.  Sprinkle with salt and press down with the spatula.  Continue cooking for another 5 minutes, or until they have browned on both sides.

Once eggs and hash browns are cooked, you can put your burritos together.  I like to make and assembly line, building 4-5 burritos at once.  Tear off one square piece of foil for each burrito you are making.  To assemble your burrito, place one tortilla on top of one piece of foil.  Add a large scoop or two of eggs (about 1/4 cup or so) in a line along the center of the tortilla.  Do the same with a similar amount of Chorizo, placing it on top of the eggs.  Top sausage with a small handful of shredded cheese and roughly 1-2 tbsp salsa.  Place a small tsp or so of chopped bacon evenly along the salsa.  Add about 1/4 cup hash browns and if desired, chopped avocado and tomato.  

Fold one side of the tortilla over the filling (as if folding it in half), then, press down with your fingertips on the top edge of the tortilla, sliding it back toward the center to pull the filling into an even log shape in the middle.  Keep the tortilla folded over the filling while you fold in the ends.  Finish rolling up the burrito, then wrap it in foil.  Place in a hot oven for 10-20 minutes, or toaster oven for 5-10 minutes, then dig in and enjoy!

*If freezing, do not place in the oven.  Simply put all wrapped burritos to be frozen in a large Ziploc bag, suck out the air and place in the freezer.  To cook from the freezer, transfer burritos to the fridge the night before.  In the morning, remove from plastic bag, but keep foil intact.  Heat in oven for 20 minutes until heated through.

Steak Taco Salad with Grilled Corn Pico de gallo

 Living in central Iowa, I am blessed with many fresh, local resources for my cooking adventures.  Everything from farm fresh veggies, eggs and milk, to locally grown and processed meats, is at the most, a 15 minute drive from my kitchen.  It is because of this amazing access to fresh produce, that most Iowans will tell you their favorite time of year is July-September.  What's so special about these 3 months, you ask??  Two words: Sweet Corn.  

To anyone who has ever hand-picked corn straight from the stalk, or spent their summer days gravel traveling through endless fields of corn taller than their car, those little yellow and white kernels of deliciousness are like pure gold.  Come to pretty much any town in Iowa during the summer and you can buy fresh sweet corn from the beds of pick-up trucks on street corners...  I even remember my dad coming home one day when I was a teenager (he is a custom contractor) with the back of his van packed full of fresh ears of corn from a farmer client of his.  I could go on all day about this stuff...
My second favorite part of this recipe, is another special local product - the skirt steak.  If you are an Iowa resident and you have not purchased locally grown and processed beef, or pork, you are missing out on one of our state's finest resources.  The great people at the Story City Locker are doing wonderful things for central Iowa, providing our community with a source for meat that is grown and raised on small-production, local farms.  
As Iowa's first new meat locker to open in 12 years, SCL and it's staff strives to practice sustainable living and sustainable butchery to the best of their ability and that care and sensitivity is visible in their product.  As stated on their website, "Knowing our food and knowing where our food comes from is good for us"... and it is!!  If you are looking for fresh cuts of meat, so cleanly raised and processed that you can taste it, seek out a local butcher like the Story City Locker, or at the least, stop by your local farmers' market and find a family farm tent selling their product - you won't be sorry!
About the recipe... this dish can be a bit time-consuming, but it also has many components that can be prepared ahead of time.  I recommend prepping and marinating your steak anywhere from 6-24 hours ahead of time.  The Pico de gallo can also be made up to 24 hours ahead and the salad shells can be baked several days in advance as long as you store them in an air-tight container until you're ready to use them.  Enjoy!

What You Need:

(For the Marinade)

one 2 lb skirt steak, trimmed of fat

sea salt

black pepper

red pepper flakes

2 large garlic cloves, crushed

juice of 1 large orange

juice of 1 lime

(For the Pico de gallo)

4-5 ears fresh sweet corn, still in husks

1 large Anaheim pepper

1 large, ripe avocado

juice and zest of 1 lime

2 large, ripe tomatoes

handful of fresh cilantro, about 1/3 cup

1/2 red onion

(For the Salad Shells)

store-bought large flour tortillas, as many as needed to serve your family

1 shallow bowl, or rimmed platter, large enough so that you can lay tortillas flat inside one at a time

1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

1 empty 10-15oz food can

aluminum foil

cooking spray

(For the Salads)

sour cream

queso fresco

washed and torn lettuce

sauteed sweet peppers, other desired veggies

To prepare the skirt steak, trim any large pieces of fat and place the steak in a baking dish, or shallow bowl.

Rub with red pepper flakes (1-2 tsp), lime zest, and a generous amount of freshly cracked sea salt and black pepper.  After seasoning both sides, break apart the crushed garlic and rub on the top side of the steak.  Pour orange and lime juice over the top, cover baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until 30 minutes before grilling.

Begin the Pico by roughly chopping a peeled avocado.  Toss in a medium bowl with lime juice, zest and finely chopped cilantro, cover with plastic wrap and set aside.  To grill the corn, peel back the husks, leaving them attached to the ear so that they can be folded back over the corn.  Remove the silk, rub the corn with butter and salt.  Then fold the husks back up over the corn to "wrap" it.  Place wrapped ears onto a hot grill for about 10 minutes, turning them every 2-3 minutes.  Don't worry if the husks begin to blacken, or if some kernels are exposed.   At the same time, place the Anaheim pepper on the grill, and rotate to roast evenly.  After 10 minutes, carefully remove the corn from grill and allow to cool on a plate or baking sheet.  When the pepper has blackened a bit on all sides, remove from grill and immediately wrap in aluminum foil.  Turn off grill.  Set wrapped pepper aside for 30-40 minutes.

While corn is cooling and pepper is steaming, roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the avocado bowl.  The onion can be prepared as desired - I prefer raw onion to be finely minced, so I placed mine in the food processor after peeling, but if you don't mind bigger pieces, you can chop it by hand.  Either way, once prepped, add the onion to the avocado mixture.  When corn is cool enough to handle, remove the husks and carefully use a sharp knife to slice the corn off of the cob.  Add kernels to the bowl of fresh veggies.  Lastly, remove the pepper from it's foil, peel off the skin and pull out seeds.  *See my previous post on making your own roasted peppers!  Finely chop the pepper and gently toss it in with the rest of your Pico de gallo.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the salad shells, heat oven to 400 degrees.  While oven is heating, pour 1 tbsp oil into large bowl/platter, then add roughly 1/2 inch of cold water.  Completely remove the lid from the empty tin can, rinse out the inside and peel off any labels from the outside.  Place the can upside down on a cookie sheet.  Tear off a square piece of aluminum foil and use it to cover the can.  Do not cover tightly, or press foil around the bottom of the can.  You just

want to loosely pull the foil down around the can, making a mold for you tortillas.  Spray the foil "mold" with cooking spray.  Working with one at a time, place a tortilla in the oil/water mixture, pressing down gently to momentarily submerge the tortilla.  Flip the tortilla over and submerge again.  Remove tortilla from water, allowing excess water to drip off, then center the tortilla on top of your can/foil mold.  Gently fold down the sides of the tortilla, making 4-5 "waves" around the sides.  Place the tortilla, mold and cookie sheet in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until it begins to feel fairly stiff.  Remove everything from the oven, take the
tortilla shell off of the mold and flip the tortilla over.  Then place it back into the oven (tortilla only, directly on oven rack) for another 5 minutes.  When edges begin to turn golden, remove shells from oven and cool on a rack.  During that last 5 minutes, prep another tortilla using the water/oil and get it fitted onto the mold to begin baking.  Continue until you have enough salad shells baked to feed your family, or guests.

When you are actually ready to make your taco salads, bring your

grill to medium-high heat (around 500 degrees) and spray the grate with grill-style cooking spray.  Remove the skirt steak from the baking dish and marinade and place steak on the hot grill.  Cook the steak for about 10 minutes per side.  After the first 15 minutes, begin testing the inside temperature every 5 minutes with a meat thermometer.  Do so by inserting the thermometer into the center of the thickest part of the steak.  You will want the interior temperature to be medium-medium well, so when the steak registers between 155-165 degrees, remove it from the grill.  Place on a heat-proof cutting board/serving plate and allow to sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

Allow people to make their own taco salads by having everything laid out and ready to serve.  Everyone can start with a salad shell and build their salad, adding lettuce, sliced steak, crumbled queso, Pico, sour cream, etc... Everything can be saved for leftovers - extra steak can be chopped for nacho topping and the Pico is great as a fresh salsa for dipping chips!