Tacos de huevo con papa
Huevo con papa is diced potato fried until golden and scrambled with eggs, a thrifty Mexican breakfast and the classic potato-and-egg breakfast taco of Texas Mexican home cooking, usually wrapped in a flour tortilla.
Overview
Mexico has countless potato dishes, and papas con huevo is among the simplest, made from ingredients most kitchens already have. It is eaten for breakfast or as a quick lunch, either on a plate with beans and tortillas or folded into tacos. Cookbook author Adán Medrano, writing about Texas Mexican food, recalls potato and egg tacos as a grade-school lunch staple that his mother packed for all the children in brown paper bags.
Flour tortillas and Texas
In Texas the filling almost always goes into a wheat flour tortilla. Medrano describes the fully cooked, soft and fluffy flour tortillas found in Mexican-American homes from Houston to Brownsville, and the tacos that traveled with migrant farmworkers to camps in Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa. He connects the flour tortilla to the wheat introduced to northern Mexico and Texas by Jesuit missionaries, with Franciscans taking over after the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, and calls breakfast tacos a Texas Mexican heritage.
Preparation
Waxy potatoes are peeled and cut into small cubes, boiled briefly to partly cook them, drained and then fried in oil. Medrano keeps it to potatoes, eggs, oil and salt, using Yukon Gold potatoes. Maricruz Avalos, writing for a Mexican home audience, fries the potatoes until golden and crisp and adds jalapeño, onion and garlic before the eggs. Not crowding the pan lets the potatoes brown rather than steam. The beaten eggs go in last and are cooked just until set but still moist.
The filling is often finished with a robust salsa such as one of chile de árbol, and sometimes crumbled queso fresco or cotija. Ham, chorizo, bacon or cheese are common additions; potato with chorizo is a separate classic.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 600 g waxy potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped (optional)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 5 eggs
- Salt and black pepper
- 8 flour tortillas
- Salsa de chile de árbol or salsa roja to serve
Steps
- Boil the potato cubes in salted water for 3 to 5 minutes, until partly tender but firm in the center. Drain well.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the potatoes in a single layer and fry, turning occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes.
- Add the jalapeño, onion and garlic and cook until soft, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Beat the eggs with salt and pepper, pour over the potatoes and stir gently until just set.
- Warm the flour tortillas on a comal until soft and lightly spotted. Fill and serve with salsa.
Leftover roasted or boiled potatoes work well; skip the parboiling.
Reviews
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See also
References
- "Breakfast Tacos: Potato and Egg". Adán Medrano. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Papas Con Huevos (Mexican Potatoes Breakfast)". Maricruz Avalos Kitchen Blog. Retrieved 2026-10-10.