Favorite Breakfast Tacos
These breakfast tacos are SO delicious! Plus, they're easy to make with leftover veggies. Make these egg tacos for breakfast, or a simple lunch or dinner!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
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These “breakfast” tacos are a quick and satisfying meal any time of day. They’re full of fluffy scrambled eggs and seasoned sautéed vegetables, and topped with whatever you have handy—hot sauce or salsa, maybe some avocado or guacamole if you’ve got it.
My husband makes great breakfast tacos, and he makes them often. I’m a lucky lady. I’ve been studying his technique as I sip my coffee, so I’m sharing his recipe (give or take) with you today.
These egg tacos are a great way to use up your random leftover veggies. Or, if you’re in a hurry to get home and make them, follow his lead and stop at the grocery store’s salad bar for a variety of prepared vegetables and cheese. Why didn’t I think of that?
Make this flexible recipe a couple of times and you’ll have it memorized. Breakfast tacos will save the day.
Breakfast Taco Notes & Tips
Slice your veggies evenly.
You can use a variety of vegetables to make these tacos. Just try to slice them into similarly sized strips or rounds so they all cook in the same amount of time.
Options include cabbage, bell pepper, carrot, onion, zucchini or yellow squash, Brussels sprouts, etc. More dense vegetables like butternut squash or sweet potato will probably require longer on the stove, so you could add those first.
Butter and sour cream make them better.
For real, cooking the vegetables and then the eggs in a reasonable amount of butter makes them so flavorful. They’re as good as my favorite taco truck’s.
Whisking one tablespoon of sour cream into the eggs yields gloriously fluffy and creamy scrambled eggs. If you take nothing else away from this recipe, make it be this!
Garnish with what you have.
If you’re like me, you probably have salsa or hot sauce, a handful of cherry tomatoes, or an avocado and cilantro on hand. You can’t go wrong.
Serving suggestions:
I tend to treat these tacos as a full meal, but roasted breakfast potatoes or crispy hash browns would be epic.
Please let me know how your breakfast tacos turn out in the comments. I love hearing from you.
Craving more eggs with Mexican flavors? Me, too. We’re in luck:
- Fresh Huevos Rancheros
- Simple Breakfast Tostadas
- Chilaquiles Verdes with Baked Tortilla Chips
- Simple Breakfast Quesadillas
- Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos
- Austin-Style Migas
You’ll also love the breakfast fajitas with fried eggs in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 32).
Favorite Breakfast Tacos
These breakfast tacos are the best! This simple meal is the perfect use for leftover veggies, and you can serve these egg tacos for lunch or dinner, too. Recipe yields 4 hearty tacos (or 6 lighter tacos, for which you’ll need 2 more tortillas). This recipe is easily halved or doubled.
Ingredients
- 4 small flour or corn tortillas
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon sour cream (or milk), plus more for serving if desired
- Two dashes of hot sauce, such as Cholula, plus more for serving if desired
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, divided
- 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 2 cups thinly sliced vegetables* (I used a mix of purple cabbage, red bell pepper and carrot)
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ cup shredded or crumbled cheese, optional (cheddar, Cotijah, feta, goat, even mozzarella)
- ¼ cup thinly sliced green onion
- Suggested garnishes (choose a few): Chopped fresh cilantro, hot sauce or salsa or pico de gallo, strips of avocado or guacamole, diced tomato or sliced cherry tomatoes, sour cream
Instructions
- Warm the tortillas: You can do this in a large skillet over medium heat in batches, flipping to warm each side. Alternatively, you can warm them directly over a low flame on a gas range. Or, just microwave them in a stack for about 15 to 20 seconds. Stack the warmed tortillas and wrap them with a tea towel to keep warm.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk with a fork until the mixture is combined and pure yellow. Add the sour cream or milk, a couple dashes of hot sauce, and ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Whisk to combine, then place the bowl near the stove for later.
- In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium heat. Add the vegetables, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and the chili powder and cumin. Stir to combine, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender throughout (about 5 minutes), dialing down the heat to medium-low after a few minutes have passed. Once cooked, transfer the vegetables to a bowl and set aside.
- Return the skillet to the stove over medium-low heat, and melt the remaining ½ tablespoon butter. Pour in the egg mixture. Use a spatula to gently stir and push the eggs around the skillet until the eggs are clumpy but still slightly wet, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the cheese (if using) and green onion, and gently stir to combine.
- Assemble your tacos by spooning scrambled eggs down the length of a tortilla, topping with some cooked veggies, and your garnishes of choice. Enjoy warm. Leftover tacos will keep fairly well in the refrigerator for up to 4 days; gently reheat before serving.
Notes
Make it gluten free: Use certified gluten-free corn tortillas.
Make it dairy free: Substitute mild extra-virgin olive oil for the butter, water or neutral non-dairy milk for the sour cream, and omit the cheese and any dairy toppings. Vegan sour cream would be nice on top, but so would guacamole or avocado.
Vegetable note: Try to slice your veggies into similarly sized, narrow pieces so they cook at the same rate. Vegetable options include cabbage, bell pepper, carrot, onion, zucchini or yellow squash, Brussels sprouts, etc. More dense vegetables like butternut squash or sweet potato will probably require a longer cooking time.
Change it up: You can stretch out this recipe to yield 6 hearty tacos by adding ½ cup cooked beans to the egg mixture before cooking. I love pinto beans, and black beans are good, too. You’ll need a couple more tortillas for this variation, naturally.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Enjoyed reading it since I’ve been doing these recipes for years and years always adding veggies I either have leftover or sauté new ones. Actually good anytime of the day and very filling. I just don’t add the taco. For me it’s best without since it just adds calories.
Thank you for sharing, Ann!
These look delicious. I’ve always loved your photography too – it’s alwyas nice and bright and here in particular I love that marble backdrop! I can’t wait to get one in the hopes it helps me take some better photos :)
Thank you!
Hello. How can I reduce the sodium but still keep the flavor? The high sodium is all that is keeping me from trying this recipe.
Hi- you could easily reduce the added sodium and look for low sodium obedient to/use less quantity of those with sodium. Kate’s recipes are pretty flexible.
try little less salt and more pepper maybe lol
Hi Kirsten, you can reduce the salt added if you like. It might impact flavor some.
Your recipes are always delicious and can’t wait to try this one. However, I was surprised that the last two posts you have mentioned your husband! Did I miss some posts?
Hi TJ! I announced early this summer that I got married in June. :) It’s still rather new. I kept it quiet until our big day!
OMG OMG OMG
My husband will be sooooo excited to hear that you are married and finally found a man worthy of you! We love your recipes and he always says to me don’t we know someone in that area, she deserves a good guy.
Congratulations you have changed our lives, literally! I was cooking your recipes all the time and then we decided to go fully vegetarian. I don’t know if we would’ve stuck with it without your inspiring recipes.
Congrats Kate :) may y’all have many happy and healthy years together
I was excited to see this recipe since I had extra red cabbage to use up from your delicious mango & tofu bowl meal. I tried these last night, and something went wrong. I added sour cream to the eggs along with black beans, but the eggs didn’t fluff up (I used 9 eggs to feed the family). Maybe I would save the sour cream as a topping for those that want it, and throw the beans in with the vegetables next time. Also, I’d increase the spices for more punch.
I’m sorry you didn’t love this recipe!
Added beans to the eggs? Huh? I’d imagine that’s your problem.
I made your recipe today and it turned out great! I used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.
That’s a great way to add more protein, Holly! Thank you for sharing.
Breakfast Tacos!! These sound divine. I love the idea of having tacos for breakfast and can’t wait to try this.
Be sure to leave a review once you try them, Chris!
Believe it or not, these were also great with sauteed zucchini and yellow squash which are all in abundance this time of year. Very filling for breakfast and delicious.
Thank you for sharing!
This turned out so good and bursting with flavor. Omitted the sour cream. I’m sure I will be eating this several times per month for breakfast or dinner. Thanks for a great recipe.
You’re welcome, Bridgette!
HI, I love your recipes!! Thank you so much! May I please please ask for nut free muesli or granola bars. I have two people with nut allergy in the family and really need nutritious school snacks (morning teas) ideas….thank you :) Maria
I love Tacos. Thanks for sharing the recipe
i have your book. i liked that you gave the page number– especially because i have almost every page flagged as something i want to cook.
i like that you feature recipes from your book here because i can print a recipe to use in the kitchen so that i don’t have to risk getting the book dirty.
I love that! Thanks for letting me know you love the book and my blog.
Wow, this was really simple to prepare and delicious! A big hit in our house, even the kids enjoyed it. We do tacos weekly, but I was in a serious rut. Thanks for getting me out of my rut and for livening up our dinnertime!
Yum! So good, so fast, and so flexible!! Thank you
Thank you Kate! What a great Sunday breakfast! I used Greek yogurt too, cause that’s what I had. The eggs were perfect!
Just made this similar recipe from your cookbook and WOW they were delicious! I’ve never had breakfast tacos before and I can safely say that this recipe has changed the breakfast game for me!
I make this almost weekly. SO good and super simple.
Thank you for sharing, Ashlee!
Loved this recipe!
Perfect dinner in warm weather.
Spice selection was perfect.
Thanks for this.
Will share this recipe with friends.
These tacos made a great dinner! I made them with purple cabbage, carrot, bell pepper & onion. I added black beans to the veg mix. I also spread some avo salsa verde (from your Spaghetti Squash Burrito bowl recipe) on the the tortillas. The only thing I would change is next time I will use a separate pan to cook the eggs. I’m all about 1 pan meals, but my eggs came out a weird greyish color from the spices. Once wrapped, they can’t be seen and it all tasted great!! I will certainly make these again. Added bonus that the same veggies are used in the SS burrito bowls – two meals from 1 list of ingredients…saves on food waste:-)
Thank you for sharing how you made these! Sounds like a delicious combination.