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The Melting Pot
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1970s-present - New Mexican cooks and Santa Fe restaurants popularizing tortilla-wrapped breakfasts
The breakfast burrito belongs to the modern Southwest, with Santa Fe and New Mexican restaurants especially important to the name and style. It can be handheld with chile tucked inside or smothered with red or green chile on the plate.
Difficulty
Easy
Prep time
15 minutes
Cook time
20 minutes
Total time
35 minutes
Servings
2 burritos
Region
New Mexico and the American Southwest
Era introduced
1970s-present
Introduced by
New Mexican cooks and Santa Fe restaurants popularizing tortilla-wrapped breakfasts
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New Mexicans had long wrapped morning foods in tortillas before the phrase breakfast burrito became widespread. Santa Fe restaurant lore often points to Tia Sophia's in the 1970s as an early menu use of the term. This version keeps the New Mexican signal clear with potatoes, eggs, cheese, and green chile, with the option to serve it handheld or smothered.
Drafted with breakfast burrito origin context from SantaFe.com (https://santafe.com/heating-it-up-a-love-letter-to-breakfast-burritos/), Tia Sophia's context from KOB (https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/tia-sophias-celebrates-50-years-of-business/), and general breakfast burrito background from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_burrito).
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