Roasting the vegetables gives our ranchero sauce intensely rich flavor in just 10 minutes. Be sure to use plum tomatoes, which are meaty and not overly juicy--this will ensure a thick sauce that won't make the burrito soggy.
As written this recipe is good, not great and not quick. It is too labor intensive to justify the result, in my opinion - the tomato sauce is good and the idea of layering yields a tasty dish. For the ease of morning prep, I substituted refried beans, pre made guacamole, pre made salsa or pico. Eggs can be beaten in a Mason jar the night before with cheese added and cooked in the morning - all other layering ingredients I added my own spices, put in glass jars and refrigerated. Took 10 minutes to prepare 4 in the morning, including time to cook eggs, other ingredients I layered and put in microwave then added eggs and rolled the burritos.
mr laurel 299 Never have I read where someone who has tried this recipe to change it to his specifications leaving a long history of what you would do. Who cares! If you did not like it say so instead of going into long and boring instructions.
These were a huge hit in my household, although we made them for dinner instead of breakfast. There are a few steps involved in making these, which makes them not an option for me for breakfast, but perfect for brunch or dinner. They were very filling. I used the toaster over to broil the tomatoes, which worked well for us, and a little less chipotle. We also eyeballed the quantities when we put the burritos together, and added black beans. We thought the chipotle sauce was delicious and even spread it over some leftover chicken for lunch the next day!No problem with the avocado, as another user mentioned, but I always make sure to buy soft ones that mash into a nice paste.We did NOT use the multigrain tortillas, but regular flour ones, and we sprayed the tortillas with a bit of olive oil spray and put them on the griddle for a few seconds each side to make them a little browned up, like in the picture. I even had the leftovers (sans tortilla) for breakfast the next day.
Made a dozen burritos which had disappeared by the next evening - friends/roomates loved them. I would mash the avacado, but otherwise follow the exact recipe. Enjoy!
Let me start by saying I LOVE Huevos Ranceros. It took me well over an hour to prepare this "fast" breakfast dish (as they had titled the recipes in this section). I understand the idea behind the recipes were to prepare healthy breakfast items ahead of time that you could reheat in a few minutes in the morning to get out the door on time, but this recipe really needs some help.
First off, I prepared the recipe exactly as was described. I agree with "earthtocaroline" that it took much longer than 8 minutes to broil the tomatoes; more like 16 minutes. I don't really think that step added much to the recipe because the chipotle chile absolutely overpowered the dish. A time-saver might be to use fire-roasted canned tomatoes (drained) instead and only use the adobo sauce omitting the chipotle chili itself. I am slightly concerned how the tomato portion of this dish will hold up on reheating because it was slightly liquid-y when I added it to the burritos. Hopefully they won't be mushy.
Next, the recipe suggested preparing the beans. Personally, I would have started those first because they had to boil, simmer for 10 minutes and THEN COOL to room temperature. This would be a good step to prepare ahead of time and have ready to go for later assembly. I did add the full 1/2 cup of water to the bean mixture and when they cooled they were fine. I evenly spread them in a pie pan to cool and then, with a spatula, divided it into 6 sections to have the perfect amount to add to each burrito. The bean part tasted pretty good.
I cooked the egg and then assembled. My husband complained about the chunky avocado so that could possibly have been mashed with a little lime juice since I didn't use the whole lime or possibly even omitted. I like avocado, so I'd opt to leave it in. Again, wondering how the avocado will look reheated. The extra lime may have kept the avocado from browning. I would suggest microwaving the tortillas until they were soft, prior to assembly because they didn't bend easily. After the first burrito, I did zap them for about 25 seconds and they were much more pliable.
Now the tortillas. They called for the multigrain variety, which I used. Tasted like cardboard. Look if a recipe is healthy, but isn't palatable, I'm not going to eat it, and neither will my family. I used the Mission Multi-grain flour tortilla which had 150 cal, 4g fat, 23g carbs, 4g protein and 5g fiber. The regular white Mission tortillas have 140 cal, 3g fat, 26g carbs, 4g protein and 1g fiber. I used the white tortillas on the remaining 4 burritos that I froze for later. The recipe already has fiber in the beans and avocado, I don't think the extra 4 grams is really worth eating the multi-grain cardboard, I mean tortillas. :-) I also am not sure the nutrition info is correct on the recipe because it says there is 6 grams of fiber and that seems low since the tortilla they called for had 5 grams itself and that's not including the beans, tomatoes and avocado. I'm not really concerned about the nutrition info so much, as I want a tasty breakfast.
Overall, I wouldn't make this recipe again. It was too involved and the flavor of the whole burrito was overpowered by the chipotle chili. For those who are tempted to try it I would make the following suggestions:
1. Use fire-roasted canned tomatoes, drain them and use a spoon to squeeze out the extra juice. Use small food chopper or small food processor to mix in 2 tsp of adobo sauce.
2. Cook the beans as directed, probably during dinner so they can cook, simmer and cool while you attend to something else.
3. Mash the avocado with the lime juice from the other 1/2 of the lime. This will keep the avocado from browning.
4. If you really want to reduce fat, use Original Egg Beaters instead of the 6 eggs. That will reduce the fat of each burrito by 5g. Since they are in a dish you probably aren't going to taste a difference.
5. Use white flour tortillas and microwave them before assembling the burritos so they are soft and pliable.
Good flavors - I had a few modifications. First, the sliced romas had to broil much longer than 8 minutes - but I was using a toaster oven so maybe that's the reason - just sprayed the tomatoes with olive oil to cut down on calories - worked out well. I only used 1/4 cup water with the beans as I was afraid 1/2 cup would be too liquidy. I used a Tbs. of chipotle I'd pureed and frozen and that worked well. Didn't use the avocado, but did add some shredded cheddar. I got 8 burritos out of this and still had a little left over cooked egg. Would definitely make again to freeze for quick breakfasts!
