Bacon and Potato Breakfast Tacos with Cabbage and Lime
Thick-cut bacon crisped in the pan, cooked potatoes browned in the fat it leaves behind, and both piled into blistered corn tortillas with a sharp cabbage and lime slaw.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
These are the tacos I make on a morning that has already gotten away from me, and they run on things that are usually already in the refrigerator. Cold boiled potatoes from a night or two ago, half a wedge of cabbage, a lime, and a pound of bacon is the whole list. The pan does two jobs in a row and the second one costs you nothing, since the potatoes brown in the fat the bacon leaves behind. Two tacos in your hand is a shape everybody understands without asking, and it eats like a real breakfast rather than something grabbed on the way past the counter.
Order is the only technique here. The bacon goes into a cold pan and comes up to heat slowly, which is how you get pieces that are crisp at the edge and still chewy in the middle rather than shattered and dry. Once it is out, the potatoes go into that hot fat cut side down and sit still for three minutes, and smoked paprika goes over them at the very end where it toasts without scorching. A spoonful of garlic-infused olive oil goes in with them, which is what gives the potatoes a savory backbone that would usually come from an onion softened in the pan.
The slaw is the other half of the dish, and it gets dressed first so it has ten minutes with the lime and salt. Red cabbage cut as fine as your knife allows softens a little at the edges, turns a brighter purple, and stays loud against the soft potatoes and the rich bacon. Cilantro goes on in whole sprigs, jalapeño rings if the morning wants them, and one more squeeze of lime at the table. If you cook on gas, hold the tortillas over the flame for fifteen seconds a side. That char is the difference between a taco and a folded piece of corn.
Ingredients
- 1 lb thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 lb cooked Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 8 corn tortillas (6-inch)
- 3 cups finely shredded red cabbage
- 3 tbsp fresh lime juice, plus wedges to serve
- 1/2 cup cilantro sprigs
- 1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 jalapeño, sliced into thin rings
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt, divided
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Dress the cabbage first: Toss the shredded red cabbage with 2 tablespoons of the lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and leave it on the counter while you cook, since the salt pulls out just enough water to season the cabbage through and it softens slightly at the edges without losing its crunch.
- Render the bacon from a cold pan: Put the bacon pieces in a large cold skillet and set it over medium heat, because coming up to temperature slowly renders the fat out instead of seizing the meat. Cook 6 to 7 minutes, stirring now and then, until the fat has run out and the pieces are brown and crisp at the edges. Lift them onto a plate with a slotted spoon and pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of the fat.
- Brown the potatoes in the fat: Add the garlic-infused olive oil to the pan, then the diced cooked potatoes in one layer. Leave them undisturbed for 3 minutes, until the underside is golden and releases from the pan on its own, since a potato that sticks is a potato that has not browned yet. Turn them and cook 2 minutes more. Add the smoked paprika, the remaining salt, and the black pepper and toss once.
- Blister the tortillas: Lay the tortillas directly over a medium gas flame for 15 to 20 seconds a side, turning with tongs, until they puff and take dark spots. On an electric stove use a dry skillet over high heat for about 30 seconds a side. Stack them in a clean kitchen towel so they steam soft.
- Build and finish: Return the bacon to the potatoes and toss once to warm it through. Spoon the mixture down the center of each tortilla, heap the lime-dressed cabbage over the top, and finish with cilantro sprigs and jalapeño rings. Squeeze the last tablespoon of lime over everything and serve two per plate while the tortillas are still warm, because a cooled corn tortilla cracks the moment you fold it.
Variations
- Cheesy: Melt a thin layer of grated cheddar onto each tortilla in the dry pan before the filling goes in.
- Green heat: Fold two big handfuls of spinach into the potatoes at the end and let the pan heat wilt them.
- Sweeter potato: Use cooked and cooled yam in place of the Yukon gold for a softer, sweeter cube against the salty bacon.
- Bowl form: Skip the tortillas, pile everything over warm rice, and spoon the slaw on top with extra lime.
- More smoke: Add a pinch of chipotle powder with the smoked paprika for a hotter, darker pan.
Storage & Leftovers
Keep the bacon and potato mixture and the slaw in separate sealed containers in the refrigerator, the pan mixture for 4 days and the cabbage for 2. Stored together overnight the cabbage weeps and the potatoes go soggy, so the two minutes it takes to keep them apart is worth it.
Reheat the bacon and potatoes in a dry skillet over medium-high for 3 to 4 minutes without stirring much, so the potatoes get a second crust. A microwave will only steam them soft. Warm fresh tortillas each time, since ones reheated after a night in the refrigerator crack along the fold.
The cooked mixture freezes for 2 months in flat sealed bags and comes back better than most potato dishes, because the bacon fat protects the cubes. Thaw overnight and reheat in a skillet. Shred the cabbage fresh on the morning you want it, which is a two minute job.
Notes & Tips
- Cold pan, then heat: Bacon dropped into an already hot skillet browns before its fat renders and ends up burnt outside and raw within. Starting cold gives you crisp edges and chewy centers every time.
- Why garlic-infused olive oil works: Garlic flavor dissolves into fat while the part that upsets a sensitive gut does not, so an infused oil carries the taste into the pan and leaves the trouble behind in the bottle. Here it seasons the potatoes the way an onion would.
- Use potatoes from the refrigerator: Cold cooked potatoes are drier and firmer, so the cubes keep their corners and crisp rather than collapsing. Freshly boiled ones fall apart the moment you turn them.
- Leave the potatoes alone: Three undisturbed minutes on the first side is the whole browning method. Stirring every thirty seconds gives you hot potatoes with no crust at all.
- Blister, then steam: Direct flame gives the tortillas their toasted spots and a few minutes in a towel gives them back their bend. Skipping the towel leaves you with brittle discs that split when you fold them.
- Dress the cabbage before you cook: Lime and salt need about ten minutes to work into shredded cabbage. Dressed at the last second it tastes raw and squeaky, and dressed the night before it goes limp.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Bacon, potatoes, and raw cabbage are the three parts here and each one covers what the others do not. The bacon brings the salt and the savory fat, the potatoes bring the soft starchy body, and the cold sharp cabbage cuts across both of them.
- Potatoes that have been cooked and then chilled develop resistant starch, a form that behaves more like fiber than like starch and feeds the bacteria in your gut. Chilling is also what firms the cubes up so they brown properly, so the same step does two jobs at once.
- Bacon is cured pork belly, which is why it renders so much fat and tastes as savory as it does. It brings protein and thiamin along with that flavor, and crisping it in its own fat concentrates the taste enough that a moderate amount carries eight tacos.
- Red cabbage is where the color and the crunch come from, and that deep purple is anthocyanin, the same pigment that colors berries. Cut fine and left raw in lime juice it keeps both its vitamin C and its bite, which soften the moment cabbage meets heat.
- Smoked paprika added at the end of the pan, cilantro on top, and lime squeezed over at the table are what keep something this rich tasting bright. Between the bacon and the potatoes, two tacos hold you well into the morning.
- As you eat, catch the moment the cold sharp cabbage meets the hot bacon and potato, and let yourself sit down for both tacos rather than finishing the second one standing at the counter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I start with raw potatoes?
You can, but it stops being a fifteen minute breakfast. Raw dice needs 15 to 18 minutes in the pan with a lid for part of it. Boiling a pound of potatoes on a Sunday and keeping them cold is what makes this quick, and chilled potatoes hold their shape and brown far better than freshly boiled ones.
My bacon burned before it got crisp. What happened?
It went into a hot pan. Bacon needs to start cold so the fat has time to render out before the meat browns, which takes about 6 minutes over medium heat. If your stove runs hot, drop the heat once you hear steady sizzling and stir more often.
Can I prep any of this the night before?
Yes, most of it. Cook and dice the potatoes, shred the cabbage and store it undressed, and slice the jalapeño. In the morning you render bacon, brown potatoes, blister tortillas, and dress the slaw, which is about ten minutes with everything already cut.
Does this fit a low-FODMAP breakfast?
It does. Potatoes, bacon, and corn tortillas are all comfortable, and two tacos worth of red cabbage sits in the range most people handle well. The savory backbone is smoked paprika and garlic-infused olive oil rather than onion or garlic, so nothing gets stripped out of the recipe on the way to you.