10 Unexpected Ingredients To Add To Your Homemade Breakfast Burritos

There's nothing like a breakfast burrito to get your day off to a filling start. You can pack it with a wide variety of different, hearty ingredients, like eggs, cheese, beans, and bacon, and it's handheld, which means it's easy to take on the go. Of course, we love going out for breakfast burritos, but they may be even better (and less expensive, of course) when you make them at home. However, if you keep following the same old breakfast burrito recipe time and time again, you might start to get tired of its lack of variety.

That's why we've compiled this list of some of the best unexpected ingredients you can add to your homemade breakfast burritos. They may not be the most conventional add-ins out there, but they can all enhance an average burrito and get your morning off to a more flavorful start. Once you start using these ingredients in your homemade breakfast burritos, you'll never have a boring morning again.

What should you add to your breakfast burrito when you want it to have a little extra crunch, a burst of acidity, and a little bit of spice? If you ask us, kimchi is the perfect solution. This fermented ingredient is super-flavorful, so it can make even the blandest, most boring breakfast burrito shine. If you really want your whole breakfast burrito to be infused with that signature, umami kimchi flavor, scramble it with the eggs before actually constructing the burrito. Be sure to pour a little bit of kimchi brine into the egg mixture for some extra spicy acidity.

However, if you want to keep things tasting fresher, you can always just place some chilled kimchi into your burrito before wrapping it all up and digging in. We like the cool freshness that we get in a homemade breakfast burrito when we incorporate kimchi into the dish in this way.

It's not exactly groundbreaking to add potatoes to a breakfast burrito — in fact, some of our favorite breakfast burrito recipes rely heavily on potatoes, which leads to a heartier, more filling dish. But most of the time, those are going to be diced potatoes instead of long, slender fries that are crisped to perfection. Whether you just don't want to prepare your breakfast burrito potatoes from scratch or you're looking for a way to use up some leftovers from the night before, including french fries into your breakfast burrito can make for a much more delicious way to start your day.

Ideally, you'll want to use french fries that have some crispness to them. After all, part of the appeal of this ingredient is the fact that it can offer your burrito an interesting texture. And make sure you season the fries well, too, to ensure that they're not too bland and have something to offer your breakfast on the flavor front as well.

Capers are one of our all-time favorite ingredients because you can work them into such a wide variety of recipes. They have a lovely saltiness and acidity to them, which can elevate just about any dish to make it far more delicious than it is in its original form. But while you may be familiar with the idea of adding capers to, say, a lox bagel, it may not seem like the ideal filling for a breakfast burrito. We're here to change your mind. This is one of our favorite breakfast burrito additions because of just how much flavor capers can pack.

If you really want to keep things simple, just sprinkle some capers onto your burrito filling right before you wrap it up, and you'll get that delicious burst of saltiness this ingredient is known for. Alternatively, you can also cook the capers along with the eggs and other fillings to create a more coherent flavor profile. Either way, you're in for an unexpectedly tasty breakfast burrito.

Breakfast burritos are delicious in all their forms, but it's no secret that some of them can be a bit boring on the texture front. Usually, there are a lot of soft ingredients that are used to fill breakfast burritos, and without any textural interest, all that softness can start to make the burrito taste a bit bland. That's why a crunchy element can really add a lot of interest to an average breakfast burrito. And although there are countless ways to add crunch to a burrito, we happen to think that dukkah is an especially exciting one.

Dukkah is an Egyptian blend of spices, nuts, and seeds that's both flavorful and texturally interesting. Of course, there is incredible variation when it comes to different dukkah recipes, but some call for ingredients like almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds, fennel, coriander, cumin, and more. You can find prepared dukkah at the store, or you can make your own from individual ingredients. Of course, most classic breakfast burrito recipes aren't going to call for dukkah, but once you give it a try, you may just realize that it's what your breakfast burritos have been missing all along.

If you like spicy food, then you're probably always looking for a way to incorporate more spice into your dishes. Breakfast burritos shouldn't be any exception. Of course, when you want to keep things really simple, you can always just add some jalapenos or even some crushed chili pepper to give your burrito that kick you're craving. But when you want something a little more interesting and unexpected, you may want to turn to gochujang, the sweet and spicy pepper paste that functions as a core ingredient in many Korean recipes.

We love using gochujang in our breakfast burritos because it has a lovely spicy quality to it, of course, but also because it gives the burrito a layer of sweetness as well, almost reminiscent of honey or maple syrup. This gives the dish a complexity that you just won't find in an average breakfast burrito recipe. Spread a thin layer of the paste onto your tortilla before you add in the other fillings, and you'll see why this is a must-try homemade breakfast burrito ingredient.

There's nothing like a good sweet and savory combo for breakfast first thing in the morning. After all, who doesn't love eating pancakes with butter and syrup on the side of their bacon and eggs? Including maple syrup in your homemade breakfast burrito recipe is a great way to capture that sweetness in a purposeful and nostalgic way. Just a small drizzle of the stuff can give your breakfast burrito an unexpected burst of sweetness that pairs especially well with super salty, fatty ingredients like bacon and sausage.

We prefer maple syrup as a sweetener because, first of all, it reminds us of breakfast, but also because it has a complexity that not a lot of other sweeteners can provide. That being said, if you don't have any maple syrup on hand, you can achieve a similar flavor profile with some agave syrup or even some honey. Once you learn how to add an element of sweetness to your breakfast burritos, you'll wonder why you never did it before.

When you think of eating smoked salmon in the morning, you're probably thinking of the ingredient in terms of a bagel. And as much as we love a good smoked salmon bagel, we have to admit that this is an ingredient that can really shine in a wide variety of situations, including in a breakfast burrito. Sure, adding smoked salmon to a breakfast burrito may not be a super common occurrence, but it's a great way to add richness to your meal while keeping it relatively light. Plus, that touch of smokiness will really give the whole dish an extra touch of complexity.

We like layering the smoked salmon with eggs to create a filling that's hearty but not too fish-heavy. Including other ingredients that tend to be common on smoked salmon bagels can also be a nice touch. Capers, dill, and sliced red onions are always safe choices. This combo will create a breakfast hybrid that you'll want to go back to time and time again.

Breakfast burritos are supposed to be quite filling, which is why we like to incorporate plenty of starches into our burrito filling mixes. Although potatoes might be a more common addition to a breakfast burrito, we like swapping them out for plantains instead. Plantains have quite a dense texture to them, which makes for a heartier burrito, but they also feature a subtle sweetness that makes for a more interesting bite. Plus, they pair well with a variety of ingredients you're likely already adding to your breakfast burrito in the first place, like eggs and beans.

For the most delicious possible plantain breakfast burrito, you should utilize fried plantains. We think this is a great use for leftovers you may have the morning after a plantain-focused dinner. However, you can also make a fresh batch if you want to make sure they still have that lovely crispness for which fried plantains are known. Once you start using plantains in your breakfast burrito, you may never want to go back to plain old potatoes ever again.

We've already talked about how important it is to find a way to incorporate something spicy into your breakfast burrito if you tend to enjoy spicy foods, and chili crisp is another one of our favorite spicy ingredients to include. First of all, it's easy to use, whether you're cooking your eggs with chili crisp or just want to drizzle some onto your burrito as you're eating it. But more importantly, it lends both flavor and texture to your burrito. It has that bold but tempered spiciness to it that's more complex than crushed chili peppers, while offering just the right amount of crunch in every mouthful. When those two elements come together, they can transform ingredients like eggs that can otherwise be somewhat bland.

Just remember that different brands of chili crisp can feature very different flavors. Therefore, you may want to try a few options to decide which is best for adding a pop of spice and flavor to your homemade breakfast burritos.

You may think of pesto as the kind of ingredient you'd use predominantly in pasta dishes, but that doesn't have to be the case if you're willing to think outside the box. In reality, pesto is just an oily, nutty sauce flavored with a ton of herbs, so it can be used to give a fresh and fragrant flavor to just about anything it touches. A breakfast burrito is no exception. If you're looking for a way to create a lighter, fresher, and more flavorful burrito, pesto will get the job done every time. Use just a little bit for a nice hint of herbiness, or really pile it on if you want it to function more as a flavor-defining sauce. Either way, you'll realize that this is an ingredient that absolutely belongs in breakfast burritos.

There are a ton of jarred pesto brands out there to choose from, with varying levels of quality. But chances are, you already have a lot of the ingredients you need to make pesto in your kitchen right now. In that case, you can try making your own pesto for a fresher flavor (and a cheaper grocery bill).