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Chorizo and Sweet Potato Breakfast Tacos are not just for breakfast! They’re easy to whip up at any time!

 

It’s #NationalTacoDay! Which, ironically, isn’t a Tuesday. That would be epic, wouldn’t it? Give a few years and I’m sure this day will land on a Tuesday and the party will span the globe! Or, maybe not. I could be exaggerating things a bit, but you never know!

 

There’s a group of us bloggers who have gotten together to celebrate this day. Shout out to Valentina from The Baking Fairy for organizing this event. Without her I would never have even considered chorizo and sweet potato breakfast tacos. And without her, you wouldn’t even be seeing these and considering them yourself. Admit it. You’re thinking about them.

 

 

So, we all know what tacos are, but do we know where they come from?

 

Yup! You guessed it! I wanted to know so I thought I’d ask Google for some help in finding out how this delicious little street food came to be. I found Wikipedia to be lacking in this, which is surprising. It’s usually by go to for sources of information on the history of food. But not today!

 

Tacos aren’t that old, compared to other traditional Latin American dishes like tamales and even pumpkin that have been around for centuries. Jeffrey M Pilcher, a historian from the University of Minnesota has traveled the globe researching Mexican food. He believes that tacos started in the silver mines in the 1800s. Yeah, not that long ago!

 

 

The first mention of the taco is the taco de minero, which translates to miner’s taco. And the taquito, which means little taco, looks like a small stick of dynamite? That’s another clue that makes him hypothesize that these came from the silver mines in Mexico. They would stick similar sized sticks of dynamite into the mine to release the precious silver in there.

 

With the invention of the taco came the rise of the taquieria. It was working class food, so the women of the family would take their tacos to sell in Mexico City to make some money while their husbands were working in the taco mines. Women from the neighboring countries would bring their regional versions of the taco to sell. This is how Mexico City became the quintessential place for all types and flavors of tacos.

 

 

They brought this delicious and economical food to the LA in the 1900s when they migrated to the US. While they weren’t exactly the same (not sure you could find a whole cow’s head in the US at that time readily available to cook) they still had similar ingredients, size, and purpose in history.

 

While I’d like to say the rest is history, but it’s not that simple.  The traditional taco was either a flour or corn tortilla; neither of them were hard.  In fact, the hard taco tortillas were used in chilaquiles.  But that’s another topic.  The hard shell wasn’t exactly invented by the founder of Taco Bell even though he claims he did.  But the popularity of the hard shell has grown because it stores and lasts longer than the soft flour or corn tortillas traditionally use.

 

 

And now the rest is history!  I think every country has embraced the taco and some might have even adapted it to their own cuisine?  Don’t quote me on that one.  I’ll have to ask Google if you want definitive proof of that.

 

However, what has happened over the centuries is that more and more immigrants are arriving either in the US or Mexico and bringing their flavors and ingredients to the taco party.  The Lebanese helped shape and create the taco al pastor.  

 

 

And that leads me to all the different types of tacos. 

 

It’s not as simple as beef, chicken, or pork like we have on the menu.  There’s asada which is grilled steak, barbacoa which is shredded steak, there’s linqua or beef tongue.  We have camarones for shrimp and pescado for fish and even bucket tacos de cazo.  In the pork variety, there’s al pastor which is with pineapple, there’s carnitas which are diced pork, and there’s chorizo.

 

This last one leads me to my sweet potato and chorizo breakfast taco.  There’s not much on breakfast tacos.  Other than throwing some eggs and sausage or bacon on a tortilla, there’s not a whole lot of inspiration for breakfast tacos that might seem more authentic than eggs and baky.

 

 

Being as we used to make Mexican Breakfast growing up (yes I still need to make that) I wanted something with a little more authentic feel to it.  Even if it wasn’t something authentic it was more than just a regular American breakfast on a taco.

 

Enter the chorizo and sweet potato combination!

 

Just like the pumpkin, the sweet potato is embedded in Latican American cuisine history.  I won’t go into detail on that.  You’ll have to stay tuned for another post about sweet potatoes.  And I’ve already talked about chorizo in another post.  You’ll just have to read about that delicious ingredient in that post.

Happy National Taco Day!

Check out all the delicious recipes we made for the occasion:

Autumn Pork Tacos by The Freshman Cook
Chorizo and Sweet Potato Breakfast Tacos by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
Egg and Bacon Loaded Breakfast Tacos by Cheese Curd in Paradise
Garbage Plate Tacos by The Spiffy Cookie
Huevos Rancheros Tacos by Our Good Life
Old-School Hard Shell Tacos by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
Shrimp Tacos with Apple Pomegranate Salsa by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Vindaloo Pork Belly Street Tacos by Palatable Pastime
Walking Taco Bar by For The Love of Food