Dinner Tonight: Fried Egg Sandwich
[Photograph: Blake Royer]
The fried egg sandwich is one of my longtime comfort foods, the dinner my mother would offer to make me when I came home from school after a bad day. She always made them with English muffins, an over-easy egg, a little melted American cheese, and crisp bacon. Those classic flavors—buttery dough, runny egg, and the porky bacon—are still the things I need for the sandwich to succeed. Though it's true I've never turned down a sliced avocado or a thick slice of tomato, either.
My inspiration for this sandwich was some sliced La Quercia prosciutto hanging out in my fridge. The stunning richness and depth of flavor of the prosciutto, which replaced the bacon, allowed me to put together the simplest of fried egg sandwiches, revolving around the pork, egg, and English muffin with nothing else to distract.
I cooked the egg at the lowest possible heat in butter, which turns the whites custardy instead of rubbery and keeps the yolk soft. Then I lost the cheese and buttered the muffin, too. It was the perfect meal-for-one while my wife is out of town—filling, satisfying, and not a green thing in sight.
Fried Egg Sandwich
- serves 1 -
Ingredients
1 English muffin, split
1 egg
1 slice prosciutto
1.5 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper
Procedure
1. Melt half the butter in a small non-stick skillet over the lowest heat possible. Crack the egg into the pan and tilt the pan so that the egg is over to one side of the skillet. Keep the pan tilted until the whites begin to set on the bottom and the egg stays in place. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and cover. Cook for 5 or 6 minutes, until the whites are opaque but the yolk is still quite runny. If desired, flip and cook for an additional minute for over-easy style.
2. In the meantime, toast the English muffin halves and butter them with the remaining butter. Lay the prosciutto on both halves.
3. Top one half of the muffin with the egg, put the halves together for a sandwich, and eat immediately.
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34 Comments:
You got my attention on that one! Thanks!
1stmakearoux at 4:51PM on 09/15/09
clearly its time for my "after school" snack. this made me sooo hungry!
_greenbean at 4:54PM on 09/15/09
Hello gorgeous.......
finsbigfan at 5:21PM on 09/15/09
Good one! For a gourmet hommage to the original bacon version, you can lightly fry the prosciutto (sacrilege!) or do the same with some pancetta. In its normal cured state it's good too, but make sure to slice it very thin. People often slice prosciutto too thick.
senorjames at 5:45PM on 09/15/09
Love the way that yolk is oozing out!
dhorst at 5:50PM on 09/15/09
Blake, for years I thought I was the only one who found comfort in a fried egg sandwich. Thank you for proving me (and all the friends who heckled me for being odd) wrong!
avaryne at 6:17PM on 09/15/09
Blake, I too thought I was the only one who loves fried egg sandwiches for dinner. Great post.
Ed Levine at 6:22PM on 09/15/09
It's a New Jersey breakfast staple - egg and cheese on a hard roll with salt/pepper/ketchup (said like that). Pork roll is optional. Perfect breakfast. Love it.
pbelardo at 6:30PM on 09/15/09
White bread, buttered both sides with a double egg= heaven.
Yours looks great!
tinytim at 6:38PM on 09/15/09
I love it, too, although to tweak the health quotient I use a whole grain muffin and a few of those micro-thin ham slices that come in the little rectangular plastic box and are the same perfect round shape as the muffin. I even have a tiny skillet that makes the egg the exact size.
And it's gotta have ketchup, or as my husband DISRESPECTFULLY calls it, trailer sauce.
ChloeA at 8:13PM on 09/15/09
I'll take the tomato + avocado version, please. Pass on the pork.
piccola at 8:28PM on 09/15/09
dear jesus... that looks like the most amazing thing ever
japhy at 9:38PM on 09/15/09
While this looks tasty, my egg HAS to be fried!
jlewfoodie at 9:54PM on 09/15/09
egg mcmuffin?
:)
accidentalepicurean at 10:05PM on 09/15/09
Swap in thick-cut bacon, fry the egg through in lots of butter and bacon grease, and add some spicy sausage, and I'm there. Maybe some mayo for dipping.
NotAmerican at 1:08AM on 09/16/09
Blake,
"and not a green thing in sight." That is exactly the reason that married men live longer than single men. Forgive me for the generalization and the stereotype. Please tell me that you at least had a glass of orange juice with it. Aside from that, it's beautiful.
betteirene at 1:16AM on 09/16/09
I love oozy fried egg sandwiches for lazy Friday night dinners. I make them for my husband and me ... with no greens in sight.
OccasionalOmnivore at 9:35AM on 09/16/09
i LOVE fried egg sandwiches.
not a fan of english muffins, though-normally i go with fresh pumpernickel or rye and hit it with some dark brown mustard...
definitely with blake on cooking the egg gently on the lowest heat.
i'll add some bacon, if i have some, and occasionally lettuce too.
i'm gonna have to make one for myself tonight now...i can taste it already!
gastronomeg at 10:31AM on 09/16/09
Hey all -- I'm glad to have brought so many closeted fried-egg-sandwich-for-dinner types together! It really is a great dinner once in awhile.
@betteirene: I did have a glass of OJ, that's part of the memory.
@NotAmerican: I pray you don't have a heart attack.
Blake Royer at 11:55AM on 09/16/09
I make these a lot, with Canadian bacon, Taylor Ham, Irish bacon, seared tomato slices, whatever I have lying around. Hard to beat 'em.
TommySalami at 2:26PM on 09/16/09
Very nice!
JeffM at 2:27PM on 09/16/09
Mm.........so delicious.
tastyeatsathome at 2:49PM on 09/16/09
Looks great but I would add cheese I
imenzothebaker at 3:01PM on 09/16/09
Oh this awakened the most incredible craving! I think dinner tonight is proscaically simple egg sandwich and salad. Sacrilige, I know, but I love eggs on salads too. And that dripping yolk looks amazing.
tatianak at 3:16PM on 09/16/09
I spent my freshman year of college in a dormitory in a pre-Vatican II, Jesuit university and every Friday for lunch we were served "Egg Burgers". Being the last day of the week, I spent most of the morning catching up on projects and papers due by week's end. That meant a hurried lunch just before afternoon classes began. Invariably, I'd be late to my first class because I'd have to go back up stairs and change out of my last clean shirt that just got egg yolk dripped onto it as I wolfed down my late lunch ;~( No fond memories here...
czken at 5:08PM on 09/16/09
this looks outrageously good. I love the way you photographed it too. I actually love making egg "mcmuffins" with prosciutto. Try some of this basil parsley pesto with it and you have a delicious green eggs and ham sandwich! http://tinyurl.com/dyjgqf
BigGirlPhoebz at 8:20PM on 09/17/09
Love these as well, but prefer speck over prosciutto if I'm desiring a more breakfasty flavor, add a little arugula, water cress, or mesclun greens, and a slight drizzle of balsamic on top of the egg if I'm after more of a dinner thing.
PommeDG at 5:18PM on 09/19/09
This pic made me drool, man I want one.
pjracz10 at 4:11AM on 09/20/09
When I was a very small child, my mother was bedfast, and a fried egg sandwich was the ONLY thing my older knew how to cook. Consequently, I ate much more than my fair share and in my later adult years, I could not bear the thought of eating a "fried egg sandwich". However, your version has helped me move on and enjoy this simple, yet wonderful, staple of American life once again!!! Thank you.
mrsbeezers at 10:00AM on 09/21/09
Just scanned my email after 5 hours heavy work on book since 5 AM, hungry, etc., not even dressed! I'm going to quit right now and make that egg on English muffin sandwich!! Have some blueberries with it, and a cup of homemade cappucino (skim milk and instant espresso)
I like hamburgers on toasted English muffins. Also make cheese and tomato and basil melts with bacon on the muffins. Have to be well-toasted, or they're awful.
I too used to love, in NYS, fried egg sandwich on a crisp roll with seeds--can't find that here in Florida for whatever reason. French hamburger rolls from Publix are quite good, especially if you crisp them just 30 seconds (and I pull out the doughy interior besides before using for a sandwich).
maggy@bridgetable.net
aurora89 at 11:37AM on 09/21/09
I like mine pretty much basic. Toast, one or two eggs, some kind of cheese and either yellow mustard or chunky salsa. That's comfort food for me.
Worsel at 1:32PM on 09/21/09
I do love a good fried egg sammy. I went out and bought some chickens just so I could have FRESH eggs for these type of sandwiches. Too bad pigs just don't lay strips of bacon. LOL
dizzyeats at 1:45PM on 09/21/09
I don't know, it still sounds like breakfast to me.
banquet manager at 1:56PM on 09/21/09
Breakfast for dinner is always right!
I'm with senorjames. I just made one of these by tossing the prosciutto in the pan then cracking the egg on top of it. I prefer "over medium" eggs with that hot yellow jelly oozing out rather than a runny yolk all over the plate.
DAFOXFL at 6:32PM on 09/25/09