Why is it epic? Well, it’s a crunchy/doughy English Muffin slathered with sweet and sharp cheat’s chutney, stuffed with a crispy, golden potato rösti, some smoky bacon and a runny fried egg.
Does that answer your question?
Some things are just good to eat. Some things are just crowd pleasers. And there is totally an argument for the dirtiest, greasiest, dodgiest versions of those foods. Nobody’s perfect.
But it’s hard to deny that the version that you make yourself, at home, with ingredients that you’re proud of and to your exact specifications, that version always tastes better.
This is my dream breakfast sandwich. The secret is two-fold. Firstly, the potato rosti. Aka the fancy hashbrown. I know I’m not the only one out there who puts the hasbrown into the mcmuffin. It’s like putting fries on your cheeseburger. Classic move.
The second part of the joy is that there Cheeky Chutney.
I find myself making this so often, ever since I first cobbled it together. Like many kitchen triumphs, it came into being because I was making burgers for dinner one night, and I realised we were totally out of ketchup.
So I read about fifty recipes for ketchup, decided they were all WAAAYYY too much work, and whipped this up in 20 minutes flat. It’s so easy, and I always have the ingredients in my cupboard (and I bet you do too!).
You know my favourite thing to do with these guys? I like to wrap them up in brown paper, fill a thermos with coffee and then drive out to a park, or next to the river first thing in the morning.
It’s a hell of the way to start the day, and it kicks the crap out of the drive-thru version. So what does your perfect breakfast sandwich look like? I know there’s a strong biscuit lobby out there. Let me know in the comments!
xx Sarah.
- small drizzle of olive oil
- 1 small red onion, finely sliced
- pinch of salt
- 1 14oz (400g) can chopped tomatoes
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar (substitute other vinegars for a new flavour)
- 1 clove garlic, flattened
- pinch of allspice (optional)
- 1 potato
- oil
- 2 english muffins
- 4 rashers bacon
- 2 eggs
- Place the olive oil and onion into a deep sided saucepan over a medium-high flame. Add a pinch of salt, stir to break up the onions, and then place the lid on to sweat for about 2 minutes, just until the onion is soft and almost translucent.
- Add the remaining chutney ingredients to the pan, and leave with the lid off to reduce down to your desired consistency. For a chunky-chutney texture, mine usually takes 15-20 minutes over a high heat. When the chutney is ready, it can be stored in the fridge for 3 days, longer if kept in a sterile jar.
- To make the rostis, stab the potato a few times, and then place in the microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave carefully, and then grate the potato on the wide holes of a grater, while still hot. This process activates the starch in the potato, making it hold together better in the pan.
- Heat a thin layer of oil in a non-stick frying pan, and form the grated potato into two piles, placing each pile carefully into the pan. Press down on the piles of grated potato, to make two flat rostis. Cook until golden brown on each side (about 1-2 minutes per side).
- When the rostis are cooked, set them onto a cake rack to drain and keep crisp, while you cook the bacon and eggs in the same pan to your desired level of crispiness and runniness.
- Lightly toast the english muffins.
- To assemble, slather the muffins with chutney, layer on the rostis, bacon and eggs, then quickly devour them! Or wrap them up and take them on the road...
I need to eat this immediately! Thanks for such a quick and easy chutney recipe also :)
omg this looks so good! I picked up some amazing bacon this weekend at a bacon festival in ann arbor it would be perfect for this!
Can’t even explain how much I want a part of this!!!
looks so great! Great photos too
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG hashbrowns on a sandwich. <3
You should start like an exclusively-sandwich blog on the side. Your sandwiches are always so bomb! I love this! The potato cake in there is really selling it for me. YUM
HAHAH – thank you! I have actually thought about doing that. Sandwiches are my secret/not so secret love.
Oh my gosh, are you ever going to make anything i don’t immediately want to eat? :-D My granola and yogurt is going to feel so sub-par tomorrow!
I didn’t think egg sandwiches could be better…but you have changed my mind!! I love the idea of making your own and taking it to the river!
Couldn’t agree more! These breakfast muffins ARE epic!!!! That chutney is just …. OMG! I think I just drooled!
I’m usually pretty grossed out by ketchup and eggs, but I’d be all over this.
There’s nothing I love more than runny eggs + Bacon. Except the two – together on an English muffin.
Epic indeed ! \o/
Rosti for breakfast? That’s pioneer. It will be my staple hangover breakfast from now on.
Not only have you provided an awesome breakfast recipe, but you’ve taught me the word “rosti.” Is it Australian? I’m going to pretend that it’s Australian so I feel extra-cosmopolitan when I say it.
It’s actually Swiss! It’s like, the national dish of Switzerland, I think. (I say that with zero authority)
omg. this is truly epic. i don’t even know why you had to spell it out. the photo alone is epic. dat rosti!! and girl, where do you get your english muffins from? those are some fluffy muffins!
Making this right now !