Hash Brown, Egg and Bacon Brunch Skillet (Step-by-Step for Dummies 101)

I’ve been craving for breakfast food (hash brown, pork and beans, scrambled eggs w/ bacon) – the works! So I figured I could experiment with what I had at home to come up with a brunch-y masterpiece. Well, suffice to say, my imagination came up with a waay better output compared to my actual culinary skills could whip up. Having said that, I’m still pretty happy with it and I learned a ton along the way (which I’ll share in the recipe below)

 

DELECTABLE FOOD FOR THE DAY: HASH BROWN, EGG AND BACON BRUNCH SKILLET

DIFFICULTY: Easy (after the fact. While I was making it, I was a bundle of nerves!)

SERVING SIZE: Good for 5 people

PREPARATION AND BAKING TIME: 45 minutes

 

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices bacon – but you can certainly put more (Got my Iberico Bacon from Dough and Grocer)
• 12 pcs hash brown, diced (I just bought from SM Bonus)
• 5 large eggs
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese (Honestly, I just have way too much leftover parmesan cheese from my lasagna making days, so I use them everywhere now!)

 

PROCEDURE:

STEP 1: Cook your bacon

• Place the bacon strips on a cold pan (do not turn on the heat yet!). It’s ok if the bacon are slightly touching as the bacon will shrink as it cooks. Just make sure they don’t overlap

• Bacon cooks best over low heat, so make sure the heat is turned veryy low. You’ll notice the bacon will release its fat after awhile (aka, the solid white parts slowly become translucent, and your pan becomes very greasy
• Supposedly, the bacon should start curling up, but mine didn’t do that. Anyway, I just used a tong to flip the bacon every so often so it would cook evenly. If you like your bacon very crispy then cook it for a longer time. Otherwise, once it’s browned and you no longer notice the white fat, then you’re done.

• Remove the pieces and transfer them to a plate (with paper towel on top to drain all the icky oil)
• If you have more bacon to cook (which I did), simply drain the excess grease onto a metal can for future use, then add more bacon on top. If the pan has developed a browned crust on the bottom, let the pan cool down, gently scrape the crust and wipe the grease clean before continuing again
• Once done, I wanted to use some of the bacon as toppings for my skillet – so I grabbed 4 pieces and chopped them into smaller pieces

• For future reference, I also found another way to cook bacon – which is to place in the oven cold to start, heat to 200 deg C, and keep it there for ~14 minutes – which will transform this from a flabby piece of meat, to simmering deliciousness, to crispy bacon heaven once the oven hits the 200 deg C temperature. I’ll definitely have to try that next time.

 

STEP 2: Cook the potatoes

• Make sure your hash brown has been defrosted at room temperature. Once done, dice up your hash brown so they’re in smaller chunks.

 

• Make sure your pan has oil coating the entire bottom layer (I just reused the pan used for bacon – so it was kinda greasy). Place your potatoes in a single layer – make sure the layer’s not too thick, otherwise it won’t crisp well. Once done, increase the heat to medium then cover the pan for ~5 minutes or until the bottom is crisped

 

• Uncover, stir the potatoes, and add some more oil. Cover again for another ~3 minutes until the potatoes are well browned

 

STEP 3: Add the garnish

• Uncover the pan, and create 5 holes in the potatoes using a spoon. Make sure the hole goes ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAN. I didn’t do this, and still had a light layer of potatoes, so it took awhile for my egg to cook.
• Crack 1 egg into each hole

• Sprinkle salt, pepper and cheese over the entire pan. Be careful not to cover the egg with cheese
• Cover the pan and cook over medium-high heat for ~3 minutes – until cheese is melted, the egg whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. Because my hole didn’t go all the way to the pan – my egg took a much longer time to cook, and I had to force a hole after awhile
• Once done, remove from heat and sprinkle your cooked bacon on top

 

STEP 4: Bon Appetit!