Bacon Egg and Cheese Sandwich

This bacon egg and cheese sandwich nails the New York-area classic recipe. Here’s how to make this specialty of delis, street carts, and bodegas just right at home.

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Why we love this recipe

The bacon egg and cheese sandwich is one of a handful of truly iconic New York-area foods. Though a version of this meal likely originated in England as a hearty hand-held breakfast for folks on their way to work, over the years it’s become synonymous with the tri-state area.

This recipe gets each element just right:

• Generous, lightly scrambled eggs that stay tender and fold easily onto the sandwich
• Meaty but thin-enough bacon that’s easy to bite through and can be as chewy or shatteringly crisp as you like
• Plenty of good old American cheese
• A basic, well-behaved kaiser roll that gets griddled with butter and then lightly steamed in deli paper (trust me)

What you’ll need

Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.

• A kaiser roll is also called a hard roll or bulky roll. It’s straightforward, griddles well, and yields nicely to the bite.
• You can use any eggs you like, but sourcing good ones makes all the difference in terms of flavor, animal welfare, and environmental health. I’ve devoted a short section below to helping you parse the details, if you’d like to.
• In many contexts I prefer a really thick-cut bacon. For a bacon egg and cheese, I prefer something thinner so that it yields easily when you bite into the sandwich. You can use a standard supermarket bacon if you like for an authentic deli sandwich experience — I’ve included my own preferred source below.
• For a classic experience, use regular yellow American cheese from the supermarket, such as the Kraft singles pictured above. Or level up, if you like, with an organic version. (Applegate Farms is my longtime favorite.)
• Even in a sandwich like this, I’m going to advocate for a really good-quality butter, because it just makes everything taste so much better. Here and virtually everywhere, I start with a cultured, salted butter from grass-fed cows. This sounds fancy but doesn’t have to be. Kerrygold, for example, is sold in most supermarkets at a reasonable price.

How to make it

Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a fabulous bacon egg and cheese sandwich. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. First you’ll split, butter, and toast the roll.
2. Cook the bacon to your liking.
3. Scramble and cook the eggs and let the cheese melt on top.
4. Assemble the sandwich, wrap it in deli paper and let sit for five minutes before cutting in half to serve. That’s it!

Expert tips and FAQs

More favorite breakfast sandwiches

• Leveled-up scrambled egg sandwich
• Sausage egg and cheese
• Pork roll egg and cheese
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• Pepper and egg sandwich
• Bacon egg and cheese croissant
• Sausage egg and cheese croissant

5 from 5 votes

Bacon Egg and Cheese Sandwich

By Carolyn Gratzer Cope

This bacon egg and cheese sandwich nails the New York-area classic recipe. Here's how to make this specialty of delis, street carts, and bodegas just right at home.

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

Total: 15 minutes mins

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Ingredients 

• ▢ 1 kaiser roll
• ▢ 1 tablespoon (14 grams) butter, softened
• ▢ 3 slices bacon
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1//8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ▢ 2 slices American cheese
• ▢ Ketchup and/or hot sauce, optional, for serving

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Instructions 

• Split the roll in half across the beltline and spread each cut face with half of the butter. Place roll cut-sides down into 10-inch skillet or dark nonstick frying pan set over medium heat and cook until lightly toasted. Set aside.
• Place the bacon into the pan. Cook, pressing with a spatula from time to time to flatten and flipping once or twice, until done to your liking. Drain on paper towels, and cut each slice in half if they are too long and thin to fit on the roll.
• Crack the eggs into a small mixing bowl and add the salt and pepper. Beat with a fork until homogenous.
• Pour off all but about one tablespoon of bacon fat from the pan. (Depending on your bacon, you may not need to remove any.)
• Pour the scrambled eggs into the skillet. Cook, dragging the edges to the center from time to time and swirling the pan once in a while to encourage the uncooked top parts to wend their way to the bottom.
• When egg is just about cooked, place the cheese slices on top to cover the surface and let them melt a bit.
• To assemble the sandwich, place the cheese-covered eggs and then the bacon onto the bottom half of the roll and top with the other half of the roll.
• For an authentic experience, you'll want the sandwich to steam a bit before serving. Wrap it in deli paper (or parchment or wax paper if that's what you've got) before cutting in half. Then wrap the whole thing in foil. Let it rest for five minutes before serving (with ketchup and hot sauce, if you like).

Notes

1. A kaiser roll is also called a hard roll or bulky roll. It's straightforward, griddles well, and yields nicely to the bite.
2. In many contexts I prefer a really thick-cut bacon. For a bacon egg and cheese, I prefer something thinner so that it yields easily when you bite into the sandwich. You can use a standard supermarket bacon if you like for an authentic deli sandwich experience — I've included my own preferred source below.
3. For a classic experience, use regular yellow American cheese from the supermarket, such as the Kraft singles pictured above. Or level up, if you like, with an organic version. (Applegate Farms is my longtime favorite.)
4. Even in a sandwich like this, I'm going to advocate for a really good-quality butter, because it just makes everything taste so much better. Here and virtually everywhere, I start with a cultured, salted butter from grass-fed cows. This sounds fancy but doesn't have to be. Kerrygold, for example, is sold in most supermarkets at a reasonable price.
5. I don’t recommend making this recipe in advance. This ephemeral delight peaks five minutes after coming off the pan, and the cooking process is a carefully calibrated dance. Plus, the whole thing only takes a few minutes from start to finish. Make it, enjoy it, remember it. You can always do it again tomorrow.
6. That said, if you would really like to make a big batch of these sandwiches for a party, you can cook the bacon in the oven ahead of time, batch the eggs in a larger pan and cut into portions, and griddle the rolls in batches as well.
7. Sandwich leftovers are tricky and really depend on your tolerance for bread that's no longer performing at peak levels. If you want to go for it, I recommend wrapping the leftovers in foil and reheating in the oven or toaster oven until warmed through.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 701kcal, Carbohydrates: 38g, Protein: 36g, Fat: 45g, Saturated Fat: 20g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 21g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 468mg, Sodium: 2048mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 7g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Breakfast and Brunch

Cuisine: American

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