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This bacon egg and cheese croissant nails the New York-area classic recipe. Here’s how to make this specialty of delis, street carts, and bodegas just right at home.
Why we love this recipe
A well-made bacon egg and cheese is basically unimpeachable. When you want to make it a little more luxurious — and even easier — swapping in a croissant for the kaiser roll is a great move. This recipe has:
- A tender, flaky, all-butter croissant
- Generous, lightly scrambled eggs that stay tender and fold easily onto the croissant
- 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
What you’ll need
Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.
- It’s really worth seeking out a good-quality, all-butter croissant. I bought the one pictured from the bakery department at Whole Foods. If you don’t have a good source for fresh croissants nearby, you might consider seeking out high-end frozen ones that you can let rise overnight and bake in the morning.
- 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.)
Sourcing eggs
The least-complicated (though often not the most convenient) way to source great eggs is to buy from local farmers whom you know and trust, either directly from the farm or at a farmers’ market or small grocery store.
If you’re shopping at a U.S. supermarket, things can get a little more complicated. Here’s a quick guide to the terminology that will and won’t help you choose the best eggs you can afford.
Words that mean something
- Organic
- Pastured (best) or free-range
- USDA A or AA
- Certified Humane or Animal Welfare Approved seals
Words that don’t mean anything
- Natural (anything can be called natural)
- Vegetarian-fed (chickens are natural omnivores)
- No added hormones (this is required by the government)
- Antibiotic-free (chickens are rarely medicated with antibiotics)
My favorite sources for meat & pantry staples
For years, I’ve been sourcing our meat from ButcherBox. We love this curated meat delivery service, which provides grass-finished beef, heritage breed pork, organic chicken, and more from small farms direct to the customer. You can learn more in my extensive Butcher Box review and unboxing.
I love Thrive Market for a wide variety of products. Often described as one part Whole Foods, one part Costco, they’re a membership-based online market for healthier products at discounted prices. Plus, they’re mission-driven, engaged in the community, and not currently owned by a giant corporation. You can learn more in my Thrive Market review and unboxing.
How to make it
Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a fabulous bacon egg and cheese croissant. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.
- Cook the bacon to your liking.
- Scramble the eggs.
- Cook the eggs and let the cheese melt on top.
- Assemble the sandwich and serve. That’s it!
Expert tips and FAQs
Sure thing. You may prefer a fried egg, cooked any way you like (more here). Try adding a couple of thin slices of perfectly ripe tomato.
I usually try to say yes to this question. But: Nope. 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.
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, and batch the eggs in a larger pan and cut into portions.
Sandwich leftovers are tricky and really depend on your tolerance for a croissant 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.
More favorite breakfast sandwiches
- Leveled-up scrambled egg sandwich
- Bacon egg and cheese
- Sausage egg and cheese
- Pork roll egg and cheese
- Ham egg and cheese sandwich
- Pepper and egg sandwich
- Sausage egg and cheese croissant
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Bacon Egg and Cheese Croissant
Ingredients
- 3 slices bacon
- 2 large eggs
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1//8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 croissant
- 2 slices American cheese
- Ketchup and/or hot sauce, optional, for serving
Instructions
- Place the bacon into a cold 10-inch skillet or dark nonstick frying pan. Set over medium heat. 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're too long to fit on a croissant.
- 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.
- Carefully slice the croissant in half across the beltline.
- To assemble the sandwich, place the cheese-covered eggs and then the bacon onto the bottom half of the croissant and top with the other half. Serve right away, with ketchup and hot sauce if you like.
Notes
- It's really worth seeking out a good-quality, all-butter croissant. I bought the one pictured from the bakery department at Whole Foods. If you don't have a good source for fresh croissants nearby, you might consider seeking out high-end frozen ones that you can let rise overnight and bake in the morning.
- 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 above.
- 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.)
- You may prefer a fried egg, cooked any way you like (more here). Try adding a couple of thin slices of perfectly ripe tomato.
- I don’t recommend making this recipe in advance. 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, and batch the eggs in a larger pan and cut into portions.
- Sandwich leftovers are tricky and really depend on your tolerance for a croissant 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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