Sausage Egg and Cheese

This sausage 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 sausage egg and cheese sandwich is a classic variation 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:

• Lightly scrambled eggs that stay tender and fold easily onto the sandwich
• A generous amount of super-savory breakfast sausage that’s cooked to perfection
• 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.
• Breakfast sausage meat is a high-fat ground pork mixed with salt and spices such as sage. You can typically buy it from a good supermarket’s butcher counter, or see below for my preferred source.
• 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 sausage 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 sausage until completely done throughout.
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

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

5 from 2 votes

Sausage Egg and Cheese

By Carolyn Gratzer Cope

This sausage 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. Scale up the recipe to make as many sandwiches as you like.

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

Total: 15 minutes mins

Servings: 1 sandwich

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 kaiser roll
• ▢ 1 tablespoon (14 grams) butter, softened
• ▢ ¼ pound (114 grams) pork breakfast sausage meat
• ▢ 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 onto a 10-inch skillet or dark nonstick frying pan set over medium heat. Cook until lightly toasted, then set aside.
• Shape the sausage into a patty and place into the skillet. Cook, pressing with a spatula from time to time to flatten a bit and flipping once or twice, until cooked all the way through. Drain on paper towels.
• 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 fat from the pan. (Depending on your sausage, 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 sausage and then the cheese-covered eggs 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. Breakfast sausage meat is a high-fat ground pork mixed with salt and spices such as sage. You can typically buy it from a good supermarket's butcher counter, or see above for my preferred source.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.)
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. That said, if you would really like to make a big batch of these sandwiches for a party, you can cook the sausage ahead of time and reheat in the microwave, batch the eggs in a larger pan and cut into portions, and griddle the rolls in batches as well.
6. 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: 1164kcal, Carbohydrates: 39g, Protein: 77g, Fat: 77g, Saturated Fat: 31g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 39g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 635mg, Sodium: 2470mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 8g

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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