Bacon Egg and Cheese Sandwich

5 from 5 votes

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.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Breakfast and Brunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bacon egg and cheese, bacon egg and cheese sandwich

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

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

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

A kaiser roll is also called a hard roll or bulky roll. It's straightforward, griddles well, and yields nicely to the bite.
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.
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.
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.
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