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a sausage egg and cheese sandwich on a kaiser roll wrapped in deli paper
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5 from 2 votes

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.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time15 minutes
Course: Breakfast and Brunch
Cuisine: American
Keyword: sausage egg and cheese
Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

  • 1 kaiser roll
  • 1 tablespoon (14 grams) butter, softened
  • ¼ pound (114 grams) pork breakfast sausage meat
  • 2 large eggs
  • 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 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