Sausage Egg and Cheese Croissant

5 from 2 votes

Sausage Egg and Cheese Croissant

This sausage 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.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Breakfast and Brunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: sausage egg and cheese croissant

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

¼ pound pork breakfast sausage meat
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

Shape the sausage into a patty. Warm a 10-inch skillet or dark nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add the sausage and 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.
Split the croissant in half across the beltline.
To assemble the sandwich, place the sausage and then the cheese-covered eggs 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.
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.)
You may prefer a fried egg, cooked any way you like (more here). Try adding a couple of thin slices of perfectly ripe tomato.
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, 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.

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