Farmer’s Breakfast

Imagine all the goodness of one of those sizzling breakfast skillets you get at restaurants, coming right from your home kitchen. That’s what this recipe is meant to evoke, except instead of being a single serving, it’s enough to feed your whole family (and possibly your neighbors if you like them enough).

This dish takes a little more skill than it might appear at first, because fried potatoes are a skill that doesn’t come intuitively to everyone. The trick, I find, is to cook them at a lower temperature for a longer time than you would initially think would be right. Instinct might tell you that potatoes thrive under high heat – we boil them, we bake them, we deep fry them to make french fries. But if you put the heat up too high you have to keep them constantly moving in the pan to stop them from burning, which means they never get a nice crust on the outside. If you cook them at a medium temperature, then the potatoes will have time to cook almost all the way through first. You can then add a little more heat when you add the onion and green pepper and develop a crispier crunchy exterior to the potatoes.

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Farmer’s Breakfast

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 2 pounds potatoes peeled and diced
• corn oil to coat the bottom of the skillet
• 2 tablespoons seasoned salt – more or less or to taste
• 1 large onion roughly chopped about 3/4" square
• 1 green pepper roughly chopped about 3/4" square
• 1 8-ounce can mushrooms drained
• 8 eggs
• pepper to taste
• 1 8-ounce package shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions

• In large nonstick skillet with a lid, heat oil for a few minutes, then add potatoes. Sprinkle with half of seasoned salt and cook for 5 minutes.
• Stir potatoes and season other side with other half of salt. Cook 5 more minutes.
• Test potatoes. When they are firm but edible, add onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Increase heat to medium-high and stir to distribute. Leave potatoes until they begin to take on some color, then turn, repeating until potato cubes have light browning on all sides and are nearly at desired texture for eating.
• Scramble eggs and season with pepper. In a separate pan, scramble eggs to runny, half-finished consistency, then distribute over top of potatoes.
• Top potatoes and eggs with cheese mixture. Reduce heat to low, put lid on skillet, and leave covered about 5 more minutes, until cheese is melted.

Notes

While this recipe easily feeds a crowd, it also makes great leftovers for the week. If planning to reheat later, it’s advised to cook only as many eggs as are needed. Reheat the potato and vegetable mixture and scramble new eggs fresh when ready to eat.

To scale up, add 2 eggs and another large potato per diner. You can easily feed 6-7 people without overcrowding the skillet.

Make it? Love it?