Chris Makes Breakfast Sandwiches

So, listen, go out, live your life.

[clattering]

He's trying to sabotage me.

[clattering]

[indistinctive chatter]

[laughs]

[upbeat music]

I didn't think we were gonna have time

to make healthiest breakfast sandwiches today,

but it turns out, we do.

So, so much the better for you and me,

and everyone else in this kitchen.

In New York, there is the phenomenon

of the kinda bodega sandwich,

like classic bacon-egg-cheese sandwich,

that's probably saved you from countless hangovers,

countless mornings of hangriness.

I myself, you know, have a deep-seated love

and appreciation for that sandwich.

But, you ask yourself the question,

what would it take to make that

a little bit more healthy-ish,

it'd probably be a little bit something like this.

So, first thing we're gonna do,

is we're gonna make onion bacon,

and interpret that how you will,

we're not trying truly make some kind of meat substitute,

but there's a certain way that beak bacon

kinda gives depth and kinda grounds the flavor

of a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich,

and onion, you toss it with a little soy sauce,

little garlic powder,

little olive oil, salt,

it takes on similar, not identical,

a very similar kind of savory

deep rich umami filled quality.

So, normally when I cut an onion,

I go sort of along the longitudinal axis,

but that works.

Today, I'm gonna go the other way.

I'm gonna go across the equator.

I'm then gonna peel it,

and the reason why I'm cutting it this way,

is that, what I don't want,

are kind of like big stringy bits of onion

that are gonna come out of the sandwich

a little bit too easy.

This is gonna result in these big, nice petals of onion,

that are gonna flatten and stay put.

And that's kinda essential to

the construction of a good breakfast sandwich.

Things shouldn't be sliding in and out, and all around.

So, I took the top off.

Guess I could've done that first.

Might've made a little more sense.

No big deal.

I'm just gonna separate the petals of this onion.

You wanna have nice big petals.

Separate them all out.

To nice big rings.

Pieces of onion could never actually be bacon, right?

But they can take on similar kinda really deep,

kinda rich umami quality to them.

In this case, onion goes in that direction,

just in it of itself,

especially red onion.

Just very pleasantly sweet.

It roasts up really tender,

and has a creamy quality to it.

I'm helping it along in this instance

with a little bit of soy sauce,

which is also super kinda rich and savory.

So I'm just tryna keep these rings

as intact pieces as possible.

That way, after these are roasted,

we'll be able to flatten them on the sandwich,

and they'll lay like a strip of bacon.

All right.

So, onto this.

I'm putting just a table spoon of olive oil,

to help the onion

get kinda soft and jammy.

A little bit of soy sauce,

this is one teaspoon, regular soy sauce.

That's kinda gonna boost up the umami quality of the onion.

And then garlic powder,

which, garlic power,

it's not necessarily a substitute for raw garlic,

but it adds garlic flavor,

in a very deep and precise way,

so it's a great addition to dry rubs,

it's a great addition to blender sauces,

because it's not gonna have that sharp

in your face raw garlic quality.

It's gonna have a little bit more of

a kind of

low-level

umami richness to it.

Then, I'm just gonna also season with a little bit of salt,

and then, it's actually kinda pretty.

One second.

Okay.

I'm just gonna toss these altogether.

All right.

And these gonna go in the oven.

It's at 350.

Uh oh.

Did it again.

I don't know how cool that is or not.

Thank you.

This is what they're gonna become.

So red onion, in particular,

because of that sugar content,

it gets sweet and jammy

and unctuous in a way

that

most other onions just don't.

They kinda have tendency to get kinda dry, and sad.

Whereas red onion has this luscious plumpness to it.

There is the lovely, kinda deep

and rich.

It's like it's almost smoky, you know?

It almost tastes like,

it's been cured or kinda like adulterated,

in some way bacon is.

So, we have our lovely, kind of onion rings here,

that are gonna be clutched in our sandwich.

We're adding just a little bit of

that kinda depth to it.

I'm actually gonna just throw these aside,

on our speed rack here.

So when I was talking to Andy about this sandwich,

I was like, what do you think of breakfast sandwich,

like a healthy-ish one

has to have?

And he said, that it has to have something green in it.

And I racked my brain like green, green.

I mean, yeah, you can do some arugula pastel,

Are you making arugula pastel for your breakfast sandwich?

You're hungover,

or you woke up too late

or you're staying in and you just want to make

something tasty for yourself.

I can think of so many days of my life

that I probably would've been way better off

like maybe two hundred percent better off

if I have had something like this

to kinda get me up and moving.

Anyway, point being,

why not use, like an awesome green

hot sauce that has a little bit of that,

like more kinda like vegetal,

herbaciousness quality to it,

as opposed to the standard red one,

and,

you can absolutely use red hot sauce for this,

it truly, it doesn't matter that much,

because we're gonna bulk this up

with some freshly chopped herbs.

But a hot sauce, actually,

has a lot of the complexity

that you're looking for,

in a condiment or dressing just ready to go.

So, I didn't want this to turn into a big ask,

you know, already, you're roasting your onions,

you're making some soft scrambled eggs.

I didn't want the sauce to be a big labor intensive element.

So, I'm gonna use a couple tablespoons of

this lovely green cholula hot sauce.

I'm gonna round it out and thin it out just slightly

with a little bit of olive oil

And I'm gonna put some freshly chopped herbs in it.

That's gonna give us a really nice, super easy condiment.

'Kay.

I'ma chop some herbs, you could use dill,

cilantro, basil, whatever you have on hand.

I'm just gonna do a little mixy mix here.

Any soft herb will be totally welcome.

Got our herbage.

So, to make Andy happy,

and because it is the right thing to do

got a green sauce.

It's bright, it's tangy,

it's really flavorful. Highly recommend.

All right.

The next step, do a little soft scrambled eggs,

and before I get the eggs going,

you couldn't just put this on a plain bagel,

and call it a day,

It wouldn't be super healthy-ish.

I have a particular affection for foods for lifes,

seven, sprouted, whole-grain English muffins.

They are a little dry, a little carboardy,

but you eat one, and you definitely feel healthy.

Like, you feel honestly even virtuous.

I'm just gonna go ahead and toast these in the oven,

while we're working on our eggs.

You guys are only making me do recipes

that involve cracking eggs.

Never let it down.

It does help if you do it with slightly

more room temp eggs, I find.

[Cameraman] How are these?

These are pretty good.

[Cameraman] Ah, oh!

I mean, I can do it, but I'm not doing it on camera.

For America, you know.

Like there's two pieces of friggin shell in there.

I literally don't know how anybody does it.

It's my calyceal, it's fine.

It's my kryptonite, and I just have to live with it.

All right.

Well, I took the shell out, and I admitted

that there was shell in there,

I did the right thing.

Healthy-ish or not, I think that soft scrambled eggs

need butter.

Occasionally, if I'm moving fast in the kitchen,

and I want a little scrambled eggs snack,

I will use olive oil.

Let's face it,

it's just not as good.

So, I don't try to overwhisk it,

but a little bit of whisking is good.

Oh wow, this is some soft butter, that's okay.

Soft scrambled eggs, soft butter,

they're kinda in the same world there.

Grab this.

Let's kinda eyeball this,

and call it a tablespoon.

So, even a tablespoon of butter divided between,

among four eggs, it's gonna make two sandwiches.

The flavor you get, the benefits of the richness,

you know, you're kinda already adding to already rich eggs,

it's kind of key.

I like to put, get the butter nice and melty,

just like a little pre-toast on the muffin,

very clutch.

Aw, thank you.

So as soon as the butter is melted, I'm gonna drop these in.

You certainly need salt in your eggs.

I don't know that you always need pepper in your eggs.

Maybe I'm in the minority,

but for this, we already have that hot sauce

going on in there.

So I'm moving this around, getting the eggs off of the

cooking surface.

Pause for a sec.

Season with a little salt.

I just find that when you're whisking,

you're moving anything,

like a little motion in the pan itself as well as moving it,

just really helps distribute the eggs and redistribute them

across the cooking surface.

Continually.

So nothing has the chance to overcook.

I'm just looking for a nice loose set,

and that's it.

I'm gonna be dividing this in half into two little portions,

to go on our muffins.

Boom.

So, next step.

Everything is basically done.

I just want to get this cheese a little bit melty.

I'm gonna cut some pieces of cheese.

Assemble the sandwich part way.

Melt it for three, four minutes, however long it takes

to get that cheese oozy.

And then we'll finish assembling from there.

Just gonna divide my egg.

Don't really have to worry about

the egg overcooking at this point.

The cheese is going to insulate it a little bit.

Cheese on top.

The tops are already feeling plenty toasted to me,

so I'm not gonna like re-toast them here.

Just going to throw that in just until the cheese is melted.

And then, I'm gonna finish assembling it.

About five minutes.

Just want to see a little bit of ooze.

That's perfect.

As discussed, everything is cool,

sauce is going on top.

Sauce on top.

So, this is what I'm saying.

When you cut the onions like this,

you get a beautiful ring, kinda stays put on there.

It's not gonna travel too far,

you know what I'm saying?

Crispy, jammy, chewy, unctuous.

Boom.

We'll transfer it just off this hot little sizzle platter.

You can obviously double fist this.

Obviously, eat it over a plate.

But the egg, at a certain point,

is gonna want to drop out,

but there's something that we can take

from the bodegas and delis that specialize

in this kind of sandwich, and that is to wrap it.

I know it sounds crazy, like why are you gonna wrap

sandwich that you're just gonna eat yourself,

hunched over the counter,

on a Saturday morning at ten thirty.

But it just keeps everything contained.

Get a sheet of parchment, that's about 18 inches or so,

long, fold it down onto the top, fold in the sides.

Bam.

And then you're gonna sit down and say,

But how do you eat it Chris?

Aha.

Here, you're gonna cut it in half safely.

Just like the pros.

[upbeat music]

Delany, you wanna try a sandwich?

Today's your day, man.

Today's the day. As if you weren't watching on your.

It's that stuff you get a bodega.

So this is our healthy-ish breakfast sandwich.

Okay. So what do we got,

we got some onions.

We have the green sauce. So then we got,

We got like onion bacon, with a little bit of soy sauce,

garlic powder, salt, olive oil.

Real umami booster.

Yes.

And then a soft scrambled eggs, little bit of butter,

'cause you need it. You need it.

And then, just a mild cheddar.

Love it.

This is giving everything I want.

I gotta put that down.

So good, right?

So good.

Bright, vibrant. That sauce.

All right, thanks, man.

All right, get out of here.

There's certain kind of sandwiches and things

you just associate with eating out,

but it's actually just super easy and awesome

if you can make it yourself.

So listen, go out, live your life,

party like there's no tomorrow,

just note that there's always a breakfast sandwich available

the next morning if you need it.