A biscuit crust on the bottom, then eggs, breakfast sausage with onion and bell pepper, crispy chopped hash browns and a blanket of sharp white cheddar. Rich, cozy comfort food that's just as good for dinner as it is for breakfast.
1 can (16.3 oz) refrigerated jumbo biscuits (8 count), any flavor
8 frozen hash brown patties
2 tbsp oil, for frying
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb breakfast sausage, regular or maple
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
9 large eggs
⅓ cup milk
8 oz sharp white cheddar, thickly sliced (an aged British white cheddar is great here)
Heat the oven to 375°F and grease a 9x13 baking dish. Open the biscuits and press each one flat into the bottom of the dish, pinching the edges together so they cover the whole bottom like a crust.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry the hash brown patties 3 to 4 minutes per side, until golden and crisp. Move them to a cutting board and roughly chop them.
In the same skillet, cook the onion over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic for 30 seconds, then add the sausage and cook, breaking it up, until no pink remains, about 8 minutes.
Stir in the bell pepper for the last 2 to 3 minutes and season with the salt and pepper. Don't drain it. The onion and pepper soak up the sausage drippings, and that's where a lot of the flavor comes from.
Whisk the eggs and milk together and pour them over the biscuit crust. Spoon the hot sausage mixture evenly over the eggs, scatter the chopped hash browns on top, and cover everything with the cheese slices.
Bake uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes, until the eggs are set in the center and the cheese is bubbly and golden in spots.
Let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting so the eggs firm up and the squares hold together.
Michael's notes
Layer the fillings in while they're still hot from the pan. That gives the eggs a head start, so the whole thing bakes in about half an hour. Keep it in a 9x13 so the egg layer stays thin and cooks evenly.
The cheese is salty, so I don't season the eggs at all. A little salt and pepper on the sausage mix is plenty. If you want it a bit lighter, drain some of the sausage fat before adding the pepper.
Any can of jumbo biscuits works, name brand or store brand. I like butter flavored because it tastes a little like pie crust. They bake up flatter under all the fillings, but they don't go soggy.
Side: A bowl of fresh fruit to cut through the richness
Dessert: Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
The backstory
This one didn't start from a recipe. I just put together what sounded good in my head: biscuits, sausage, hash browns, eggs and cheese, all in one pan. We ended up having it for dinner, not breakfast, and it worked great either way.
I thought about adding sour cream to the eggs to make it more like a quiche, but between the biscuits, the sausage and the cheese it was already plenty rich, so a splash of milk it was. We also had a block of imported British white cheddar we were trying to use up, and it turned out to be the star. It's sharp and salty and melts beautifully.
It's not health food. It's comfort food, the once in a while kind. All four of us devoured it, and there was still enough left over for lunch the next day, which is how we like it.