I was surfing around the YouTube the other day watching videos about grilling and smoking meat when I stumbled across the Barbecue Pit Boys making a Bacon and Egg Pie. What a riot.
My favourite line from their video – after they have added 18 eggs to the two and a half pounds of bacon, “This is enough to feed 8 people but the three of us are just going to eat this.”
They were grilling a Bacon and Egg Pie and it intrigued me. Although I do not have a grill capable of grilling the way they do, I did the Dad in the Burbs thing and came up with a work around – I baked my Bacon and Egg Pie in the oven rather than on the grill.
I also scaled my dish back from the 2 1/2 pounds of bacon and 18 eggs. I used a pound of bacon and 8 eggs (thinking I was cooking for four people).
The ingredients are simple: bacon, eggs, an onion, potato chips, and some shredded cheese. A word to the wise – get good bacon. “Discount” bacon is not a bargain.
First thing to do is to cook the bacon – cook it about 3/4 of the way. Do not cook it until it is crispy because you will need to “work” with it after partially cooking it.
At this point I made my second mistake – I did not cook the bacon nearly enough. Make sure the bacon is about 3 quarters cooked. It’ll be better in the long run. And perhaps my second mistake – I added a shake of seasoning salt to the bacon before cooking it. Don’t do that. Trust me. It will be too salty in the end.
Once you have the bacon good and partially cooked, roll the strips up to make them look like bacon roses and arrange them in a cast iron pan.
To roll up the bacon I started with one strip and overlapped a second strip onto the end of the first strip and rolled them together. The goal is to make good sized bacon roses to put in the pan.
Once you have the bacon all rolled and positioned in the pan, add eggs. Look at it and get creative. Look for where an egg would nest in between the bacon roses and look nice in the pan. Essentially, you are making a bacon quiche – just don’t tell the BBQ Pit Boys that I said that!
The eggs are going to cook and bind all that bacon together.
Once the eggs are in place, sprinkle diced onion on top of the bacon and eggs. I used an 8″ cast pan for my Bacon and Egg Pie so I only needed half an onion. Bigger pan, more bacon, more eggs, more onion. You can do the math.
When I try this again, I will consider giving the onions a little heat to soften them up before adding them to the pan. That might make them a little sweeter. Just something to think about.
Bacon, eggs, onions in the pan and into the oven for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. I figured that I would cook a quiche for about about an hour at 350 so…why not try that with this Bacon and Egg Pie?
After 40 minutes I took the pan out of the oven and sprinkled a mix of crushed potato chips and shredded cheese on top. As the BBQ Pit Boys said, the potato chips will add a bit of starch to the bacon and eggs and give it a bit of crunch when you are eating it. And then I fired it back in the oven for another 20 minutes. The shredded cheese? I found a bag of Tex-Mex shredded cheese in the fridge so that is what I used.
Twenty minutes later I pulled it from the oven and I have to say, it looked awesome.
I let it rest up before cutting into it because it is very much like quiche or a lasagna and it needs to firm up before you cut into. Five minutes later and I was serving breakfast.
A couple observations – as I said earlier, don’t add any salt. If anything, give it a grind of black pepper. The bacon adds more than enough salty flavour to the dish. As well, use a good quality bacon. Discount bacon is just a fatty, grisly mess to work with. And cook that bacon pretty close to being done without letting it get crispy.
No, this is not a quick breakfast. I got started before the kids were awake and it was not ready until quite awhile after they were up. Including prep time, it took me about an hour and half to make this dish.
The bottom line – one kid liked it, the other kid looked at it and walked out of the room. I liked it and ate it even though it was too salty. I will be making it again – with the lessons I learned.