Warning: This breakfast skillet contains piles of golden potatoes, runny, sun-yellow egg yolks, creamy green avocado and fronds of fresh dill. You won’t have any leftovers.
Breakfast skillets hail from my very earliest cooking days. I used to make them in my dark, depressing little college apartment when my roommates went home for the weekend, with the air conditioning on high and Friends on my laptop on the counter. I’ve eaten them so many times, for any meal of the day. I’ve made it for friends who stayed the night. Whenever I make them at home, my mom steals a few bites off my plate. This is comfort food at its simplest.
No matter how tired or busy I am, can always make and eat a breakfast skillet. After all, a good meal never hurt anyone and a bad meal certainly never helped. After long days of staring at a laptop screen and what feels like miles of data spreadsheets, it feels good to do something with my hands, to engage in some form of self-care, even if chopping potatoes seems like a weird way to do that. But it makes a little more sense once you find yourself looking at piles of golden potatoes, runny, sun-yellow egg yolks, creamy green avocado and fronds of fresh dill.
I usually make breakfast skillets on the stovetop, but this is a sheet pan version for ease (and because I can’t find a frying pan big enough here). All you have to do is chop potatoes and mix them with oil, corn starch and spices, then roast them for half an hour. You’ll want to put the baking sheet in the oven while it preheats so the pan gets sizzling-hot before you put the potatoes on it, which will help the potatoes get a little crispier. They won’t get super crispy since there are too many of them, but if you’re worried about that, you can split everything up onto two pans.
Once the potatoes are roasted, you make little wells to nestle the eggs into and then put it back in the oven for about five minutes. The eggs will still look a little underdone in places when you pull them out, but they’ll continue cooking on the pan for another minute or two while you get out plates and utensils. Arrange some sliced avocado on top of the potatoes and eggs and sprinkle the whole thing with fresh dill or chives. Abby and I ate it straight off the pan (me with hot sauce, her without) alongside raspberry, peach & pomegranate mocktails.
sheet pan breakfast skillet
time: ~ 45 minutes
serves 2
ingredients
1.5 lb baby potatoes, washed and cut in half (or quarters if they’re big)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 generous tablespoons Ranch dressing mix
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp paprika
1 tsp salt + more for sprinkling
4 large eggs
ground pepper
1 avocado, sliced
fresh dill or chives, finely chopped, for garnish
directions
- Roast potatoes. Preheat oven to 425 F/220C/Fan 200 and let the sheet pan heat with it. Don’t line it! Toss potatoes with 2 tbsp olive oil. Mix corn starch, ranch mix, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Using your hands, toss spice mix with the potatoes until the spices are evenly distributed. Put potatoes on hot sheet pan in one layer. Roast potatoes for 30 minutes. You can toss them halfway through if you feel like it.
- Add eggs. After 30 minutes, toss potatoes and make wells for the eggs. Crack eggs into wells, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put everything back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for another minute or so, until eggs are cooked through. You’ll want to immediately divide the eggs and potatoes onto plates or the eggs will keep cooking on the hot baking sheet.
- Serve. Serve with sliced avocado and fresh dill or chives.
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