Short-Order Kitchen
Egg in a Basket
- Servings
- 1
- Prep
- 15 minutes
- Cook
- 20 minutes
- Method
- Griddle
- Heat
- 325°F griddle
- Difficulty
- Medium
Part 6 of the thread Big breakfasts and sandwiches
- Cut the hole with a cup as a guide and keep the circle. It's your dipper.
- Griddle at 325°F, butter on the bread, a little oil in the hole.
- 3 to 4 minutes in the hole, flip, then just 30 seconds to keep the yolk runny.
- Thicker bread gets you a crispier basket.
Ingredients
You'll need
- Flat-top griddle
- A drinking cup and a steak knife, for cutting the hole
Directions
- Set a cup on the bread and cut around it with a steak knife. Save the circle you cut out.
- Heat the griddle to 325°F. Add a little butter and toast the bread on both sides, circle included.
- Put a small amount of oil in the hole and crack the egg into it. Cook 3 to 4 minutes.
- Flip and cook 30 seconds more, then take it off the griddle.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper and start dunking the toasted circle in the yolk.
wesellis.com/blog/egg-in-a-basket/
Egg in a basket goes by about a dozen names: toad in the hole, egg in a hole, one-eyed jack. Whatever you call it, it's a fried egg and toast cooked as one thing, and the yolk stays runny for dunking.
Cut it, save it
Put a drinking cup upside down on the bread and trace around it with a steak knife. Clean hole, no special tools. Then don't toss the circle. It goes on the griddle with everything else and becomes the best part: a little buttered round made for dragging through the yolk.
Toast first, then the egg
Butter the bread and toast both sides before the egg goes in. That way the bread is crisp and golden by the time the egg's done, not pale and soggy. Then a small splash of oil in the hole, crack the egg in, and let it be for three to four minutes.
Heads up
The flip is quick. Thirty seconds on the second side is all it needs. Any longer and you're cooking the yolk, and the whole point is to dunk.
If you want a firmer yolk, or you're still working on your fried-egg flip, How to Make Eggs walks through the basics.
Tip
Go for a thicker slice of bread. It holds the egg better, doesn't tear when you flip, and gets you a crispier basket. Toast it until it's golden, not dark.