Last Saturday was a busy day. After breakfast we knew we’d have no real time to eat again until that night. So we threw together the biggest, most protein and fat packed meal we could possibly conceive. It was enough food to keep a cowboy full for hours…believe me, I feed one. It’s the usual suspects here: eggs, sweet potatoes, sausage, cilantro and avocado. I was inspired by our Baked Bibimbap to make a baked version of Huevoes Rancheros. Runny yolks oozing alongside crispy, sweet potatoes and salty sausage. I’m sorry if you’re bored by my constant use of these ingredients, but I obviously am not bored (and I’m not sorry either :p). They can do no wrong in my book.
Ingredients
- 1 lb breakfast sausage
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
- 5 eggs
- 1 avocado, diced
- handful cilantro
- hot sauce
- raw cheese, optional
- s & p
Method
Preheat your oven to 400ºF.
In an oven safe skillet, we used cast iron, crumble and brown the sausage over medium heat.
Once it’s brown, use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage and let it hang out while we cook the sweet potatoes. Try to reserve as much of the grease as possible.
Toss the sweet potatoes into the sausage grease and let them get crispy and cooked through.
Add the sausage back into the pan.
Make a few wells in the pan–one well for each egg. Crack your eggs into the wells.
Place the skillet in the oven. We’re just baking the skillet long enough for the eggs to set, about 5 minutes.
Now, turn the oven to broil and hit up the top side of the eggs for a few minutes, but don’t let the yolk cook all the way through–unless you don’t like runny yolks. But man, oh man, the runny yolks go down really nicely with the crispy sweet potatoes. Just sayin’.
Remove the pan from the oven and douse the whole thing with avocado, cilantro and hot sauce.
Serve by scooping out an egg, along with its neighboring goodies, with a large spoon.
68 Comments
Katy
January 12, 2012 at 11:49 amI make this type of breakfast frequently but don’t have the cast iron pan. So I put a glass lid over the skillet to get the eggs cooked. Glass is key as you can see when the egg yolks get a white top, they’re done.
This is making me want to get a cast iron skillet as it looks even better than what I normally make.
Brian
January 13, 2012 at 10:11 amI’ve tried this in both a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel skillet…believe me, cast iron is a lifelong investment!!!
I season mine twice a year in lard and duck fat. If you can find a 10 or 12 inch Griswold cast iron skillet, on eBay, for less than $75, DO IT!!! That’s a steal!
Thanks!
BK
megan keatley
January 17, 2012 at 8:00 pmmy grandparents are collectors. they gave us some kind of chicken roaster thing. i haven’t used it yet. i wasn’t sure if it were more of a decorative piece, but i’ll have to dig it out and give it a whirl. we usually just use use the cheapo Lodge brand.
Paige Hill
April 10, 2018 at 1:30 pmGriswold went out of business in 1957. I think Lodge is a very good brand as well.
Melissa
December 11, 2013 at 12:20 pmI love my skillet too. It was given to me by my mom who found it in stuck in the dirt floor of the basement of a house she was renting in the late 60’s. I’m not kidding. My aunt told her to scrub the rust off of it, season it and it will be good as new. It’s my kitchen-essential. I don’t know what brand it is or even how old it is but I’m never giving it up!
Tricia
January 22, 2014 at 6:34 amI don’t know where you are from, but I got a cast iron skillet for $17 at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works. Pretty sure they have a website you can get it from!
Marian Pronzato
September 27, 2018 at 12:19 pmI am new at this. Is this for 2 people or more.
Sidnie
July 9, 2019 at 10:59 amTrying to figure this out! 1lb of sausage for 1 person seems like a lot!
Lindsay Amrhein
January 12, 2012 at 2:04 pmOh wow! This looks fantastic! This is going on the menu for sure, thank you for sharing!
Andrea@simplylivinghealthy.org
January 12, 2012 at 3:53 pmI never tire of sweet potatoes, sausage or eggs either! This looks awesome.
katie @KatieDid
January 12, 2012 at 3:55 pmoh yum, I’m not sick of these ingredients and don’t see myself getting sick of them anytime in the near future. My breakfasts are usually quite similar to this but not as gorgeous!
brandon keatley
January 12, 2012 at 3:59 pmi’m the kind of cowboy who doesn’t know how to ride a horse or lasso stuff.
CarrieZ
January 12, 2012 at 6:14 pmDo you need to cook the sweet potatoes first?
Josh Dickler
August 20, 2013 at 9:33 pmTry reading again… Slowly
Rodolfo
August 3, 2018 at 7:49 amyou made me laugh / I kinda hear my mom talking.
Bridget Longley
March 26, 2018 at 10:22 amyou dice the sweet potatoes and cook them in the sausage grease just like you would if you were frying regular potatoes!
CrossFit Hustle
January 13, 2012 at 8:54 am[…] Cowboy breakfast skillet / Sweet potato latkes […]
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Olivia
January 17, 2012 at 7:09 amThis sounds just perfect! My 16 month old would dig this I think too-all her favorites: avocado, sweet potato, and sausage!
Jonathan D.
January 21, 2012 at 11:39 amMade this this morning. AWESOME!!!
megan keatley
January 26, 2012 at 12:44 pmthanks jonathan!
Tracie
January 22, 2012 at 10:46 amMade this for breakfast and added a couple pieces of bacon. Absolutely Fabulous!! Thanks for the recipe!! 🙂
megan keatley
January 26, 2012 at 12:42 pmyou are very welcome. thanks tracie!
Anna
July 10, 2016 at 12:49 pmHow are serving sizes determined on all the recipes. I’m not sure if I might be missing it somewhere?
Dana
January 25, 2012 at 5:55 pmDo you meant smear avocado and sprinkle cilantro leaves on top?
brandon keatley
January 25, 2012 at 10:20 pmWe just sprinkled diced avocado and cilantro on it…but if you want to put something more guacamole-ish (mashed) I’m sure that would be delicious too.
CrossFit 312 » Blog Archive » 01.28.12
January 28, 2012 at 1:01 am[…] article: vitamin zzzZzZZzz recipe: paleo cowboy breakfast skillet […]
Mike Strickland
March 4, 2012 at 10:17 amI hope it’s just me, but this recipe doesn’t print or PDF properly. It feeds out or makes a PDF that’s 10 pages that don’t even have the actual recipe on them.
Kathy Austin
September 23, 2014 at 11:12 pmMike, I always copy and paste into a Word document. Then it’s saved on my computer and all the extra things don’t print out and suck up my ink!
Maria
June 22, 2012 at 1:02 pmI am thinking about making this and just want to make sure. You are using the oven the entire time (cooking the sausage and sweet potatoes). Thanks.
megan keatley
June 22, 2012 at 1:20 pmno, you’re browning the sausage and cooking the sweet potatoes on the stove. the eggs are getting cooked in the oven.
Angie
August 1, 2012 at 6:53 amMight be a stupid question, but what exactly is a breakfast sausage? I think you might call it something different to us (I’m from Australia) Or do you know what i could substitute it for?
Thanks!
Gidget
August 10, 2013 at 9:03 amHi, I’m in Melbourne and have found breakfast sausage both here and in Perth. Both times I’ve found it at organic butchers and its been called English breakfast sausage. Hope that helps!
Leslie and Dan
August 8, 2012 at 10:05 pmDan and I really enjoy your breakfast items. We eat them for lunch and dinner also. We are excited to make the Cowboy Breakfast Skillet. Thank you.
Carrie
October 26, 2012 at 1:16 pmAwesome! Just made this and Even my two year old is chowing down. We’ve been doing Whole30 for 4 days and were about to go nuts before this meal! I’ll be making it a few times a week for sure.
megan keatley
November 11, 2012 at 12:30 pmyay! thanks carrie!
Erin
December 12, 2012 at 8:11 amThanks for the gorgeous recipe and inspiration! I made this for my husband for breakfast today – sauteed roasted sweet potato wedges in coconut oil, added spicy smoked andouille sausage, 4 eggs, avocado, cilantro and (naughty) feta. It was delicious and we both felt so nourished — thanks again!
Keri
December 19, 2012 at 11:52 amI just found out about you guys from Juli over at PaleOMG and this is the first of I’m sure many recipes I will be making of yours! I was bummed that our avocados aren’t ripe yet, so instead of the hot sauce and raw cheese I sprinkled a bit of curry on top…YUMMO! I love this dish and I can only imagine how much more I will love it when we get some good avocados!
Kristen
January 18, 2013 at 1:39 pmI just wanted to come back to this recipe and show my appreciation. This has been our go-to meal for a year now, since it was first posted. We make our adaptation of this recipe at least once a week and typically make extras for breakfasts/lunches through the week. We’ve dubbed it BDF (Breakfast for Dinner) and have friends making this same recipe now, too. It’s an idea easy skillet meal and perfect for our busy family. Thank you! We love what you’re doing and appreciate you so much!
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Sandra
November 19, 2013 at 9:54 amThis was delicious! Thank you so much!
Kallie
February 16, 2014 at 7:38 pmI received your book as a Christmas gift last month (yeah, we celebrated a bit late!) and made this for dinner tonight. Delicious, very filling, great variety of flavors…hubby and I both loved it. 🙂
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March 20, 2014 at 7:31 pm[…] original recipe found here———————————————————————————————————————Whole30 Day 6: breakfast casserole leftover, banana, Cherry Pie Larabar, cilantro lime chicken salad leftover, baked sweet potato fries, mixed nuts, dried pineapple, beanless chili, bananaWhole30 Day 7: eggs w/spinach and Italian turkey sausage, banana, apple w/ almond butter, beanless chili leftover, 2 cuties, mixed nuts, dried pineapple, beanless chili leftover, sweet potato casserole (I used 2 sweet potatoes instead of one)Whole30 Day 8: eggs w/spinach and Italian turkey sausage, banana, apple w/ almond butter, beanless chili leftover, sweet potato casserole leftover, mixed nuts, dried pineapple, egg whites w/ spinach, bacon, baked carrot fries […]
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Lorilie
March 21, 2014 at 12:43 pmWhat is the amount of servings for this dish? I can’t wait to try it! Just stumbled on this site!! Awesome!!!
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Leah
July 1, 2014 at 2:26 pmI come back to this recipe again and again. It’s fantastic for large crowds. Everyone loves it! We’ve done it with bacon, leftover pulled pork, rotisserie chicken, no meat at all – it’s always delicious! Even people who think I’m “crazy” for eating clean have fallen in love with this. Thank you!
wiil samson
September 2, 2014 at 7:40 amI received your book as a Christmas gift last month (yeah, we celebrated a bit late!) and made this for dinner tonight. Delicious, very filling, great variety of flavors…hubby and I both loved it.
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September 5, 2014 at 4:28 amTo be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can’t just accept the ones you like. ~Mike Gafka
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September 5, 2014 at 3:04 pm[…] Cowboy Breakfast Skillet. […]
Rosemary
October 12, 2014 at 5:27 am1) cooking method suggestions;
-boil sweet potatoes until they are fully cooked and then sautéed
-5 min in oven followed by broiling is too long and eggs were overcooked; will preheat oven in future and then just broil pan contents for 2-3 minutes
2) variations that worked well for me:
-beef burger mixed with taco seasoning instead of pork sausage
-sautéed onion in meat oil and then add sweet potatoes
-I used a sweet potato and butternut squash (thanks to Marks&Spencers already precut into cubes(UK)) mixture
– before breaking eggs into pan, I mixed about 1/2 cup/12.5 cl of bean & chipotle salsa through the meat and starch mixture
-I added a handful of shredded mature cheddar cheese (naturally near nill lactose) before cracking the eggs and and after mixing the salsa through; just a sprinkle on top
– I didn’t use but think that olives, corn & lactose free sour cream would be nice additions
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Amy
February 3, 2016 at 8:25 pmMade this tonight with the addition of onions. I also used the Applegate chicken and cheese sausages. Such a delicious and filling dinner!
Kim
May 5, 2018 at 10:19 pmWhere are the total carbs # per serving for recipes.
Joe
July 19, 2018 at 11:37 pmConsidering that I’m trying to eat low carb, shouldn’t that be the natural thing to know, or be told?
Kathleen Furlong
July 25, 2018 at 3:56 pmWhy aren’t there calorie, cholesterol, fat, protein, and carb counts for this recipe?
Becky Sanchez
August 13, 2018 at 5:56 pmWhy do you not include serving sizes in your recipes?
Cathy Lynn Trautmann
December 27, 2018 at 1:32 pmLike the others who asked….. please let us know how many servings this makes. We are starting keto, ….and would like to know if this is for more than 2 servings. Thank you