Cowboy Breakfast Skillet

A Cowboy breakfast skillet with sausage and potatoes that’s packed with loads of flavor in just a few simple ingredients. A hearty cast-iron breakfast skillet utilizing frozen potatoes, sweet Italian sausage, Vidalia onions, and eggs. Gluten-free instructions included.

This post is brought to you in partnership with Shuman Farms, the growers of RealSweet® Vidalia® onions. As always, all opinions are my own.

You can make this skillet at home easily by grabbing some frozen diced potatoes, sweet Italian sausage (freezes great if you find it on sale), eggs, and Vidalia onions. 

Vidalia onions’ sweet, versatile flavor allows them to be perfect for any dish – salads, grilling staples, ethnic dishes, and much more. They also have a longer shelf life (perfect for these quarantine days!)  than many other items in the produce department making them good pantry items to keep on hand. You can find storage and prep tips here.

These onions are the perfect building block for flavorful dishes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
• 24 ounces frozen Southern-style diced potatoes
• 1 medium Vidalia onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• ½ cup water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• Scallions for garnish optional
• Drizzle of olive oil

Instructions

• In a large skillet, brown sausage until cooked through.  Remove sausage and set aside, leaving drippings in the pan.
• Add Vidalia onion, saute until translucent.
• Add garlic, frozen diced potatoes, and water. Cover and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.
• Uncover and continue cooking for 10 minutes, stirring once. Add a drizzle of oil if potatoes start sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• Add sausage back to the pan.
• Using a spatula clear 4 small spaces for the eggs. Crack eggs into the pan over high heat and sprinkle shredded cheese onto the potatoes in the skillet.
• Once the edges of the eggs set, turn heat down, cover, and cook 8- 10 minutes or until eggs are cooked to your liking.
• Serve immediately. Garnish with scallions if desired.

Tips & Tricks

Use a large skillet.  

If your cast-iron skillet is on the small side, skip it and go for the largest skillet you own. The goal is to not crowd the potatoes in the pan. If you don’t have a really large skillet, simply cut back on the number of potatoes, or you could also use 2 skillets to cook them.

Add oil if needed.

If the potatoes start to stick to the pan once the water cooks off, drizzle with a bit more olive oil. This also helps get those potatoes super crispy if you add some oil towards the end of the cooking time. 

Substitutions

Swap the sausage for bacon, ground beef, or skip it altogether. 

Use whatever cheese you have on hand.

This skillet will taste great with whatever cheese you have on hand, so no need to go in and modify your pick up grocery order (I have been known to adjust mine over and over again!). You can skip the cheese as well. 

Cover the skillet to cook the eggs.

To cook the eggs, it helps to cover the skillet. I did not have a cover for my large skillet so I improvised by turning my wok over on top of it. It did the trick and might work for you too.

If you don’t care for eggs over easy, simply continue cooking the skillet for a couple more minutes (covered if possible) until the eggs are to your liking. Remember – eggs continue to cook a bit more after they are removed from the heat so keep that in mind. 

If you’re interested in another skillet breakfast this hashbrown skillet is a close second. 

More Vidalia Onion Recipes:

• Shrimp and Grits with Gouda
• Bacon and Vidalion Onion Jam with Baked Brie
• Sweet & Tangy Cucumber Tomato Salad
• Refrigerator Pickles with Vidalia Onions
• Vidalia Onion Dressing