Name: Tremendous Bagel Sandwich
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: 2 everything bagels; 4 slices thick-cut bacon; 4 large eggs; 2 tbsp whole milk; 1/2 tsp kosher salt; 1/4 tsp black pepper; 2 tbsp unsalted butter; 2 oz sharp cheddar cheese, sliced; 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened; 1 small clove garlic, finely grated; 1 tbsp fresh chives, minced; 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice; to taste hot sauce (optional)

Tremendous Bagel Sandwich

Prep

Cook

15m

Total

20m

Bigly says

Sit. Pour yourself a coffee. We're doing this right. The breakfast bagel sandwich. The greatest portable breakfast ever assembled by human hands. I've eaten more breakfast sandwiches than any single human being on Earth. I had a guy look it up. He came back with a SPREADSHEET. 14 columns. The bagel sandwich, done correctly, beats every single one of them. Beats the croissant. Beats the biscuit. Beats the English muffin, which is fine — the English muffin is fine — but it's not a BAGEL, it doesn't have the CHEW. The chew is everything.

The bagel is the foundation. A bad bagel and you've lost the war before the first bite. And I'm going to say something controversial, very controversial — most bagels in this country are bad. They're soft little rings of nothing. Sad little Os. Real bagels have a CRUST. Real bagels are boiled before they're baked. Real bagels make a sound when you bite them. If your bagel is silent, throw it OUT. Start over. It's not your fault, it's the bagel's fault, but you have to be honest with yourself.

The best breakfast sandwich of my life was in a deli in Albuquerque, of all places. The man behind the counter handed it to me and walked away without speaking. He KNEW. The secret — and I'm telling you straight, no cookie banner with 18 toggles, no newsletter popup demanding your email before you can read the ingredients which is INSANE behavior — the secret is the egg. The egg has to be FOLDED. Not a hard rubbery disk like the fast food places do, that's not an egg, that's a tile, that's flooring, that's not breakfast. You fold the egg into a soft pillow that fits the bagel exactly. Soft. Custardy. Tremendous. Game over.

Ingredients

2everything bagels(boiled-and-baked, not the soft grocery-store rings)
4 slicesthick-cut bacon
4large eggs
2 tbspwhole milk
1/2 tspkosher salt
1/4 tspblack pepper
2 tbspunsalted butter
2 ozsharp cheddar cheese, sliced(American melts better, cheddar tastes better, your call)
1/4 cupcream cheese, softened
1 small clovegarlic, finely grated
1 tbspfresh chives, minced
1/2 tspfresh lemon juice
to tastehot sauce (optional)

Steps

1
Stir the softened cream cheese with the grated garlic, minced chives, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
2
Lay the bacon in a cold nonstick skillet and cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, 8-10 minutes until crisp. Transfer to paper towels and pour off most of the bacon fat (save it for something else).
3
While the bacon cooks, slice the bagels and toast them dark — you want a real crunch on the cut side.
4
Whisk the eggs with the milk, salt, and pepper until fully combined.
5
Wipe out the bacon skillet and return it to medium-low heat. Add the butter and let it melt and foam.
6
Pour the eggs into the pan. Let them sit untouched for 20 seconds, then push the set edges toward the center with a silicone spatula, tilting the pan to let raw egg run to the edges.
7
When the eggs are mostly set but still glossy and wet on top (about 90 seconds total), lay the cheese slices over half of the egg pillow. Fold the egg in half over the cheese and slide it off the heat. Residual heat will melt the cheese.
8
Cut the folded egg into two portions roughly the size of the bagels.
9
Spread the bottom half of each toasted bagel with the garlic-chive cream cheese. Top with the cheese-stuffed egg fold, then two slices of bacon broken to fit. Add hot sauce if you want.
10
Close with the top bagel half, press down lightly, and eat immediately.

One more thing

That's the sandwich. That's the whole thing. You can wrap it in foil and eat it in the car, you can plate it like a fancy brunch place and charge your spouse $18, you can do whatever you want with it, it's a free country and the sandwich is yours now. People will smell it from three rooms away. They will come running. They will say 'where did you learn to do this' and you will say 'Bigly,' and they will nod, because they already knew. They always already knew. Now go eat.

★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★

Ask Bigly about Tremendous Bagel Sandwich.

Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.

Tremendous Bagel Sandwich

Ingredients

Steps

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