What Is an English Breakfast?
There’s a lot going on with the full English breakfast. Typically, there would be bacon and a few types of sausage on the plate, along with simmered beans, roasted mushrooms and tomatoes, and fried eggs. Normally, these things are cooked in separate skillets, then assembled together on the plate. By the way, an Irish Breakfast is similar, but usually includes different kinds of meat or other proteins and a few different puddings. All in all, it’s a huge plate of food! It’s a delicious, hearty breakfast, but it can leave your kitchen in shambles with piles of pots and pans to clean.
How To Make a Sheet Pan English Breakfast
Cooking this entire meal in the oven on a single sheet pan is a beautiful thing—it uses far fewer pots and pans, and clean-up is very easy. Since some of the components of an English breakfasts take longer than others to cook, the only trick is to make sure you add your ingredients to the sheet pan in the right order. Start with sausage, then add the tomatoes, followed by mushrooms, and last but not least, the beans and eggs! (I keep the beans simple—I toss them with a few seasonings and then just heat them in a small, oven-safe skillet alongside the other ingredients.)
The Best Kind of Sausage for an English Breakfast
For the sausage, you can use any breakfast pork or chicken sausage, or a mix of different kinds. I recommend buying full sausages in the casings (6 to 8 ounces per sausage) so they cook evenly and slowly. The sausages will need 40 to 45 minutes to finish cooking in the oven, but I always recommend using a meat thermometer just to be sure you hit the correct internal temperature (160°F). I’ll probably get some flak for skipping the bacon, but it was difficult to include bacon on the sheet pan without adding a lot of extra grease to the whole pan. Personally, I think it’s fine with a smaller portion of protein, but if you do want to add some bacon to the plate, I would cook it separately.
Serve It Up!
Taking the finished English breakfast out of the oven feels like pulling off a magic trick. Serve it up with some quick baked beans and crispy toast, and you’ll be all set until afternoon tea.
More Hearty Breakfasts to Try
Corned Beef Hash Shrimp and Grits Ham and Egg Bakes Joe’s Special (Scrambled Eggs with Spinach, Beef, and Mushrooms) Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole
Add prepared mushrooms to the sheet pan and return to the oven. Clear a little space on the sheet pan and nestle the dish of beans inside. (Alternatively, if you’re running out of space, you can bake the beans on a separate oven rack.) Make four little pockets of space on the sheet pan for the eggs. Drizzle a tiny amount of oil in each area and crack in eggs. Place the fresh thyme sprigs here and there over the ingredients. While the eggs bake, make the toast.
