Get Creative And Fry Up Your Next Egg In A Mashed Potato Ring

There are few breakfast dishes as classic as eggs. Tasty, filling, and versatile, you can turn eggs into anything from fluffy scrambled eggs to an oozy, over-easy fried meal. Now, speaking of how versatile eggs are, beyond sticking to some of the more classic preparations, you can also transform this dish by pairing it with some leftover mashed potatoes. Simply turn your leftover side into rings in the frying pan and crack an egg in the middle.

The buttery creaminess of the mashed potato will pair perfectly with the egg, and when you cut into the meal, the yolk will ooze into the potatoes like gravy. Better yet, it's an easy meal to make and requires little to no preparation on your part. With that said, however, there are still a couple of things to keep in mind as you make this upgraded breakfast dish. And, if you love the idea of making your eggs in a mashed potato ring, there are some similar hacks that you can try for a tasty breakfast.

To make this breakfast hack, you're going to want to pop the mashed potatoes into the frying pan before the egg. Make sure to use some oil or butter in the pan so they don't stick and shape them into a ring. Remember, you want to make the ring wide enough for your chosen type of egg to fit. The larger the egg, the larger the center of the potatoes will need to be so as to avoid spilling over into the frying pan. With your hole created, give the potatoes a few minutes so that the bottom starts to get brown and crispy. This will add an extra layer of crunch to your dish.

After your potatoes have firmed up, crack in your egg and let the egg cook. Now, if you're used to making over-hard eggs, it pays to know that flipping this dish isn't a good idea. Doing so can break not only the egg but also the soft mashed potato. Instead, you can use a lid on the frying pan to control how hard or soft the yolk of your egg gets and play around with heat levels to ensure you don't burn the bottom of the potatoes.

When you're satisfied with your egg's doneness, use a spatula to take the meal out of the pan. Then top it with hot sauce, gravy, ketchup, or anything else you enjoy!

Frying your eggs in mashed potato rings is far from the only egg-in-a-hole type dish you can make. Perhaps the most classic version is made by cutting a circle out of the center of a piece of bread and frying that up to perfection. But, you can also try some more unique twists. To play on the potato ring version, for instance, try cutting the center out of a hash brown (or making homemade diner-style hashbrowns) and cooking your egg in that instead.

Moving away from potatoes, you can also try cooking your eggs in veggie rings — you can use bell peppers as rings for this breakfast food. Or, cook them in baked acorn squash rings for a soft, autumn-y spin on this dish. You can also use onion rings as the perfect round veggie for frying up your eggs. Regardless of which of these twists you try, there are plenty of ways to cook your eggs and enhance their flavor while also upgrading your standard breakfast!