A Breakfast Skillet Is Your Answer To Hassle-Free Mornings

Whether you're heading to the school drop-off or trying to make it to the office before an early meeting, you likely have a pretty tight morning schedule. As good as a plate filled with fluffy scrambled eggs and crispy hash browns might sound, it's often not worth the nuisance of prepping, cooking, and cleaning up after a full meal when you're struggling to get out the door.

The next time you're craving a hearty breakfast but don't have much time, try making a breakfast skillet. With a skillet, you can skip the extensive prep time and heavy clean-up of a traditional cooked breakfast. (Especially if you use leftovers to make it.) These simple (but robust!) one-pan dishes deliver the delicious meal you're looking for without creating a mountain of additional kitchen work. They usually contain potatoes, bacon, and eggs, but can be spiced up with endless variations. A piping-hot breakfast skillet ensures that you're getting a filling breakfast without bogging down your morning.

Most breakfast skillets are made with three basic building blocks: Eggs, potatoes, and protein. Ultimately, all ingredients will be cooked in the same skillet, which not only cuts down on dish work but also elevates the flavor profile of the dish, infusing each ingredient with the taste of the one that came before.

Typically, you'll start by cooking your protein. A meat with a lot of fat, like bacon or sausage, is a good choice, as it will create a layer of grease that can be used to cook the rest of the food. When the meat is finished cooking, remove it from the pan and then add in pieces of shredded or cubed potato; they will cook and crisp up in the grease. This is a great opportunity to add your favorite spices and aromatics to the dish, like garlic and onions. When the potatoes turn a beautiful shade of golden brown, you can then add the eggs and cook them to your liking. Top with cheese and enjoy.

The best part about a breakfast skillet? When you're done chowing down, you'll only have a single pan to clean. Plus, the grease from the meat creates a slick surface, making the cleanup even easier.

Aside from being easy to prep, cook, and clean, breakfast skillets offer an additional upside: Unlimited variation. From hearty apple chicken breakfast skillets to easy roasted spring vegetable breakfast skillets, you can make several different dishes with just small tweaks to the ingredients.

To change the overall consistency and texture of your skillet, focus on the eggs and potatoes. Scrambled eggs will give your skillet a firm feel, while over-easy eggs will coat each bite in a rich, gooey yolk. Fried potatoes can also be served in several shapes and sizes. Small diced potatoes will crisp up and give your meal a definite crunch, while shredded hash-brown style potatoes will tend to clump together in spoonfuls of cheesy goodness.

Next, you can change the spices and seasonings to radically alter the flavor of the dish. Try experimenting with different flavors of sausage, like an apple smoked link or maple syrup-infused patties. A chorizo sausage will add a smoky touch to the skillet that pairs well with your favorite salsa. The aromatics added while cooking the potatoes will also significantly impact the final flavor. You can spice the dish up with cayenne pepper or a few splashes of hot sauce — the options are endless.