This California Breakfast Stack recipe is a light and fresh way to start your day!
It has all the delicious and fresh components you find in any good California-themed meal: An english muffin topped with pepper jack cheese for a kick, crispy bacon, fresh tomatoes and avocado and and a perfectly cooked sunny side up egg on top!
Why a breakfast stack?
Earlier this year, my family and I went on vacation to Florida. We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom and in between took a day off to rest, since Disney trips can be quite the marathon (on a side note, I highly recommend planning a day or two to be spent relaxing outside of the parks for any Disney trip!). Since we were staying off of the Disney property, we found ourselves at a Perkins down the street from our condo.
Since I tend to favor savory breakfast options like eggs and bacon, I began perusing that section of the breakfast menu and my eyes were immediately drawn to the California Eggs Benedict. The problem is that I'm not really an Eggs Benedict kind of gal. The hollandaise is a bit rich for me, especially in the morning.
But the rest of that entree sounded fantastic on its own! I mean it was basically a healthy breakfast sandwich without the top bun. Or rather an open faced breakfast sandwich with all the fresh fixings one would want (so as to keep with the "California" theme).
Let me tell you, it was love at first bite. I was such a fan that I immediately made a mental note to recreate this dish at home and now I'm so excited to share it with you!
Things to know about making a California Breakfast Stack
- Don't overcook the English muffin when toasting it. It will toast a tiny bit more in the oven when you melt the cheese on it.
- If you're not into spicy foods, feel free to replace the pepper jack cheese with regular Monterey Jack cheese (or any other preferred cheese).
- Be sure to fry your bacon until it's nice and crispy.
- I like to add salt and pepper to my tomato slices as well as my eggs to round out all the flavors.
- Before adding the sliced avocado, squeeze a tiny bit for fresh lemon or lime juice over it. This brightens up the whole sandwich and keeps your avocado from turning brown.
- To get the perfect sunny side up egg, fry it in olive oil and once it gets cooking use the oil to baste the white part of the egg to cook that without getting it on the yolk. That way you don't have any of that unpleasant raw egg white that can sometimes occur in this type of egg, but you'll still get that perfectly runny egg yolk that we all love!
- These are not a good candidate for a make-ahead meal; they're best served right away.
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California Breakfast Stack recipe
Ingredients
- 1 english muffin, sliced in half
- 2 slices pepper jack cheese, or your favorite cheese
- 4 pieces bacon, fried until crispy
- 2 large eggs
- 1 fresh tomato, sliced
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 small ripe avocado, sliced (you can sprinkly these with lemon or lime juice to keep it from turning brown)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° and line a small sheet pan with foil.
- Lightly toast the english muffin halves in a toaster.
- Place the English muffin halves with the inside facing up onto a foil-lined pan.
- Place a slice of cheese onto each English muffin half and place it in the oven for 10 minutes.
- While the cheese melts, fry your eggs to your liking, being careful not to break the yolk (I opted for sunny side up but this would also be great with over easy or over medium eggs). Set aside when finished.
- Remove the English muffins from the oven when the time is up.
- Place two slices of bacon onto each English muffin half (I break the bacon slices in half to make them fit better).
- Top these with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
- Next place the sliced avocado on top of each English muffin half.
- Finally place a cooked egg onto each breakfast stack and sprinkle them with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Some of my other favorite breakfast recipes include:
Super Easy Baked Breakfast Tostadas
Orange Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread
Dorothy is a blogger over at CrazyforCrust.com, where she's been sharing recipes with a slice of life for almost 10 years. She's married to Mel, the other half of Easy Good Ideas, and together they are raising a teenager and dog in Northern California.
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