Recipe: Spicy Harissa Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches

This sandwich starts with a really simple homemade harissa sausage recipe that highlights how easy it is to get bold flavors into your food by keeping your fridge well-stocked with condiments like this. If you don’t care for harissa, try it with a Thai chili paste, or with a dry seasoning mix you love.

Make sure that you add salt to the meat mixture. It’s essential not just for flavor, but for good texture and moisture retention as well. Adding salt to meat will denature some of its proteins, allowing you to entangle and bind them together with a bit of mixing. Mix the sausage mixture until it feels tacky–a sign that it has bound properly.

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I like about this recipe:

• Jarred harissa paste makes an easy and flavorful base for homemade sausage patties

• Toasting the English muffins and frying the eggs in rendered harissa sausage fat gives the whole sandwich extra flavor.

Yield: Makes 2 Sandwiches

Active Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Notes: I make this sandwich on a BALMUDA The Teppanyaki (who are the sponsors of this post and recipe), which makes it easy to cook everything at once,  but you can also make it in batches in a skillet on the stovetop

Ingredients:

For the Harissa-Garlic Mayo:

2 tablespoons (about 30g) mayonnaise

1 teaspoon (5g) harissa paste, (I used New York Shuk)

1 clove of garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane

 A squeeze of lemon or lime juice

For the Sandwiches:

6 ounces (180g) ground beef, pork, or chicken thigh meat

1 tablespoon (15g) harissa paste, (I used New York Shuk)

Big pinch salt

Small pinch MSG (optional)

A few grinds of black pepper

1 clove of garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane

1 tablespoon butter

2 English muffins, split

2 eggs

Kosher salt, MSG (optional), and freshly ground black pepper

2 slices American cheese

Sliced pickled jalapeños

Steps:

• For the Harissa-Garlic Mayo: In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, harissa paste, garlic, and lemon or lime juice. Stir until homogeneous. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt or citrus juice to taste.

• For the Sandwiches: Preheat an electric teppanyaki or a griddle over medium heat. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine meat, harissa, salt, MSG, pepper, and garlic. Mix with your fingers until the mixture is tacky and holds together very well, about 45 seconds. Form mixture into two balls.

• Place the patties on the griddle and smash them down using the back of a spatula. Ideally they should be slightly wider than an English muffin. Cook without moving until a brown crust develops, about 1 minute. Flip and continue cooking until cooked through, about 1 minute longer. Transfer to a plate and set aside, leaving the rendered fat on the griddle.

• Meanwhile, melt the butter on the other side of the griddle and lay the English muffins cut-face-down. Cook, swirling them around in the butter and rendered sausage fat (save some of those drippings for the eggs) until golden brown and toasty, about 1 minute. Transfer to a cutting board, cut sides facing up.

• Add the eggs to the pan drippings and let them fry until your desired doneness is reached, flipping them as they start to set (I like my eggs over-easy for this). Place a sausage patty on top of each egg followed by a slice of cheese. Allow the cheese to melt.

• Meanwhile, spread the bottom of each English muffin with some of the Harissa-Garlic Mayo. Lay down a few (or a lot) of pickled jalapeños. Using a spatula, lift the egg stacks and place them on the bottom English muffin half. Close the sandwiches and serve.