“the bear” breakfast sandwiches
featuring the perfect scrambled eggs and a stack of sour cream and onion potato chips
i recently finished season 2 of the hit show, the bear. if you haven’t heard of it yet, consider me surprised and unwilling to tell you anything about it; ask google. anyway, in the second season, one of the main characters makes a french omelette in probably the only relaxing scene of the show, finishing it off with a small handful of crushed, ruffled potato chips. as you might imagine, people went crazy for it.
with that scene fresh in my mind (and some inspo from a long lost breakfast bun a cafe in my neighborhood used to serve), i had the idea for a recipe hit me as i was trying to get to sleep one night. the next morning, after checking my quickly scrawled note, these sour cream and onion breakfast sandwiches came to be.
after some contemplation over which bread to use, i settled on brioche buns. they’re what my long lost cafe breakfast sandwiches were always served on and the richness and softness fits just right as the landing pad for the fillings. of course, the ruffled potato chips were a must as the clinching “god-level” upgrade (lol) from syd’s omelette, so those were piled in, too.
with the eggs, my first thought was that they should be a soft scramble with sour cream and chives mixed right in, but after testing, i realized the eggs looked unappetizingly pale and were much too watery that way. i ended up settling on one of my favorite breakfast sandwich scrambles à la chef lucas sin (via hong kong diners’ popular egg sandwiches), which uses a starch slurry and added fat (via milk and oil) in the scramble to emulsify the eggs, keeping them from weeping after cooking and giving them a nice, slippery texture. enjoy!
makes 2 sandwiches
for the eggs
1 teaspoon cornstarch (substitute: potato starch)
1 tablespoon water
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vegetable oil (think neutral oil like canola or sunflower)
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (substitute: freshly ground black pepper)
1/4 inch thick bundle of fresh chives
to assemble
1 tablespoon full-fat sour cream (substitute: labneh or plain greek yogurt)
2 teaspoons hot sauce (i like tabasco here)
salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 brioche buns (substitute: thickly sliced milk bread toasted on the inside only)
2 handfuls of ruffled sour cream and onion potato chips
add cornstarch and water to a bowl and whisk to combine. crack in the eggs, add the oil, milk, salt and white pepper and whisk really well to combine. there should be no discernible pieces of egg white when you lift the whisk out of the bowl. use a pair of kitchen scissors to finely cut half the chives into the bowl with the eggs.
mix the sour cream, hot sauce and a pinch of salt. cut remaining chives into the sour cream, stir and set aside. set a well-seasoned cast iron frying pan (or a nonstick skillet) over medium-hight heat. add the brioche buns to the pan and toast until lightly golden on the inside, about 2 minutes. remove and wrap in a clean kitchen towel to keep warm.
add the butter to the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. once melted, add the eggs and use a spatula to push the eggs around the pan from one edge to another a few times, letting the uncooked egg fill in the empty space (see this video for reference). once the eggs are starting to set and there’s not as much liquid egg to refill your spatula pushes, halve the eggs and form each half into a rough circle, then turn off the heat.
open up the brioche buns and spoon half the spicy sour cream onto the bottom of each bun. slide one egg “round” onto each, then top with a small handful of chips. use the top of the buns to press and help keep the chips in place. slice in half if desired, and serve immediately.