Our Favorite One-Skillet Breakfast - “Mess”

“Breakfast” is one of our favorite meals when overlanding. We love it so much, we sometimes make it for lunch or dinner, too. The ingredients store fairly easily, are economical, and work together in multiple combinations. Because of this, we often cook them in one skillet and all together. As a side benefit, this makes clean-up easier and more manageable for small space cooking.

Our “go-to” for many breakfasts and meals when overlanding is what we call “Mess”. I know this doesn’t sound very appealing, but trust us when we say the taste makes up for the name. The name represents the cooking style more than the food itself. 

So, let’s get cooking this fast, easy, and delicious breakfast!

Ingredients for 2-4 servings:

2 Large Russet Potatoes Cut into ½” cubes

¼ Cup Red Bell Pepper - Chopped

¼ Cup Yellow Bell Pepper - Chopped

1 Jalapeno Pepper - Sliced and halved

¼ Cup Onion - Chopped (optional)

½ Pound Ground Sausage (we prefer spicy)

5 Large Eggs (scrambled)

1-2 Tablespoons Butter

Salt & Pepper

Shredded cheese (optional)

Instructions:

After preparing all of your ingredients, place the ground sausage in a large skillet and begin browning it on medium to medium-high heat. We’ve found breaking up the sausage when cold and throughout the pan warm-up aids in getting it broken apart before being overly cooked. You do not want to overcook the sausage at this point, just a bit of pink is still okay. The main goal is to render some of the fat out of the sausage to cook the veggies in. Once the sausage is lightly browned, place it in a bowl and set aside.

With the skillet still warm and with the fat from the sausage in the pan, add the veggies and potatoes. Toss them to coat. If they still look dry, add some butter. Toss again ensuring there is enough butter or fat to coat them well. Add a dash of salt and pepper (we like a lot of pepper). Place a lid over the skillet. Remove the lid and toss every 3-4 minutes. The lid will allow the potatoes to cook more quickly, but leaving it on can cause them to be steamed and become mushy. As soon as you see the potatoes have started to soften, add the sausage back to the skillet and toss to mix. Continue cooking uncovered and tossing every 3-4 minutes until the desired doneness is achieved. Depending on the ambient temperature this could be 5-20 minutes. (We like ours pretty crispy!)

Add your scrambled eggs to the skillet. Fold and mix them softly. They will not take long at all to cook. Serve and top with condiments of your choice. We love some shredded cheese and hot sauce!

Clean Up:

The great thing about wrapping up with the scrambled eggs is that they leave the skillet nearly perfectly clean. A quick wipe with a wet paper towel and it’s what we call “camp clean”.

As far as other dishes go, we use the same bowl to hold the sausage that we scramble the eggs in once the meat is reintroduced to the skillet. We often will eat this on paper plates, so our total dish load is the bowl, knife, whisk or fork, cutting board, and two spoons. So, not a lot to clean up!

Customization:

While I’ve provided ingredients we often lean on, you can swap in just about any meat…ground sausage, pepperoni, kielbasa, bacon, ham, and even left-over steak or chicken have been used with success. The starch for us is almost always russet or baby red potatoes. Cutting them differently can provide for different texture and even flavor (somehow). Sometimes we drop the meat and potato mix on our plates before cooking the eggs to be placed on the side, but more often we just scramble them and mix them as we did here. You can also turn this into a breakfast burrito. Wrap it in foil and it will keep for the following morning. Just warm/toast on the skillet. (In our off roading days, we’ve even used the engine to warm up our breakfast burrito!)

We are far from being foodies and don’t consider ourselves to have much culinary knowledge or skill either. However, this is a tried and true simple meal with lots of variation that we’ve relied on with every adventure. Hopefully it fills your belly and fuels your next exploration too.