British Café Breakfast with Eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Beans and Chips
Serves 2 generous servings · Prep: 10 minutes · Cook: 30 minutes · Total: 40 minutes
In this recipe, you'll learn how to make the kind of British café breakfast that takes up the whole plate. Fried eggs, sausage, bacon, baked beans, buttered toast, and chips.
I start the chips and sausages first because they take the longest. While they cook, I warm the beans and use the same pan for the bacon and eggs. The toast comes last. I don't like when it sits around getting cold before the rest of breakfast is ready.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces frozen straight-cut chips or fries
- 2 large pork sausages or 4 smaller breakfast sausages
- 6 rashers British back bacon or 6 slices thick-cut bacon
- 1 can British baked beans in tomato sauce, about 13.7 ounces or 415 grams
- 4 large eggs
- 4 slices white sandwich bread
- 1 to 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon neutral oil, if needed
- Salt and black pepper
- HP Sauce or ketchup, for serving
Instructions
- 1
Start the chips and sausages
Heat the oven to 425°F or 220°C. Spread the chips over a large sheet pan and add the sausages, leaving a little room between everything. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Toss the chips and turn the sausages halfway through. Take the sausages out once they are browned and cooked through. The chips can stay in for another few minutes if they are not crisp yet.
- 2
Warm the beans
Pour the beans into a small saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of water. Warm them over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then. I don't let the beans boil hard. They start falling apart, and the sauce gets thicker than I want it.
- 3
Fry the bacon
Set a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until browned around the edges. Back bacon usually needs 2 to 3 minutes per side. Thick-cut American bacon will take a little longer. Move the bacon to a warm plate. Leave a thin coating of fat in the pan for the eggs.
- 4
Fry the eggs
Turn the heat down to medium-low. Add a teaspoon of oil if the pan looks dry, then crack in the eggs. Season with salt and black pepper. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft. If the whites around the yolks are taking too long, cover the pan for the last 30 seconds.
- 5
Make the toast
Toast the bread when everything else is almost ready. Butter it while it is still hot, then cut each slice in half.
- 6
Serve
Divide the beans, eggs, bacon, sausages, chips, and toast between two warm plates. Keep most of the toast away from the beans so it stays crisp. Serve right away with HP Sauce or ketchup.
Shortcuts and Substitutions
Back bacon
Canadian bacon is the closest easy substitute if you cannot find British back bacon. Thick-cut American bacon also works, although it will be fattier and crisper.
Sausages
Cumberland sausages or British-style bangers are ideal. Regular pork breakfast sausages are fine too.
Baked beans
Heinz Beans in Tomato Sauce are the familiar choice. American baked beans tend to be sweeter, so I would skip anything flavored with maple syrup, brown sugar, or barbecue sauce.
Chips
Frozen chips are fine. I'm not peeling potatoes for breakfast.
Straight-cut fries work better here than thin shoestring fries. They stay crisp longer next to the beans and eggs.
Air fryer
You can cook the chips in an air fryer at 400°F until crisp. Cook the sausages separately if the basket is too crowded for everything to brown properly.
More Traditional Additions
Add sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomato, hash browns, or black pudding if you want something closer to a traditional full English breakfast.
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