Sausage Egg and Cheese Grits

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Sausage Egg and Cheese Grits turns this southern breakfast staple into a whole meal on it’s own. This could easily turn into a grits bar with cheese and meat choices for your guests.

I love grits. If they’re on the menu, I will order them. Religiously. I’m not an officianado of them, but I know good grits when I taste them. And, well, like trying to find a good macaroni and cheese at a restaurant finding good grits is even harder.

It’s not like grits are that hard to make. They’re just no the greatest to reheat. Grits clump. Just about as bad as polenta. But at least with plenta you can get them to a somewhat creamy consistency when you heat them up. I could not with grits. And restaurants probably have the same issues reheating them. Which confirms my first paragraph. Finding good grits isn’t all that easy.

Making good grits, on the other hand, is super easy!

The ratio is one part grits to two parts water. I boiled up one cup water and added 1/2 cup of grits. Not the quick cooking kind. Please do not get quick cooking grits. It’s like the difference between the instant oatmeal you get in the package and steel cut oats. Totally not the same flavor and texture.

Besides, there’s that one line out of My Cousin Vinny. “No self-respecting southerner makes instant grits!” Or something along those lines. Of course, I used to get those packages to take to work so I could have delicious grits at work. But, well, they weren’t all that delicious. Just satisfied a fix I had for grits because, well, you can’t reheat them. Remember?

I know. Brunch recipes are supposed to be make ahead super easy for a crowd types of recipes. And I’m here to tell you that you can make these sort of ahead of time. You can keep them simmering on the stove and just add water as needed to keep them from drying out. I’m assuming this is how restaurants manage to have grits on their menu. Because I know they can’t microwave them.

And in the same spirit of brunch, you could totally make a grits bar! Have them simmering with bowls. Then a series of cheese, meats, and what have you for toppings. There could be scrambled eggs or made to order fried eggs. Over easy, sunny side up, or even poached.

You could have water for poaching ready to do. However, I’m not a runny yolk person, so my eggs are almost always fried. Or scrambled. If it’s poached it’s well done and then, well, what’s the point of poaching?

I always try to have turkey breakfast sausage on hand. It’s easy to add to a sandwich or some breakfast bowls. It’s also good for breakfast tacos. I don’t keep cooked bacon on hand. It just gets hard and weird if it’s cooked and been sitting in the fridge for a few days. At least that’s my experience.

Since I have the sausage on hand, I figured I’d kick up my bowl of Sausage Egg and Cheese Grits with some chopped sausages. And, well, cheese goes well with just about everything. I shredded up some extra sharp Cheddar cheese to stir in to my grits.

I could have easily added some scrambled eggs to the grits. But I opted to top the grits with fried eggs. I wonder if you could have the super hot grits poured into a bowl, make a well, and egg the egg to cook IN the grits? You know, like Japanese rice bowl? I’ll have to try that sometime and see if that works. But that wouldn’t be a brunch friendly recipe.

Grits bar! That’s where I was going.

So, you could have sausage, chorizo, bacon, steak even as mix ins to your grits. There could be ricotta, Cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss, or even pepper Jack cheese to stir in. You could have salsa or gochujang to top your grits.

These grits are creamy. Oh so creamy. And full of cheese and sausage goodness. The egg on top is just the perfect topping for this bowl of hearty yum. It’s almost like gilding the lily, but not really. I mean it is a breakfast and that usually calls for eggs. So, fry some up and top your grits with them!

I’m sure a runny yolk would make this even more irresistible. For some. Not for me. Y’all know how I feel about that. Scarred for life from a 60 Minutes episode. I used to love a dippy egg. I’d dip toast in the yolk and devour it. Not anymore. I can tolerate a jammy egg, but that’s about it. Anything runny and I just cannot do it.

I ordered a breakfast sandwich at the place across the street from work. Since I was running late for something and didn’t have the ability to make my own breakfast like I usually do at work I thought I’d stop there. I was so irritated when I sat down to eat the sandwich that it was a runny yolk. In a breakfast sandwich? Are you kidding me?

Because that’s super fun. Biting into a sandwich and getting egg yolk all over your face. Just like I did. Because I didn’t know it was a runny yolk. They didn’t even ask me how I wanted the egg!! I think that’s something that should be standard at any restaurant. How would you like your eggs cooked? Like, “How would you like your steak cooked?” at a steak house. Am I wrong?

What is super fun is biting into a spoonful of these delicious grits. Full of sharp Cheddar goodness with hearty sausage topped with delicious eggs. I’m totally drooling thinking about them. I cannot wait to make these again! There’s some leftovers. I might try to reheat them tomorrow. Maybe with a little milk or cream added. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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