Diane's Food Blog

Pizza for breakfast?  But of course! And I’m not talking about the college version of pizza for breakfast, where you eat whatever is dried out and still left in the box on the floor from a late-night delivery the night before. This is the real deal.

I was using up my stash of homemade pizza dough one morning, pre-baking pizza crusts for later use, and got the idea to create a breakfast pizza. One of my new favorite breakfast combinations, chorizo and eggs, came immediately to mind, so I made up the recipe as I went.

I used the Mexican variety of chorizo for its crumbly texture and ease of uniformly covering my pizza crust, but I think the dry cured Spanish variety, sliced thin, would be equally delicious.

Diane’s Chorizo and Egg Breakfast Pizza

Pizza crust (either roll out fresh pizza dough or use a premade packaged crust like Boboli)
3-4 oz crumbled Mexican chorizo, cooked
(Optional) red peppers, either fresh or roasted, thinly sliced
¼ C shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ C shredded cheddar cheese (or use a prepackaged Pizza blend)
1 fresh egg

Step 1: Preheat the oven

If using fresh dough: Place a baking stone on an oven rack in middle position, and preheat oven to 450 or 500 F. Roll out the dough to the desired thickness and place it on a pizza peel that is coated with flour and/or corn meal.

If using a packaged pizza crust: Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to the temperature recommended on the package. Place the premade crust onto a pizza peel or large cutting board.

Step 2: Assemble the pizza ingredients

Sprinkle the cooked chorizo evenly over the pizza crust. If using the peppers, arrange thin slices of peppers evenly over the chorizo. Top with mozzarella, and then the cheddar. Lastly, crack one egg onto the top of the pizza, right in the middle. (Alternatively, you could fry the egg separately and slide on top the finished, cooked pizza.)

Step 3: Bake the pizza

If using fresh dough: Carefully slide the pizza from the peel onto the baking stone. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the egg white is set and the cheese is melted.

If using a packaged pizza crust: Place the pizza onto the middle rack. Bake as long as the package recommends, or at least until the egg white is set and the cheese is melted.

Step 4: Slice and serve

Remove cooked pizza from oven and place on a cutting board. Allow to cool for a few minutes, and then cut into slices, making sure each slice gets some of the yolk.

 

Step by Step Details

Preheat the oven (and stone, if using) prior to starting. Any pizza is best when made with fresh dough: either make your own or buy some: several Italian delis and upscale grocery stores in my area sell small bags of fresh pizza dough. You can also use a premade pizza crust like Boboli.

I used fresh dough for mine, but prebaked the crust for just a couple minutes beforehand.

First, I lightly sprayed the top with extra virgin olive oil. I’m not sure why I did this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I’m not sure it mattered much in the end, so I’ll label this step Optional.

Fry up the chorizo until nice and crumbly.

Sprinkle the cooked chorizo evenly over the pizza crust.

If using the peppers, arrange thin slices evenly over the chorizo. (I only used these because I had a jar open already that needed to be used up. You could probably use fresh peppers as well.)

Top with mozzarella, and then the cheddar. Or, if you have a “Pizza” blend, like I did, just use that. The cheddar is what helps give that nicely browned look to the finished pizza.

Lastly, crack one egg onto the top of the pizza, right in the middle. Yes, really!

Alternatively, you could fry the egg separately and slide it on top the finished, cooked pizza, which will ensure a nice, runny yolk, if that’s what you like.

Bake the pizza:

If using fresh dough: Carefully slide the pizza from the peel onto the baking stone. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the egg white is set and the cheese is melted.

If using packaged pizza crusts: Place the pizza onto the middle rack. Bake as long as the package recommends, or at least until the egg white is set and the cheese is melted.

Remove the cooked pizza and place on a cooling rack.

Allow to cool for a few minutes, and then slide onto a cutting board cut into slices, making sure each slice gets some of the yolk. Enjoy!

RECIPE NOTES: I need to experiment more (and peek at the baking pizza less) before I decide which method I prefer to cook the egg. I cooked this pizza on the grill and was worried about scorching the bottom (see my Bloopers photo #6), so I kept lifting the lid to check on the crust. However, by doing this, I allowed a lot of the heat to escape, which made the egg take longer to cook. In the end, the crust and chorizo were a bit dry and the egg was overcooked (for my taste), with the yolk being completely set instead of runny.

Later I fried an egg and placed it over the remaining pizza, which gave me more of what I had envisioned when I dreamed up this recipe.

However you choose to cook the egg, and whichever type of chorizo you use, it’s going to taste great. Enjoy!