The Perfect Breakfast Skillet

There is no better way to start a lazy morning than with a breakfast skillet. Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and sausage are all good on their own – but when you cook them together, the flavours blend together in a way that can't be fully appreciated except through a skillet. They're also incredibly versatile – even though I've made dozens of skillets, I've never made two quite the same.

This week I was in Vancouver, my hometown, visiting my family. The first morning back, I woke up at 6am due to jetlag and felt like cooking. My mom and sister's had never had a breakfast skillet, so at about 8am while they were slowly waking up to the new day, I was busy putting one together. My mom didn't have a traditional cast iron pan like I usually use, nor did she have bacon, but I made do with what I had to make a breakfast that made the whole house smell like a perfect Saturday morning.

Ingredients for four people:

• four cups diced potatoes
• eight strips of bacon
• eight eggs
• a handful of green onion
• a handful of your favourite grated cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• your favourite spices herbs to taste (I love using herbes de provence and steak spice)
• two cloves of garlic

Start first by cooking the bacon to your favourite level of crispiness on medium heat, then set it aside. If you prefer, substitute the bacon for sausage or omit it all together for a meat free breakfast. Do not drain the bacon fat; if you keep it in the pan, it can be used along with the butter for an oil in which to cook the potatoes in, and it will add a great flavour.

Add 1 tablespoon of butter to your skillet, or about 3 tablespoons if you already have bacon fat.. Throw your potatoes into the pan and coat them throughly with the butter. Add salt, pepper, spices and herbs to taste. I enjoy adding steak spices and herbes de provence, but feel free to experiment! Cook the potatoes, flipping occasionally, until they are brown & crispy on the outside, while soft on the inside. It will take roughly ten minutes. As the potatoes are cooking, chop or tear the bacon into small pieces.

Once the potatoes are cooked, add the bacon, green onions and garlic to the skillet and toss them with the potatoes. Form four little pockets in the potatoes and carefully crack one or two eggs in each pocket and sprinkle some grated cheese on each egg. Cook until your eggs have reached your desired level of doneness, then cut the skillet into four servings and serve. Enjoy with a fresh cup of coffee or a glass of orange juice.