Prime Rib Breakfast Hash

The best breakfast hash I had ever had in my whole life can be found at Hot Suppa, here in Portland. They make their own corned beef, and as such, in their version, the meat takes center stage. Their corned beef hash is really more of an excuse to eat giant, shredded chunks of corned beef for breakfast, seared beautifully, with a thick, crunchy crust . With two perfect poached eggs and a shot of Sriracha, I’m hard-pressed to think of something I would rather have for breakfast.

Until today, that is. Now, the best breakfast hash I have ever had in my whole life was made right in our own kitchen. The only way I could think to improve on Hot Suppa’s hash was to ratchet up my ingredients. My version uses leftover prime rib, potatoes, and onions, all sauteed in the drippings from some bone marrow I had test-roasted earlier in the week. But more on that tomorrow.

There are, to my mind, three keys to a successful homemade breakfast hash. They are as follows:

1. Your ingredients must all be chopped to the same size. Aim for getting everything to a 1/4 inch dice. Refrigerate your boiled potatoes and whatever meat you are using before dicing, to help get things chopped small and uniformly.
2. Do not, under any circumstances, skip the heavy cream. It’s what brings the whole thing together into a cohesive whole, with the consistency you expect.
3. Use a cast iron skillet, crusting-and-recrusting several times. When you think it’s crusted enough, flatten it out, and crust again.

Prime Rib Breakfast Hash
Adapted from a recipe in Saveur

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup canola oil, or any kind of beef drippings
• 2 cups boiled and cooled potatoes, cut into 1/4″ cubes
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups cold roast beef, prime rib (trimmed), or even pot roast, cut into 1/4″ cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

Method:

In a cast iron skillet over medium heat, brown potatoes in oil or drippings, breaking them up as little as possible, about 10 minutes. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, another 10 minutes. Add beef, garlic, sage, cayenne, and nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and continue cooking, stirring often, 5 minutes. Finally, add cream and reduce. When all liquid is absorbed, flatten hash in pan. Turn heat to high and let cook, about 4 minutes. Flip hash in sections, preserving crust. Repeat until desired crispness, approximately 10 more minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve with fried or poached eggs.

Tagged as: beef, breakfast, eggs, hash

About the Author: Malcolm Bedell

My first memories of cooking start in Maine at six years old, when I wore a yellow rainslicker to avoid getting spattered by the bacon I was frying in a skillet. My interest in both Mexican cooking and recreating classic New England dishes from scratch developed while living in Mexico, on a steady diet of pork and habanero peppers. You can see more of my writing and photography online on Serious Eats, the Huffington Post, BlogHer, and Foodista, as well as in print for Downeast, Indulge, and Cigar Snob magazines.