Fried Bread Is Buttered Toast Living Its Best Life

You’ve probably already been introduced to the delight that is fried bread—you just didn’t know it yet. Most classically served as part of a full English breakfast or Irish fry-up, fried bread (also known as fried toast) is a slice of bread pan-fried in butter, oil, or lard. Fried bread also allows for both sides of the bread to crisp—it’s basically a grilled cheese or pressed sandwich without all those pesky fillings. Some may be inclined to treat fried bread like those oh-so-trendy flashy toasts and top it with avocado or, God forbid, pastel-dyed cream cheese, but I don’t recommend it. Fried bread is best served straight up, and used to mop up the yolks of a sunny side up egg or two.

Drop a knob of good butter or a heavy splash of olive oil into a pan and heat over medium until hot. Grab two pieces of bread, be they thick slices of sourdough or squishy white; whatever you have in the freezer will do just fine. Drop the bread in the pan and let it cook undisturbed for 2-3 minutes. Peek underneath the bread, looking for a deep gold flecked with dark brown. Flip the bread. If the pan is beginning to look dry, toss in a bit more butter or oil on the side of the bread and give the pan a good shake. Another 2-3 minutes and the second side of the bread should be sufficiently charred and glistening with fat.

Slide the fried bread onto a plate. That plate can be empty, or it can be filled with other things that are parts of a complete breakfast: the aforementioned sunny side up eggs, sausages, fried potatoes and onions, perhaps something green. If you prefer to make a meal of fried bread, dive in immediately with a hot mug of coffee on the side.

For those in search of something sweeter, roughly chop a few ounces of bittersweet chocolate while the bread fries. The moment the warm bread hits the plate, cover the exposed side in chocolate. Allow the chocolate a moment to start melting, then add a light dusting of sea salt.