The Breakfast Fatty

The other day, my friend and fellow competitor, Big John Yeast of Code 3 BBQ Team invited my to St. Louis Home Fires to sample some of Jason Day's (Burnt Finger BBQ) famous Bacon Explosions. Jason is the inventor of the "original" which is often imitated but never truly duplicated! Big John cooked up both the "Original" and the new "Cheese" Bacon Explosions and they did not disappoint! I highly recommend you try these - they are the real deal!

The Bacon Explosion is a type of Fatty (see our previous post on the Bacon Wrapped Fatty) made by stuffing chopped bacon slathered in BBQ sauce inside of Italian Sausage and then wrapping that wonderful explosion of pork flavors with a bacon weave seasoned with BBQ rub. They make my mouth water just thinking about them!

During our feast, Big John and I started talking about some of the Fatty's we have cooked in the past and John mentioned he wished he had a breakfast fatty recipe. Well being a person that never passes up an opportunity to cook, I decided to post a Breakfast Fatty recipe inspired by Jason's Original Bacon Explosion. This ones for you Big John! Let's get started.

The ingredients

We are going to stuff this Italian Sausage Breakfast Fatty cheddar cheese, hash browns, scrambled eggs, sausage links and bacon.

Preparing the Sausage for Stuffing

The first thing we want to do is to put the Italian Sausage in a standard 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag and roll it to a uniform thickness with a rolling pin. I usually spray the inside of the bag with PAM so that it is easy to remove the sausage with minimal sticking. Be sure to leave the bag open at the top so that air can escape while rolling out the sausage. Another tip is to cut along the sides of the bag with scissors to easily access the sausage in the next steps.

Cook All the Ingredients Prior to Stuffing

The next step is too cook the stuffing ingredients. Prepare the hash browns according to the package ingredients. I pan fried mine in chipotle olive oil and seasoned them with Kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper. For the eggs, I scrambled them in butter, added a healthy portion of sauteed diced jalapenos and seasoned them with Penzy's "Mural of Flavor" spice. Finally cook up a few slices of bacon and about 6-8 sausage links. Now - let the stuffing begin!

Start by Adding the Cheese

Start by centering the rolled out sausage on a piece of parchment paper. The parchment paper is actually a tool to be used to help us roll the stuffed sausage into a log. Because we are rolling from the front towards the back and we are folding in the sides of the sausage to create the log, we want to leave a 1 inch border around the perimeter of the sausage. Notice how the cheese is positioned on the sausage. Let's continue adding ingredients.

Next Add the Hash Browns

Next we will add the hash browns on top of the cheese. Notice that we extended the hash browns slightly past the cheese towards the back. As we use the parchment paper to roll the log, the ingredients get compacted and pushed towards the back. Staggering like this creates a unique spiral of ingredients inside the Fatty. It also leaves enough sausage at the top to overlap and completely encase the ingredients so that seal everything in an not have a noticeable seam. Now let's add the eggs.

Adding the Scrambled Eggs

Notice that with this layer too, we stagger the ingredients extending them slightly past the existing layers towards the back of the sausage. Now on to our final two ingredients.

Add the Sausage and Bacon

Finish by adding the sausage and bacon. I alternated the sausage and bacon it this step. It does make a difference in appearance of the final product once it is sliced. Remember, when we roll the sausage to create the log, we are compressing the ingredients as we roll from front to back and fold in the sides. The process creates a spiral of ingredients inside the Fatty. Rolling the Fatty is a combination of art and science. It's really hard to take pictures of the steps and if I can find a camera assistant, I will post a video.

The Finished Stuffed Sausage Log

The key here is to use the parchment paper much like a sushi chef would us a bamboo mat. You are rolling from front to back tucking and compressing as you roll forward and pulling the parchment paper back as you progress. At the same time you are folding the ends in to completely encase the ingredients. It takes a little practice, but after just a couple, you will be a pro. Above is the finished log. Now it's time to create the bacon weave and wrap the log.

7 x 7 Bacon Weave

Start by cutting a piece of parchment paper. we are going to make a 7 x 7 bacon weave. Start by lying 7 slices of bacon side by side creating a square on the parchment. Next weave in the remaining seven slices of bacon creating a mat. There are a number of videos and step by step instructions on the internet if need help. Just search on "bacon weave" to find them. The final step is to wrap the log in the bacon weave.

Preparing to Wrap the Sausage Log in the Bacon Weave

We are again going to use the parchment paper much like a sushi mat. Place the log as pictured on the bacon weave. We will roll from front to back peeling back the parchment paper and tucking the sides of the bacon as we progress.

Finished Fatty

The finished Fatty will be completely encased in the bacon weave with the seam on the bottom. we will want to cook it seam side down until the bacon has set and started to crisp. Prepare you smoker for indirect cooking at a temperature of 225. I like to smoke breakfast fatty's with hickory wood, but any fruit wood will work fine too, especially apple or cherry. Hickory and apple is a really nice combo for these too.

Finished Smoked Breakfast Fatty

You will want to cook the fatty to an internal temperature of 155 degrees. At the temp, the insides will be hot, the sausage thoroughly cooked and the bacon will be juicy and crisp. Yum!

The Breakfast Fatty is Served!

Now for the finished product! Notice how the stuffing ingredients form a spiral from the center starting with the bacon and sausage links and moving clockwise from the center out incorporating the eggs, hash browns, cheese and Italian sausage. There are different flavors in almost every bite! For this one, I toasted a bun and created a sandwich. Try it on a toasted bagel or English muffin or open faced on toast topped with sausage gravy. You really can go wrong!

I hope you give this a try and let me know how it turns out. Enjoy!