Diner Home Fries
Potatoes, onion, and bacon crisped in one pan, with eggs finished in the gaps.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 800 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Dairy free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Potatoes | 3-4 medium | quartered; any variety works |
|---|---|---|
| Green bell pepper | 1/2 small | diced small |
| Red onion | 1/2 | sliced thin |
| Button mushrooms | 4 | quartered; drained canned mushrooms are fine |
| Cherry tomatoes | a handful | wedge them if you only have large tomatoes |
| Streaky bacon | 2 rashers | rind off, chopped rough |
| Eggs | 2 | |
| Cooking oil | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil the quartered potatoes in a small pot, 8-10 minutes, until a knife goes in with slight resistance. Drain. Cut the vegetables while they cook.
- Wipe the pot dry or switch to a pan. Heat the oil over medium-high.
- Add potatoes, pepper, onion, mushrooms, and bacon. Salt and pepper. Cook 6-8 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until the potato edges brown.
- Scatter the tomatoes over the top.
- Push everything to the edges to open two bare spots. Crack an egg into each. Cook 3-4 minutes, until the whites set.
- If the whites are still loose, cover the pan with a lid or a plate for a minute. The trapped steam finishes them.
- Split it between two, or eat it out of the pan.
This is diner food, so it needs a cooler and a real pan — it does not compress into a freezer-bag meal. Par-boiling is what makes it work at camp: raw potatoes take twenty-plus minutes in a pan and burn on the outside before the middle gives up, while par-boiled ones only need to brown. One pot does both jobs if you dry it between.
The eggs are the part that fails. A camp stove throws heat at one spot, so the whites near the edge stay raw while the bottom sets. Covering the pan turns the residual moisture into steam and cooks the tops down. Drain the mushrooms well and do not crowd the pan; too much water and the potatoes steam grey instead of crisping.
Packing
Potatoes, pepper, onion, and mushrooms travel fine at ambient temperature in a mesh bag. Bacon and eggs need the cooler. Cut the vegetables at home into a lidded container if you would rather not board a cutting board.
Variations
- Drop the bacon for a vegetarian pan, or swap in sliced chorizo, which keeps better than bacon does.
- Canned mushrooms save cooler space. Drain them hard or the pan steams instead of browning.
- Hot sauce over the top.
https://www.advrider.com/breakfast-potato-home-fries