Eggs in a basket and Meatballs!!

Eggs in a basket and Meatballs!
It’s been awhile since I’ve made both meatballs and eggs in a basket so I thought I’d show you again in case you missed the first time around! Eggs in a basket can be served as a burger (which is how I did it here) or with no bun simply plated with a side dish and salad or browned on the stove and finished in the oven over spaghetti sauce. If you do it in the oven, preheat your oven to 425° and spread the spaghetti sauce in the bottom of your casserole. Place the browned meat donuts over the spaghetti sauce, crack your egg, and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. Your egg needs to be runny not hard.
Here’s what you need to do:
Mix the following together in a bowl and set aside to soak as you prepare the meat.
1 cup milk (any kind from regular to rice to buttermilk)
2 eggs beaten
1 heaping cup of breadcrumbs (I like a combination of half Panko and half Italian flavored)
In a separate large bowl combine:
3 lbs of meat, I used a combination of
1 lb ground chicken (you can use hamburger or ground pork too)
1 lb Sweet Italian sausage
1 lb Hot Italian sausage (you can use all sweet if you don’t like spicy)
3/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese
1 small onion diced
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
Combine the meat mixture with your hands to really blend it all together then incorporate the soaked breadcrumbs. Be sure to really mix it all together thoroughly.
From there you can make burgers, meatballs, eggs in a basket or even meatloaf!
For the eggs in a basket,
patty out your meat in the palm of your hand and make a hole in the middle with your finger as shown in the video.
Making the hole a little bigger than the one I made is better, it will hold the egg a little better.
Add a little olive or canola oil maybe 2-3 tablespoons and cook covered about 4 minutes per side.
Once cooked crack
an egg and top each “basket” in the hole. Don’t worry about it being perfect! The white will run over, just get the yolk in the middle. I will say again, making the hole a bit bigger than I did does make adding the eggs easier. If you’re not a fan of the egg whites separate the egg and just use the yolk. Once you’ve added your egg and about 3 tablespoons of water to your frying pan and cover again to steam your eggs.
You want your eggs like they are “over easy”
Not hard boiled. The yolk makes this dish just unctuous, silky deliciousness!!
If you want to make these and freeze the leftovers that’s great, just thaw in the fridge and add a little water to your frying pan to reheat the patties then add your egg centers.
Not even kidding y’all, yes, there are a few steps here but is it worth…yes it is, please try this, I promise you will not be disappointed!!!
If you want to turn it into meatballs use whatever size scoop you want (the little scoops make great cocktail meatballs or wedding soup meatballs)
Spray your baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for an hour.
Make this into a loaf and top a sauce mixture of
3 tablespoons brown sugar (Splenda brown sugar works too)
4 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine well and top meatloaf. Bake at 350 for an hour and 15.
There ya go, 3 great meals out of one recipe and poof your freezer is looking good!
Remember as I said in the video, you can make these up from fresh meat and freeze raw (although you would need to freeze the on the cookie sheet first to make them hold their shape before you put them in a ziplock) or if you are working with meat you have from your freezer you MUST cook it off THEN freeze it. YOU CANNOT REFREEZE MEAT!
Enjoy my sweet friends