Sausage Breakfast Pizza

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that’s especially true for something like sausage breakfast pizza. This layered baked dish is a showstopper, packed with all the breakfast classics: eggs, meat, cheese and veggies. Gilding the lily is gravy, used as the pizza “sauce” for a biscuit-and-gravy-pizza mashup that will turn heads.

Serve breakfast pizza for a Sunday brunch, make it for early football-watching parties or for the holidays when everyone’s home and hungry. Pair it with a crisp, refreshing salad, and you’ll have your new favorite lunch or dinner.

Ingredients for Sausage Breakfast Pizza

• Refrigerated crescent rolls: Use your favorite crescent roll brand from the grocery store’s refrigerated section.
• Bulk pork sausage: You could use the classic black pepper and sage breakfast sausage, or choose any other flavor of seasoned ground meat that makes you happy. Bulk sausage refers to sausage that’s not packed into a link, casing or patty shape. If you can only find links, remove the casings to crumble the sausage. Or buy ground pork and flavor it yourself, like you would when making your own sausage patties.
• Onion: Cook the meat with a white, yellow or red onion. If you’re short on onions, scallions would be fine, too.
• Green pepper: Green bell peppers are basically unripe orange or yellow peppers, so use whichever color you like best. The brighter-colored peppers will be sweeter.
• Gravy mix: Prepackaged gravy mix makes this pretty effortless. If you’re the DIY type, make white gravy, chicken gravy or sausage gravy from scratch.
• Eggs: Let the eggs come to room temperature before cooking them so it’s easier to mix them.
• 2% milk: This middle-of-the-road milk is our go-to for most recipes. Use whole or skim milk, if you prefer.
• Seasonings: Salt and pepper are all you need to season the dish.
• Butter: It’s OK to use salted or unsalted butter.
• Mushrooms: Any type of mushroom works here, from classic button to cremini, portobello or oyster mushrooms.
• Cheese: You’ll sprinkle shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheese over the pizza before baking it, but if you can, shred the cheeses yourself. Packaged shredded cheese saves time, but it’s mixed with fillers and anti-clumping agents that mildly affect the texture and flavor.
• Chives: A little garnish of chopped chives adds a pleasing green color to the breakfast pizza. It’s pretty easy to grow and harvest chives at home.

Directions

Step 1: Bake the crust

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Separate the crescent roll dough into 16 triangles and place them on a greased 14-inch round pizza pan, making a circle with the points toward the center. Press the dough onto the bottom and up the side of the pan to form a crust, then seal the seams. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 11 to 13 minutes.

Step 2: Make the topping

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage, onion and green pepper until the sausage is no longer pink, breaking it into crumbles with a spoon or spatula as you stir. Drain the fat and juices from the pan. Prepare the gravy according to the package directions, and stir it into the sausage mixture. Set the mixture aside.

Step 3: Add eggs and bake

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook, stirring, until it’s almost set. Spread the gravy and meat mixture over the crust, and top with the eggs, mushrooms and cheeses. Bake the pizza until the eggs are set and the cheese is melted, around 5 to 10 minutes. If desired, sprinkle the breakfast pizza with chives.

Sausage Breakfast Pizza Variations

• Try new toppings: The sky is the limit when it comes to toppings for breakfast pizza. Use bacon or ham instead of sausage; add any type of potato, like small chunks of seasoned, roasted potato; or mix in baby spinach, chopped kale or tomatoes.
• Go global: A Mexican-inspired breakfast pizza might include chorizo sausage, red onion and oregano, while an Italian-leaning variation could feature hot Italian sausage, broccoli, Parmesan and cherry tomatoes.

How to Store Sausage Breakfast Pizza

As soon as the breakfast pizza is cool, transfer it to an airtight container, or wrap the baking pan thoroughly, and keep it in the fridge.

How long does sausage breakfast pizza last?

This dish is best eaten soon after you make it, although it will be good for up to four days.

How do you reheat sausage breakfast pizza?

Don’t use the microwave for this one! Heat it back up in a 350° oven until it’s as hot as you like.

Sausage Breakfast Pizza Tips

Can you use a different crust for sausage breakfast pizza?

You can use any kind of crust for sausage breakfast pizza, from store-bought or homemade buttermilk biscuit dough to pizza dough or even pie crust.

What else can you serve with sausage breakfast pizza?

Sausage breakfast pizza calls for simple, healthy fruits and vegetables on the side. Match it with a fresh fruit salad, oven-roasted broccoli and cauliflower, stir-fried green beans, Caesar salad or a refreshing cucumber salad with sour cream.