Gordon Ramsay full English breakfast sandwich puts the whole fry-up between two slices of toasted bread. Roasted portobello, back bacon, split sausages, a fried egg and baked beans, finished with a roasted tomato smear. It makes two and takes about an hour and a quarter.
The recipe is from Idiot Sandwich, published in 2025 through his own Bite Books imprint. The book admits to leaving the black pudding out, but refuses to give up the beans.
The order matters more than it looks. Beans go on the bottom slice so the toast takes the wet weight, and the smear goes on top to meet the yolk. Get that backwards and the sandwich collapses in your hands.
Cooked this recipe? Send a photo or tell me what you changed at fans@gordonramsayrecipes.uk and I’ll share your experience live on this page.
Gordon Ramsay Full English Breakfast Sandwich
Course: BreakfastCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium2
sandwiches30
minutes45
minutes890
kcal1 hr 15 min
From Idiot Sandwich, the whole English fry-up rebuilt between two slices, with roasted portobello, back bacon, split bangers, a fried egg and seasoned baked beans under a chunky roasted tomato smear.
Ingredients
- For the mushrooms:
2 large portobello mushroom caps, cleaned
1 tbsp olive oil
- For the roasted tomato smear:
8 plum tomatoes, halved
3 tbsp neutral oil
- For the beans:
1 x 415g tin baked beans (13.7 oz)
⅛ tsp onion powder
½ tsp sugar
- To assemble:
2 tbsp neutral oil
2 sausages, cut in half lengthways
4 rashers back bacon
4 slices toasted English muffin bread
2 large eggs
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Directions
- Roast the mushrooms: Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Line a baking tray with parchment. Toss the mushrooms with the olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and some pepper, then roast for 20 to 30 minutes until browned and tender.
- Roast the tomatoes: Line a second tray, toss the halved tomatoes with the neutral oil and season with salt. Roast alongside the mushrooms for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.
- Blend the smear: Cool the tomatoes to room temperature, then blend until broken down and spreadable but still chunky. Season with salt to taste.
- Season the beans: Tip the beans into a small pan with the onion powder, sugar and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Heat over a medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Adjust the seasoning and keep warm over the lowest heat.
- Cook the sausages: Heat the neutral oil in a medium frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the sausages and cook on all sides for about 8 minutes, until caramelised. Add a splash of water, cover and steam for 5 minutes, until cooked through and 63°C (145°F) inside. Set aside and wipe the pan out.
- Fry the bacon: Cut four small slits along opposite sides of each rasher to stop it curling. Fry in the wiped pan over a medium heat for about 2 minutes a side, until crisp. Set aside and wipe the pan again.
- Fry the eggs: Melt the butter in a small non-stick pan over a medium heat. Once it bubbles and the foam dies down, crack in the eggs and fry for 3 to 4 minutes until the whites set. Cover with a lid if you need to, so the yolks stay runny. Season and lift out.
- Build: Start with a bottom slice of toasted bread, then a quarter-cup of beans, a portobello cap, two rashers of bacon, two sausage halves and a fried egg. Spread the top slice with the tomato smear and close the sandwich.
Notes
- Roast the mushrooms and tomatoes together in separate trays to save time, or skip the smear and use sun-dried tomatoes. The ingredient list calls for 2 eggs while the frying step mentions another 2. Two is right, one per sandwich. Calories are calculated from what actually ends up in the sandwich, not the full quantities of oil and smear.
FAQs
Why cut slits in the bacon before frying?
Four small slits along opposite sides of each rasher, and the reason is mechanical. Bacon curls because the fat and the meat shrink at different rates, so the rasher pulls itself into a cup.
Cutting through the edge gives it somewhere to release that tension. You get flat bacon that lies properly in a sandwich instead of a curl that pushes everything else out of place.
Why steam the sausages after browning them?
Eight minutes over a medium-high heat gets colour on all sides, but the middle is still raw at that point. A splash of water and a lid finishes them through without burning the outside.
The book gives a temperature rather than a time: 63°C (145°F) inside. Split lengthways as these are, they cook faster than whole sausages, so check earlier than you would expect.
Why add onion powder and sugar to tinned beans?
An eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder and half a teaspoon of sugar go into a standard tin, plus salt and pepper. Ten minutes over a low heat, stirring often, rather than just warmed through.
The sugar pushes the sauce sweeter so the beans read as a deliberate layer. The onion powder adds savoury depth without putting wet onion into a sandwich. Small change, big difference from straight out of the tin.
What is a roasted tomato smear?
Eight plum tomatoes, halved, oiled, salted and roasted until golden, then blended chunky rather than smooth. It goes on the top slice and replaces sliced tomato completely.
Roasting concentrates them, so you get the flavour without the water that turns bread soggy. The book offers sun-dried tomatoes as the shortcut if you would rather not roast.
Do you have to use English muffin bread?
That is what the book calls for, and it is more common in America than here. A muffin loaf gives the slightly chewy crumb that stands up to beans without collapsing.
Toasted sourdough or a good white bloomer does the job. What matters is that the bottom slice is properly toasted, since it carries beans and a runny yolk.
Can you make any of it ahead?
The tomato smear and the mushrooms, yes. Both keep for a couple of days in the fridge and reheat happily, or come back to room temperature.
Everything else has to be fresh. Bacon softens, the yolk sets solid, and a runny yolk meeting warm beans is the entire point of the sandwich.
How does this compare to his other breakfast sandwich?
Different build entirely. The breakfast sandwich from Next Level Kitchen uses crusty bread, blistered cherry tomatoes and sausage patties, with no beans and no mushroom.
This one is closer to a plated fry-up. Beans on the bottom, roasted portobello as its own layer, and the tomato arriving as a smear rather than whole. Same idea, opposite execution.
