Ham Egg and Cheese Breakfast Pizza Recipe

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. All opinions are 100% mine.

A ham, egg, and cheese breakfast pizza recipe combines the classic flavors of a Denver omelet with eat by the slice convenience. This breakfast pizza also makes a fun brunch recipe or grab and go breakfast that you can eat in the car.

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What is breakfast pizza?

If you have not yet been introduced to the wonderful hybrid called breakfast pizza, let me be the first to welcome you to this delicious combo. While many of us know the simple joy of eating leftover pizza for breakfast, this is NOT what is meant when you hear the term “breakfast pizza”.

A breakfast pizza combines classic breakfast ingredients like eggs and bacon, sausage, or ham (even hashbrowns!) on top of a cheesy pizza crust. Basically, it’s like eating an omelet or breakfast casserole in the form of a pizza.

Breakfast pizza ideas

A breakfast pizza recipe with eggs can have either scrambled eggs, or sunny side up eggs. Usually the scrambled egg breakfast pizzas will have them incorporated into a cheesy sauce.

This breakfast pizza sauce is a typical cheese sauce made by mixing flour into melted butter, stirring in some milk, letting it boil and thicken, then removing from heat to melt in your cheese.

You can also skip the sauce and go with regular melted cheese. I prefer this route since it’s less cooking and still tastes delicious.

Basically, for coming up with your own breakfast pizza ideas, just think of your favorite savory breakfast and how you can turn it into a pizza. While omelets are an obvious choice, you could also go with biscuits and gravy breakfast pizza (using the pizza crust in place of the biscuits) or a huevos rancheros breakfast pizza.

Is breakfast pizza a Midwest thing?

Now if you hear anyone from the Midwest of the United States mention breakfast pizza, they are likely talking about a very specific pizza, rather than their favorite breakfast pizza recipe.

Iowa has a large chain of gas stations famous for their pizza made daily from scratch, and their breakfast pizzas are held high on a pedestal by every local I’ve talked to.

Rather than trying to replicate their famous pies, I decided to model my breakfast pizza recipe after my favorite breakfast dish, the Denver omelet.

Equipment and ingredients

The equipment needed for making this ham, egg, and cheese breakfast pizza is pretty basic, and found in most home kitchens.

• Rolling pin
• Pizza stone
• Oven mitts (or thick kitchen towel)
• Knife and cutting board
• Pizza slicer

Like the kitchen equipment you will likely already have many of the breakfast pizza ingredients in your fridge or pantry.

• Cornmeal
• Pizza dough
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Kosher salt
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Hillshire Farm Quarter Cut Ham
• Red bell pepper
• Red onion
• Green onions
• Eggs
• Fresh parsley
• Red pepper flakes
• Fresh ground pepper

Additional kitchen equipment options

If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can use a sheet pan. Just make sure to oil it well before putting your dough on. You also don’t need to preheat the sheet pan like the recipe says to do with the pizza stone.

You may want a small bowl handy for cracking your eggs into if you’re worried about breaking the yolks, but this isn’t a necessity.

If you have a mandoline slicer, it can be a great way to get thin even slices for your bell pepper and red onion. Then you could use kitchen shears to chop your green onions and parsley, and just skip the knife and cutting board.

Ingredient options

You have a few different options for your pizza dough. You can make your own homemade pizza dough (try my quick no-rise pizza crust dough recipe), or buy refrigerated pizza dough. I prefer refrigerated dough from the deli if I’m going to buy it, but you can also use refrigerated pizza dough from a can for your breakfast pizza.

If using the rectangular dough from a can you can either let it warm up a little at room temperature (just leave it in an oiled bowl and cover with saran wrap), or use it in the rectangular shape on a sheet pan. If you don’t need to roll your dough out, you can also skip the cornmeal. Just use a little extra olive oil to oil the sheet pan really well.

My new favorite ham

I’m so excited that I was hired to create a recipe with their Uncured, Hardwood Smoked Ham, because I’ve never tried it before and I’m very happy with it. While we love eating ham on sandwiches, with green eggs, and in ham and bean soup, I’ve always used a whole ham and sliced it myself because I hadn’t found a lunch meat version that I really love.

Thankfully, I now have a new favorite. The Hillshire Farm Quarter Cut Ham is actually in the meat section at your local Walmart, not with the cheese and lunch meat.

This ham comes pre-sliced, and is the perfect size for sandwiches. I love that it has no preservatives, and no nitrates or nitrites except those naturally occurring in celery powder and sea salt. It also is raised with no added hormones and is a proud product of the USA.

Nutritionally, I really like that their Uncured, Hardwood Smoked Ham is extra lean while still being a good source of protein at 15* grams per serving.This makes it a great option for a quick bite of protein between meals.

This is definitely my new go to ham, and pretty affordable at Walmart. Make sure to let me know what you think when you give it a try. I love hearing from you!

How to make breakfast pizza from scratch

Alright, let’s get into how to make the best breakfast pizza recipe. Well, at least my current favorite. It’s the only one I’ve made so it’s certainly the best pizza breakfast recipe I’ve tried!

Start by preheating your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re using a pizza stone, place it in the oven as well.

At this point you can prepare your breakfast pizza ingredients by making a few thin slices of bell pepper and red onion, chopping up some green onions, slicing your pieces of ham in half, and shredding your cheese if it is not pre-shredded.

Next, sprinkle your work surface (like the counter or a large cutting board) with cornmeal and roll your dough into a circle about 12 inches across.

Use oven mitts or a thick kitchen towel to remove the pizza stone and set it on a heat safe surface. Place your circle of dough onto the stone.

Spread the breakfast pizza dough with olive oil and then sprinkle all over with garlic powder, onion powder, and sea salt.

Leaving three spaces open for the eggs, spread your cheeses on top of the dough. Fold each half slice of ham like a fan and use a toothpick to secure into place all along the cheese. Then tuck the slices of bell pepper, red onion, and green onion around the ham on top of the cheese.

You are basically making a circle with an upside down Y in the middle out of the cheese and toppings.

As you are topping the pizza, the dough will start to cook and the cheese will start to melt from the heat of the pizza stone. This is fine. Use the back of a spoon to press into the dough between the toppings to help create a cup shape for when it’s time to add the eggs.

Carefully (the stone is still hot!) place the pizza in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the edges of the dough just begin to brown.

Remove from the oven and gently crack an egg into each of the open spaces of the breakfast pizza.

Leaving the yolk intact gives a stunning presentation, so you can crack the eggs into a small bowl one at a time then gently pour onto the pizza if you are worried about breaking the yolks.

Pull the toothpicks out of the ham which should hold its shape now that it is getting crispy.

Return the pizza to the oven for about 10 minutes more, until the egg whites are completely set and the crust is a beautiful golden brown.

Top the breakfast pizza as desired with fresh chopped parsley, red pepper flakes, coarse salt, and fresh cracked black pepper.

Slice the pizza into 6 pieces and serve while it’s hot!

Have you ever had breakfast pizza before? We’d love to hear about your favorite kind. And if you make this ham egg and cheese breakfast pizza recipe, let us know what you think!

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