Onion Rings Should Be Placed on the Breakfast Sandwich.
With the exception of bacon, the most common ingredients for breakfast sandwiches – eggs, cheese, sausage, and ham – are fairly bland. You can add textural contrast by toasting bread (or adding potato pancakes or bacon). Or you can do all of this and also add crispy golden onion rings.
When I first came up with this idea, I didn’t think it was the best for me. I don’t like onion rings on hamburgers (oddly enough, I am minimalist about hamburgers). I hate the way the onion slices slip out of their crispy homes like many sharp snakes do. But, as we recently discovered, onion rings can solve the slip problem. (If the breading is the home of the onion snake, then rolling it all causes the roof to collapse, trapping the snake and breaking its long, wavy spine.)
Anyway. I had some frozen onion rings left over from the waffle experiment and decided it was best to use them. Guess what? I was (again) right. It was the most textured breakfast sandwich I have ever eaten and tasted like fried onions, two of my favorite flavors. (Roasted is the flavor.) This is a maximalist brunch sandwich perfect for a morning hangover or a late dinner. Not only that, the rings help hold the sandwich together: Curved, grippy onion rings hold the eggs in place with their crispy surface, preventing any unwanted slipping. (This is especially helpful with scrambled eggs.)
It is not necessary to use onion rings in waffles. Baked or fried will do. However, waffles are the quickest way to cook them – just tap them quickly while frying or stirring the eggs. Once everything is fried / toasted / waffle / otherwise cooked, make your sandwich by starting with a firm base of onion rings on the bottom slice of bread. Add eggs, cheese and meat of your choice (if you eat meat). Close. Crunch down.