As you might guess, I love it when guests bring me good food. This is especially true when that food is hard to find in my area.

Last week Betsy and I had some friends in town from Seattle and they brought us a wonderful package of smoked salmon.

Keep in mind, this is not lox, or cured salmon. It’s not super-salty, but has a deep, rich smoky flavor. Other than just eating it with a fork, I wanted to use it in a breakfast dish.

This Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich just sort of took shape based on some things I had in my fridge (and a loaf of pumpernickel bread that looked particularly good at the store).

It’s a great open-faced breakfast and flexible enough that you could use tuna or any smoked or cured fish and be in good shape.

Breakfast Salmon Sandwiches

5 from 1 vote
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Flaked smoked salmon on an open-faced sandwich with crunchy veggies, cream cheese, and hearty pumpernickel bread.

Ingredients 

  • 8 ounces smoked salmon, flaked
  • 4 slices thick pumpernickel bread, toasted
  • 1 cup arugula
  • 2 radishes, sliced thin
  • ½ red onion, sliced thin
  • 4 eggs, fried
  • Olive oil
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Coarse sea salt

Chive Cream Cheese:

  • ½ cup cream cheese
  • 3-4 tablespoons fresh chives
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  • For the cream cheese spread, mince chives and stir into softened cream cheese. Season with a small pinch of salt and pepper.
  • Prep your toppings by slicing onions and radishes.
  • For eggs, add a drizzle of oil to a skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering and hot, crack in eggs and let cook for a minute until whites start to set. For sunny side up, cover the eggs with a lid and let steam for about 60 seconds until whites are just set and yolks are still runny. You could also just flip the eggs and cook them over-easy.
  • To make sandwiches, toast bread and spread on some cream cheese spread. Top with crunchy veggies, smoked salmon (I like about 2 ounces per piece of bread), and an egg. Drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle the sandwiches with red pepper flakes and coarse salt. Dig in!

Nutrition

Serving: 1sandwich | Calories: 232kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 180mg | Sodium: 863mg | Potassium: 342mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 519IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 161mg | Iron: 2mg
Course: Breakfast & Brunch, Main Dishes, Sandwiches
Cuisine: American

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Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich

Fishy Choices

Like I said, my choice here was easy because I was given some great smoked salmon.

To be honest, smoked salmon isn’t as pretty as cured salmon which will end up being a bright color, but smoked salmon wins my heart when it comes to flavor.

I could eat this whole piece of fish by myself without a problem.

Smoked Salmon - Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich
Smoked.

Smoked salmon can be pretty pricy though and may not even be available in all areas. No worries. You could use albacore tuna in this recipe actually or you could use lox (cured salmon). If you use cured salmon, you can probably eliminate the salt seasoning on the sandwich because the salmon will be plenty salty.

Other Fixings

Any time you’re making a sandwich, it’s a good idea to have a spread for it. This spread doesn’t get much easier. I just softened some cream cheese and mixed in fresh chives with a pinch of salt and pepper.

A quick cheese spread.
A quick cheese spread.

Any bread would work fine also, but I recommend trying to find a sturdy bread with some flavor to it. I think pumpernickel works great with the other flavors going on if you can find it.

Sturdy bread - Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich
Sturdy bread.

Of course, texture is important with any sandwich. So far we have cream cheese (soft), smoked salmon (soft) and an egg (soft), so we need some crunchy stuff to round out the sandwich.

These will do the trick just fine.

Crunchy veg.
Crunchy veg.

Oh, and about that egg, I recommend cooking them sunny-side up or over-easy so the yolks stay runny. It kind of turns into a sauce for the sandwich as you cut into it.

To do sunny-side up, add a drizzle of oil to a skillet over medium heat and then crack in your eggs. Let them cook for about 60 seconds until the whites start to set and then cover the skillet with a lid and let them steam for 45-60 seconds. That should set up the whites completely and leave the yolks soft.

Sunny Side indeed.
Sunny Side indeed.

Building the Sandwich

It’s pretty easy to build these guys at this point. Toast the bread and spread on some chive spread.

Then top with lots of crunchy veggies.

Easy to build - Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich
Easy to build.

Add about two ounces of flaked salmon to each sandwich and top with an egg.

Finish off each sandwich with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of red pepper flakes and coarse sea salt.

Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich - Macheesmo
Really easy to eat.

Two of these is a BIG meal. For a brunch, I think one and maybe a small fruit salad on the side would be plenty of food. The Smoked Salmon Breakfast Sandwich is really filling.

Even if you can’t find good smoked salmon, use what you have access to and make this beauty.