How to Make Home Made McGriddles!

Pancakes filled with maple syrup, crispy bacon or juice sausage and fluffy eggs topped with melted cheese.

How could anyone have a better, more American breakfast?

I'll tell you how! If you sandwich each of these delicious things between two mini pancakes.  The McGriddle.  Even better, they sell it at McDonald's every morning. Incredibly American.

The only downside to that is I'm pretty sure each mcgriddle, whether you get it with or without orange juice and a hash brown, is still OVER FIVE DOLLARS.  It's a tasty sandwich and a very portable breakfast and all, but I'm just not okay with paying 5 dollars for a little bitty sandwich that I could make at home for much, much less. Not to mention the car line that you are bound to be waiting in every morning. 

You can make as many as you want all at once, and it doesn't even take that long.

To begin, you want to make sure you have everything you need out on the counter so you can work efficiently and don't have to run around grabbing things necessary for the next step.  

You'll Need: 

• A medium-sized skillet (yes, just one). Preferably non-stick.
• A couple eggs for your omelet
• pancake mix/batter (We're making mini pancakes, remember, so you might not need as much as you'd usually make!)
• Bacon or Sausage patties (or both!)
• Milk
• Syrup
• Slices of American Cheese or shredded cheese

Okay, I always start off with my mini pancakes.  They take the most time and work to make, so it's best to just get them out of the way.  When I am mixing my batter (I usually just buy the mix that you just add milk or water to), I usually add one egg because I find that it makes the pancakes fluffier, but also holds the pancakes together a little better. And i always use milk instead of water.  

You can make your pancakes as big or small as you want, but make sure they're big enough to hold your fillings.  For example, if you plan to use sausage patties, I would recommend making the pancakes about the same circumference as your patties, so you don't get too much in one bite and just enough!  

If you want, you can put a swirl of syrup in the batter before you flip the pancakes over so that they'll have syrup inside of them like a true McGriddle from McDonald's.  If your batter isn't as dense as the syrup, the syrup should sink into it, but I honestly just skip this step because it gets my skillet a little messier than it needs to be and I can never really get it to work! Ha, ha.

If you're good at multitasking, you can prepare your eggs while you are making your pancakes.  Crack one or two eggs in a bowl and scramble them until the yolk and whites are well blended.  Add a little salt and pepper and enough milk to make the eggs a pale yellow.  You don't have to add milk, I find though, that it makes the scrambled eggs much fluffier and not as dense and heavy, which is what always happens to my eggs when I don't add milk!

Once you've finished with your pancakes, just set them aside and move on to making your eggs.  Spray a little cooking spray on your skillet just to make sure your eggs won't stick at all, and pour them right in.  These will cook fairly quickly, so watch it closely.  If you don't have any sliced cheese, and all you have laying around is shredded whatever, you can just add that to the eggs for a nice cheesy omelet to add to your McGriddle.

Now it's time for your bacon or sausage patties!  I like to cut bacon strips in half so they are a good size to use, but it's not completely necessary.  These are always the last to cook since cooking them renders my skillet useless unless I wash it right after cooking.  That takes too much time, and I don't want to dirty anything else.  Of course, if you don't like frying your bacon, you can always cook it in your oven or toaster oven while you're making the pancakes and eggs. 

It's finally time to assemble your McGriddles!  You can stack your bacon, sausage patties, eggs and cheese  however you want, it doesn't really matter! And pile on how ever much you want. All up to you.  And no one is going to charge you for adding extra anything.  If you're pancakes don't have the syrup already inside of them, this is where you can add it.  I wouldn't suggest using a lot of syrup, it'll get really messy and sticky.  

Once you have everything assembled, you can put it in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds to melt the cheese, and warm everything up just a little bit, and you're ready to eat!

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't at all.  As soon as you get the hang of it and get into a flow of cooking, you'll be done in no time. And it's just so simple, why would you ever need to order a McGriddle from McDonald's ever again?  It saves you money, and if you want to go a little healthier you can add tomatoes or green/red peppers and onions to your omelet.

You can't go wrong!

R.