Earl Cooks Chef John's Fried Cheese Egg Toast - Sort Of

One of the most entertaining and instructional chefs I have found and follow regularly is Chef John (John Mitzewich). I don't often copy his recipes, because he is, well, a chef. My training is loving to cook and eat.
...but today I wanted to copy this one because it is something even I can handle, I think. I varied it a bit because of my on-hand ingredients. It is three of the best foods ever (cheese, eggs, and toast). I learned at a very young age to LOVE eggs, runny and dippable. I liked them with the top barely white and I would peel it back and open the golden goodness to my hot, buttered toast. I always had a hard time getting eggs at restaurants cooked so the white was set and the yolk was runny. Often the yolk and white were both hard, which was exactly how one of my best friends would order them "Over hard & smashed flat" was his preference and I could never understand that. I don't think my daughters followed in my footsteps, but my grandboys did. I made and continue to make breakfasts for them as often as possible and their favorite is DIPPING EGGS.

Back to the recipe. The original post by Chef John can be found here  

I had to redo my first attempt because I used a pan just a bit too large to accommodate my toast. I am posting both because they tasted terrific!

The pan should be non-stick. My first pan was my 9" Perfect Grip® Pan. To the heated pan I added cheddar/jack enough to cover (but the pan was too big). Simply allow the cheese to melt. 

When your cheese gets golden brown flip it to make sure both sides are crispy. Now it's time to add your egg. The tough part is keeping the yolk centered on the cheese. I just tilted the pan until it was set enough to stay. 

Like Chef John, I tried to allow the white to spread so it would cook, with some success. My wife (a.k.a "Turkey") did not think it was done enough, so I knew it was perfect!

 As you can see, or can't see, the cheese and egg are too large for my toast. If we eat with our eyes, your eyes are saying "Where's the toast?" It's there, I assure you.

I tried to fold mine in on itself as the Chef did, but mine became more of a cheese-Taco shell...what a great idea...but the extra cheese just wouldn't fold like the video showed. As you can see, it looked good and I was determined to  give it another go.

 Second Try
This time I started with a smaller pan, an 8" anodized aluminum pan which is one of my favorites for frying eggs. I followed the same basic steps, using the same ingredients. Since the pan was smaller, I used less cheese, which was my first goal. It melted and crisped up just fine. The egg was still uncooperative and I was less successful keeping it in the center. I also covered it for just long enough to make the white set and the yolk got a slight cover of white from the steam generated.

Here is an animation showing how it turned out. I zoomed in to show better detail.

This is a marvelous breakfast! Chef John said he did it to get out of a breakfast rut. I don't seem to have those. If I have eggs, bread, and cheese (and I always have eggs, bread, and cheese), I never feel I am in a rut, but this is a new take on an old favorite. My wife and friend are probably saying "eew!", and my grandboys are probably saying "why didn't we get an invite!" Thanks to Chef John at Foodwishes.com for the inspiration and the 2 great breakfasts!