The Griddle Omelet

I have been making omelets for as long as I can remember.  That said, there are a lot of authorities on omelets and bunch of different techniques so I’m not going to claim that I’m the best at it.  But out of all the different varieties, the griddle omelet has to be one of my favorite.

I’m not really sure if “griddle omelet” is even the official name.  That’s just what I call it.  I would also accept diner omelet or awesome omelet.  By cooking the eggs on a griddle, you can make the egg layer really thin which means that you can stuff it with more stuff.

Like this!

This kind of omelet is really easy if you have a 5 foot flat top grill like they have in diners.  For the average home cook though that isn’t really an option.  But you can simulate the effect with a normal griddle, lots of heat, and a little bit of guts.  I say you’ll need guts, because there is a step, which you’ll see in a minute, where you think everything is going horrible wrong.  It’s not!  But it might be scary.

The Griddle Omelet

- 2 or 3 large eggs, beaten very well with a pinch of salt
- 1 Tablespoon butter for the griddle
- Fillings! Go crazy.  I used some summer squash and zucchini for this version
- Cheese.  I used goat cheese, but again, any cheese will work.  An omelet without cheese though is not very legit.
- Salt and pepper
- Parsley for garnish (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
- Nonstick Griddle

Preparing the fillers. Some fillers you may not want to cook ahead of time, but they won’t cook much in this omelet.  They will only be on the griddle for a few seconds in the omelet so if you want them cooked at all, do it beforehand.

I sauteed my squash in zucchini for about a minute just to soften them up slightly.  Totally personal preference though.

Take photo of Tipsy. Ok. That’s just for me. She was very intrigued by the omelet process on this day.

Making the omelet. Take a deep breath.  This is going to all happen very fast.  First, get your griddle hot.  A drop of water should dance like crazy on it.  Then quickly add your butter to the griddle and move it around to coat everything with your spatula.

Once the butter stops bubbling, add your eggs.  If your griddle is silly like mine and not completely level, the eggs are going to run all over the place!  Have no fear.

Work quickly now, but use a spatula and scoop all your eggs into a rough rectangle.  They shouldn’t run away from you this time.  They’ll stay right where you put them.

Then add your cheese and any other fillings you have.  Again the benefit of making an omelet like this is that you can fill them to the brim.  Don’t be shy!

Note: If you are using a cheese that is hard to melt like cheddar, definitely put it under your fillings so it will be as close to the griddle as possible.  It should melt okay as long as you aren’t using a pound of it.

Then do a two part fold.  Fold your top over the fillings and then your bottom half over the top.  Now you have two options.  1) Pull the omelet off the heat.  It’s done!  You may have some runny egg around the edges, but some people like it like that.  2) Using your spatula, deftly flip (or roll) the omelet over so the seam of the fold is down on the griddle.

If you let it cook for another 30 seconds or so like this, then your egg will be completely cooked through.  Your cheese will be really melted by now also.

So the above photo and the first photo in this post was the omelet I made while taking pictures.  Duh.  Because there are pictures of it.  It probably took me twice as long to cook though because I had to alternate between spatula and camera (skillz).  This means that my egg was a bit more cooked than I like it actually.

I made a second omelet on day two without the camera and cooked the eggs more to my liking.

Notice the very thin layer of egg around the fillings?  I love that.  It’s not quite as heavy somehow as a normal omelet even though you are using the same amount of eggs.

You do need a bit of confidence to try this recipe and a quick spatula hand as you need to gets those eggs together pretty fast once they hit the griddle.  It’s not that hard though.  Once you make one, you’ll get it down really quickly.

Anybody else make their omelets this way?  Favorite fillings?