Ask anyone who grew up in Hawaii what breakfast looks like, and you'll hear some version of this plate. Three sliced rounds of Portuguese sausage. Two eggs over easy. Two scoops of white rice. That's the whole thing. You'll see it on diner menus across the islands, on drive-in chalkboards, and even on the breakfast menu at McDonald's locations in Hawaii, which run a Local Breakfast Platter that doesn't exist anywhere else on the national menu.
Portuguese sausage came to Hawaii in the late 1800s with workers recruited from Madeira and the Azores to the sugar plantations, who brought their pork, garlic, vinegar, and paprika traditions with them. The Hawaii version that emerged is closer to a paprika-heavy, slightly sweet linguica than the chouriço you'd find in Lisbon today, and it sits in a Hawaii-specific lane all its own. Locally, two long-standing family brands dominate the shelves: Purity, run by the Rego family out of Honolulu, and Redondo's, founded on Oahu in 1949.
At a glance
2 (plate-lunch portions)
5 minutes
15 minutes
Easy
Ingredients
For the plate
- 1 link Portuguese sausage (Purity, Redondo's, or another smoked linguica), sliced on the bias into 1/4-inch rounds. You want 6 slices total, 3 per plate.
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups cooked hot white rice (Calrose short-grain is what the diners use)
- 1 teaspoon neutral oil for the pan
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
To finish (optional)
- Shoyu (soy sauce). A few drops on the rice.
- A small dab of chili pepper water or sriracha
- 1 stalk green onion, thinly sliced
Equipment
- One medium nonstick or carbon steel pan (everything cooks in the same pan, in order)
- Spatula and tongs
- Rice cooker, or a pot with a tight-fitting lid
To serve
- Two flat plate-lunch trays, or two dinner plates
- Two scoops of rice on one side, the eggs and sausage filling the rest
Method
- Start the rice first. If you don't already have hot rice ready, get it going now. The rice needs to be hot when the plate comes together. Cold rice is what separates a real local breakfast from a sad one. Use Calrose short-grain, and rinse it twice before cooking.
- Slice the sausage on the bias. Cut the Portuguese sausage at a 45-degree angle into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. The bias cut gives you more surface area for the crust, and the rounds curl into little cups as they cook, which is the right shape to hold onto egg yolk later. You want 6 slices total, 3 rounds per plate. That's the diner-counter standard.
- Render the sausage. Heat the pan over medium heat. No oil needed. The sausage will render its own fat. Lay the slices flat in the pan and let them cook undisturbed for 2 to 3 minutes, until the bottom is deep brown and curled at the edges. Flip with tongs, cook another 2 minutes. Move to a plate. Leave the rendered fat in the pan.
- Fry the eggs in the sausage fat. Reduce heat to medium-low. Crack the eggs into the pan two at a time so the whites don't run together. Sprinkle a small pinch of salt over each. Cook 2 to 3 minutes until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. Over easy is the local default. If you want over hard, flip and cook another 30 seconds. The sausage drippings give the eggs a paprika tinge at the edges, which is the right look.
- Plate. Two scoops of hot rice on one side. Three rounds of sausage. Two eggs on top of the rice or alongside. A few drops of shoyu on the rice. Optional green onion or chili pepper water. Eat with a fork, breaking the egg yolk over the rice and dragging the sausage through it. That's the whole choreography.
Notes from a local cook
Buy the right sausage. Real Hawaii Portuguese sausage is a smoked, paprika-forward linguica. Not breakfast sausage, not Italian sausage, not chouriço from a Portuguese deli. If you live somewhere with a Foodland or Don Quijote, Purity hot or mild is the move. Off-island, Redondo's ships to mainland distributors, and some Asian groceries carry Hawaiian or California-style linguica that's close enough. "Hot" is genuinely a little spicy. "Mild" is what most plate-lunch counters use as the default.
Don't drain the pan. The rendered sausage fat is what makes the eggs taste like a Hawaii diner breakfast. If you cook the eggs in fresh butter or clean pan oil, you've lost half the dish. Pour off only if more than a tablespoon of grease has pooled. Otherwise, leave it and crack the eggs straight in.
Two scoops, always. The plate is built around two ice-cream-scoop portions of rice. This is not a suggestion, it's the structure. One scoop and you have a sad open-face egg. Three scoops and the plate looks like a rice mountain with a side of sausage. Two is the architectural standard, and it's the right amount to soak up two yolks.
If you want to go variant. Some local breakfasts swap the sausage for a slice of grilled Spam. Same plate, same eggs, same rice. Some add a side of mac salad to make it more of a brunch plate. Some add kim chee on the side for crunch. The frame stays the same: a protein, two eggs, two scoops of rice.
While You're on the Islands
Eat it made by someone else. Most local diners and drive-ins serve a version of this plate, and the easiest one to find on Oahu is Rainbow Drive-In in Kapahulu, open since 1961. Their breakfast plate lets you pick Portuguese sausage as the meat, served with two eggs and rice.
- Liliha Bakery (multiple locations) — Portuguese sausage breakfast on the diner menu, served all day at most locations.
- Zippy's (statewide chain) — Portuguese sausage is a standard breakfast option on the diner menu.
- McDonald's (statewide) — Hawaii locations carry a Local Breakfast Platter with Portuguese Sausage, the chain version of the plate.
Buy the ingredients fresh. Portuguese sausage is stocked at every island grocery store's meat case. On the neighbor islands, the local plate-lunch counter inside a small-town gas station or roadside diner is your best bet. See our Oahu dining guide for more leads.
Bring It Home
What to stock up on before you fly home: a few links of Portuguese sausage (linguiça) freeze well — the Hawaii-style version leans sweeter and milder than what most mainland grocery stores stock.
Where to try this in Hawaii
