An open-faced omelette is a large omelette that feeds multiple people, no folding or flipping required. It’s quickly become a favorite go-to easy, fast, high protein breakfast (or brinner) option. Essentially a stovetop frittata, an open-faced omelette is super fast (it only takes 10 minutes!) with no baking required. This version is topped with dollops of melty cream cheese and smoked salmon, served with all your favorite bagel and lox accoutrements like capers, dill, and red onion (minus the bagel!).
Eggs are my go-to for quick and easy meals at any time of day. They’re relatively cheap compared to other proteins, healthy, and cook up incredibly fast!
Lately I’ve been making a lot of omelettes for dinner (my kids love them) but I’ve grown tired of cooking them one by one, as well as folding them and flipping them. Enter: the open-faced omelette! You can serve an entire family with one of these – no flipping required.
And I supposed I could just call this a stovetop frittata. But it feels more omelette-like to me because the “fillings” are placed on top rather than mixed into the eggs. I’m sure someone will chime in with a comment around these semantics – but whatever you want to call it, it’s so delicious and easy!
This smoked salmon and cream cheese version is so delicious because the cream cheese gets melty and gooey and the smoked salmon warms up just a tad. But you can do other toppings if you want – more on that in the post.
You basically just half-scramble the eggs, add toppings, cover, and cook on low until the eggs are done. Then, top with accoutrements you’d normally serve with bagels and lox (or smoked salmon english muffins!) – capers, red onions, etc. It’s so easy and only takes about 10 minutes.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Eggs
- Milk – This makes it fluffy, but you can omit milk in favor of more eggs if you like. Use half and half or cream for a richer version.
- Smoked Salmon – I used fresh but I think canned would be fine here!
- Cream cheese – I used plain, but I’ve made this with whipped chive cream cheese with great results.
- Butter – or ghee or oil
- Toppings: capers, sliced red onions, dill, chives, or whatever else you want to throw on there! Pickled red onions would be really nice here as well.
- Salt and Pepper
How to make an Open-Faced Omelette with Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese
First, beat the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper together with a whisk or a fork. Then pour into a skillet with butter melted in it.
You’ll scramble the eggs gently over medium heat, using a spatula to gradually scoot (scoot being the technical culinary term, of course), the eggs from the exterior of the pan into the center, working your way around.
Once the eggs are about half cooked, stop that scooting and start topping! Turn the heat down to low and dollop your cream cheese and place your smoked salmon on top. Then cover and keep cooking on low until the eggs are fully cooked.
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Slide the open-faced omelette / frittata / whatever-you-want-to-call-it onto a large plate and top with capers, sliced red onion, and herbs. Slice and serve!
This is a summary of how to make this recipe. Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions, written in traditional recipe format, or Jump to Recipe.
Can you use this method with other toppings?
If smoked salmon and cream cheese isn’t your thing, you can absolutely make an open-faced omelette with other toppings!
You can top it with sautéed mushrooms and some kind of Swiss (or similar) cheese, use up leftovers like pulled pork and slaw, or anything you may like to fill omelettes with (tomatoes and feta, peppers and onions with sausage… the possibilities are endless!).
Keep in mind – topping the omelette will do nothing but gently warm anything you put on top. So if you are adding veggies, I do recommend sautéing them before adding them on top of the omelette. Otherwise, they will still be basically raw. Smoked salmon and cream cheese work so well here since they don’t need to be cooked beforehand!
Other eggs-for-dinner recipes
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Open-Faced Omelette with Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese
Equipment
- 10-inch skillet with lid preferably nonstick
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- 4 oz. smoked salmon
- sliced red onion, chopped fresh dill, chives, and capers to serve, optional
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Instructions
- In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, stir together the 6 eggs, ½ cup milk, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper with a whisk or fork until very well mixed.
- Melt the 1 tablespoon butter in a 10-inch skillet (preferably nonstick) over medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture and use a spatula to push the eggs from the outside of the skillet to the center as it cooks, similar to how you would make scrambled eggs.
- After the eggs are about half cooked, turn the heat to low. Dollop chunks of the 4 oz. cream cheese and torn pieces of the 4 oz. smoked salmon on top of the eggs evenly. Cover the omelette and continue to cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the eggs are fully cooked on top (the amount of time needed here will depend on how much the eggs were cooked initially).
- Remove from heat and slide the omelette onto a serving plate. Top with sliced red onion, chopped fresh dill, chives, and capers if desired, slice, and serve!
Notes
- If you want to increase the eggs to 8 or more to make a larger omelette, you may want to use a larger skillet. For an omelette that serves one or two, decrease the ingredients and use an 8- or 6-inch skillet.
- You can use this open-faced omelette method with other toppings – just make sure they are pre-cooked (for example, sauté mushrooms in a separate pan before adding on top of the omelette).
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
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