This Sheet-Pan Quiche Is a Game-Changer

We've waxed poetic about sheet-pan recipes many, many times before, from easy dinners like roasted branzino and fingerling potatoes to pancakes topped with sheet-pan berry syrup. In this week's episode of Mad Genius: Home Edition, Food & Wine Culinary Director-at-Large Justin Chapple offers another sheet-pan wonder — Sausage and Red Onion Sheet Pan Quiche. The recipe was inspired by chef Cedric Maupillier's foot-long quiche at Convivial in Washington, D.C., and it's the ultimate big-batch brunch. Just one of these quiches yields 12 servings, and it's packed with all kinds of tasty ingredients, including Gruyère cheese and savory breakfast sausage. With a sprinkle of fresh arugula on top for the finishing touch, the end result is a well-rounded meal that you can enjoy for breakfast, lunch, and beyond.

Read on for Justin's method and follow along with the video above.

Make the dough

A monumental sheet-pan quiche requires a lot of dough. To start, combine the flour, salt, and black pepper in a food processor, pulsing to mix. Then, add in the cubed unsalted butter. Make sure it's really, really cold so you end up with an ultra-flaky quiche crust — Justin places the butter in the freezer for 20 minutes before adding it to the food processor to ensure it's cold enough. Pulse the mixture until it resembles "small peas," and then add in ice water (again, you want the dough cold!), incorporating until a shaggy mixture forms.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and gently knead it together with your hands. Once the dough has formed, wrap it up in plastic and refrigerate it for an hour.

Roll and freeze

After the dough has chilled, roll it out into a roughly 20-by-15-inch rectangle. Use your rolling pin to (carefully!) transfer the dough to the parchment paper-lined baking sheet, unrolling it so it fits inside. Press the dough into the corners of the pan and up the sides so it's evenly distributed, and trim off the edges, leaving a 1/4-inch overhang on each side. Then, fold the dough edges behind themselves and crimp the edges of the crust.

Once the edges are crimped, freeze the crust for 45 minutes.

Baking round one

Before you bake the quiche, you'll want to pre-bake the crust. Line it with some parchment paper, pour in some pie weights (or dried beans), and bake it in a 400°F oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the edges are "sort of lightly brown," Justin says. Then, remove the weights and parchment and bake the crust for an additional 15 to 20 minutes.

Tip: If you'd like to save time, you can pre-bake the crust the day beforehand so that day-of, you just have to make the filling and then bake the quiche.

Fill and bake again

After the crust has fully cooled, get started on the filling. Cook the breakfast sausage, and grab the shredded Gruyère cheese, sliced red onion rings, fresh thyme leaves, and of course, eggs — Justin calls for 18 (yes, 18!) eggs in this recipe, which he whisks together with half-and-half, salt, and pepper.

To fill the quiche, start by sprinkling the cheese onto the crust, followed by the sausage, and then the onion. Then, carefully pour the egg mixture on top. With a final dusting of the thyme leaves, the quiche is ready to bake. Place it in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's "puffed and just lightly brown."

Serve

After the quiche comes out of the oven, you might be tempted to grab a piece right away. But you'll want to let it cool slightly first, and you also don't want to forget the final topping — fresh baby arugula. Scatter it on top of the finished quiche, and then cut yourself a generous square.

"I love the red onions, love the thyme, and that arugula on the top just gives it this freshness that takes it all the way up there, over those clouds," Justin says. "This is truly, truly epic. It is Mad Genius. It's quiche Justin and it is made with love."