1. Grate the Sweet Potatoes

The first step is to preheat your oven to 200°C/390°F. Grate your sweet potatoes with a box grater or a food processor with a grating attachment to make the process faster. If you’re using onion, grate that as well. The onion adds a bit of extra flavour and moisture, but it’s totally optional.

Rinse the sweet potato in water to help remove some of the starch.

2. Squeeze Out Excess Moisture & Pre-Cook

Sweet potatoes contain a lot of moisture, which can prevent your hash browns from getting crispy. Place the grated sweet potato and onion in a clean kitchen towel or cheesecloth, and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. This step is key to achieving more of a crispy texture.

Bring 2 tbsp of the fat to a medium high heat in a skillet. A cast iron skillet is great for this. You’ll get a nicer colour with cast iron or stainless steel than you will from non-stick. Using non-stick isn’t necessary because you’ll be using lots of fat.

Add the potato and 1/2 tsp salt to the pan and cook for a few minutes to soften and sweat off more of the the water. Let it cool, moving around as it cools to the steam can escape.

3. Mix the Ingredients

In a large bowl whisk your egg, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, chipotle, salt & pepper. Add the grated sweet potatoes and combine.

4. Heat the Fat

Heat the duck fat in a large skillet over medium-high heat. You want the fat to be hot enough to sizzle when the hash browns hit the pan but not so hot that they burn before cooking through.

5. Form, Fry & Bake the Hash Browns

Scoop out a handful of the sweet potato mixture and form it into a patty. You should get 4 good sized patties out of this recipe. Gently place the patty into the hot oil and press it down slightly with a spatula to flatten. Fry for about 3-4 minutes per side, or until golden brown and crispy. Don’t overcrowd the pan – cook in batches if necessary.

Transfer to a baking tray and cook in in preheated oven at 200°C/390°F for a further 15 minutes. You can also do this stage in an air fryer at the same temperature. I would start at around 10 minutes and check for doneness.

6. Drain on Paper Towels

Once the hash browns are crispy and golden on both sides, remove them from the oven and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to drain any excess oil.

7. Make Your Toppings

Smash all the avocado ingredients together in a bowl. Deseed the tomato and jalapeno and dice small. Put these in a bowl and add the lime juice, finely chopped coriander and salt. Mix and set to one side.

Just before you’re ready to serve, poach or fry your eggs.

To assemble put two hash browns on a plate, top with smashed avocado, then the poached eggs (or fried egg for variation) and then the salsa. I also like to whack some chilli sauce on there.