Eggs Benedict-the breakfast classic made at home! You will love our creamy and tangy hollandaise sauce over top of your poached eggs, crisp Canadian bacon and toasted English muffin!
Eggs Benedict is always one of my favorite dishes to order when we go out for breakfast! I also love to make it for special occasions along with our Orange Creamsicle Smoothie and Sausage French Toast Roll-ups!
What is Eggs Benedict?
Do you love Eggs Benedict as much as I do?
I mean, what’s not to love about them? Buttery English muffin, the runny egg yolk, crisp bacon, and tangy hollandaise sauce is like heaven in my mouth.
Eggs benedict was originally created for regulars at a popular restaurant in Manhattan back in the 1860s. While I don’t make this on a regular basis (because it does require you to be attentive to the process from start to finish), I do love to make this for special occasions or when guests come to visit!
Hollandaise Sauce Recipe
What exactly is Hollandaise sauce? It is one of the 5 main sauces used in French cuisine and for good reason too – it’s absolutely delicious! It is an emulsion sauce that combines egg yolks, melted butter, and lemon juice, but I like to jazz mine up a bit and add heavy cream, dijon mustard, and cayenne pepper too!
Here are a couple of tips!
- You can use fresh lemons or bottled
- If you want more of a tangy flavor, do equal part lemon juice to butter!
- You just want to make sure you heat the sauce to about 155 degrees to kill harmful bacteria from the egg yolks!
- To thicken your sauce just add more butter but make sure to whisk it in until it all creams together!
- When making hollandaise sauce in a blender you want to make sure you keep it warm before serving. This can be done by putting the blender as a whole in a bowl of lukewarm water.
- Save the water from the saucepan and add a teaspoon of the water to the sauce right before serving to help thin down the sauce, because it may have thickened while cooling
How to Make Hollandaise Sauce
Find a small saucepan and a glass bowl that fits into the saucepan without touching the bottom. Fill the saucepan with about 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer.
In the glass bowl, set within the saucepan (don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water) add cream, egg yolks, lemon juice, mustard, cayenne, salt, and pepper.
Whisk continuously until it reaches 155 degrees
Reduce the heat and slowly whisk in the butter- then set to the side.
How to Make Eggs Benedict
The trick to making Eggs Benedict is timing all the aspects of the dish so that everything is done about the same time! So begin by making the hollandaise sauce first, then poach the eggs while warming the Canadian bacon and toasting the English muffins.
How to poach eggs:
- Bring water in a stockpot to a slow boil
- Crack the eggs one at a time in a small glass bowl and then add it to the boiling water
- Let them sit and cook for about 3 ½ minutes.
- If you want your eggs more runny cook for only 2 1/2- 3 minutes or for less runny eggs, cook for a little bit longer
- Use a slotted spoon and carefully remove from the water and place on a paper towel-lined plate
Toast your English muffins and cook your Canadian bacon on a hot skillet while poaching the eggs. Just cook until it is warmed through and has a little color to it!
Variations
- Casserole: you can do a breakfast casserole where you place the Canadian bacon in a casserole dish and top it with cut pieces of English muffin and pour whisked eggs over the top. Let it sit overnight and bake it in the morning! Then serve with hollandaise sauce.
- Salmon: you can do smoked salmon and cream cheese eggs benedict. Spread the cream cheese on the English muffin then top it with the smoked salmon, poached egg and hollandaise sauce!
- Crab: switch out candain bacon for crab pieces.
- Bacon: use thick-cut bacon and make sure its crispy!
- Florentine: add some cooked spinach to the layers
- Avocado: you can either incorporate the avocado into the hollandaise sauce or spread it onto the English muffin.
Storing + Reheating
This recipe is truly it’s best when it is served hot and fresh! However, you can make a few things ahead of time and reheat some parts of the recipe!
- Hollandaise sauce will last only 2 days in the fridge.
- Poached eggs can actually last about 5 days in the fridge.
- If you know you will be making extra eggs or the eggs ahead of time, immediately put the extra eggs in ice-cold water. Then transfer them to a container with a lid and fill in the rest of the way with water.
To reheat the eggs place them in a strainer and run them under the hot tap water. Then you’re good to go
To reheat the hollandaise sauce place it in the microwave and heat at 20 percent power for 15 seconds. Stir and repeat until the sauce is warmed!
For more delicious breakfast ideas, check out:
- Overnight Sausage, Egg and Croissant Breakfast Bake
- Blueberry Almond Cream Cheese Danish
- Lemon Poppy Seed Sweet Rolls
- Best Buttermilk Waffles
Homemade Eggs Benedict Recipe
Ingredients
For the hollandaise sauce:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp black pepper - ground
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter - melted
For the eggs benedict:
- 8 large eggs
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 4 English muffins - cut in half and toasted
- 8 Canadian bacon slices - or deli ham, heated in a skillet
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp chives - chopped
Instructions
For the hollandaise sauce:
- Set a small saucepan over medium heat. Add 2 inches of water. Set a glass bowl over top that fits without touching water. Bring water to a simmer.
- Add cream, egg yolks, lemon juice, mustard, cayenne, salt, and pepper to bowl. Continuously whisk to bring the mixture up to 155 degrees on a instant read thermometer.
- Reduce heat to low and slowly drizzle in the warm melted butter while whisking. Remove from heat and set aside.
For the poached eggs
- Bring stockpot full of water to a boil. Crack eggs one at a time and add to boiling water, fitting four eggs into the pot at one time.
- Cook until whites are just set and yolk is still runny, about 3 ½ minutes. Transfer to paper towel lined plate to drain, repeat with remaining eggs. NOTE: I used an OXO egg poacher to assist me in this.
To assemble:
- Place a toasted English muffin cut side up. Add Canadian bacon or ham, then top with the poached egg. Add a generous amount of hollandaise, then sprinkle paprika and chives over top.
I love eggs benedict so this is going to be our go-to recipe for breakfast for sure.
I love eggs benedict so this is going to be our go-to recipe for breakfast for sure. Thank you for the awesome recipe!
This is my go-to recipe for breakfast! My husband and kids love this thank you. 🙂
I can’t believe I never made this before! This is delicious, thank you so much!
This was really amazing! My kids loved it!