Eggs Benedict with Chipotle Hollandaise

Brunch is one of my favorite meals EVER and runny egg yolks make pretty much everything better, right? When I don’t feel like going out to a restaurant to eat brunch, I try to create a twist on my faves. For this brunch remake, I knew I wanted a twist on Eggs Benedict and I knew I wanted something with a little kick.

After some Pinterest-ing and Google-ing, I found a recipe for Avocado Eggs Benedict with Chipotle Hollandaise from Cassie Craves. It had all of the elements I was looking for: crusty bread, creamy avocado, lime, bacon, poached egg, and a spicy/creamy sauce.  

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 2 English Muffins
• 1 Avocado
• 8 Slices of Bacon (You can get away with using 4, one per side of muffin, but if your house is like mine, a certain someone will grab a piece when you’re turned the other way (^_^)).
• 2 Limes, Juiced (one lime for the avocado, one for the hollandaise)
• 3 Chipotles in Adobo Sauce
• 6 Eggs (2 egg yolks for the hollandaise, and 4 whole eggs to poach)
• 1 Stick of Butter, Melted
• 2 Tsp White Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper

There are five parts to this recipe: Frying the Bacon, Avocado Mash, Poaching the Eggs, Toasting the Muffins, and the Hollandaise Sauce. The last three are more time sensitive so I did the bacon and avocado first.

Frying the Bacon: I’m not going to go into a detailed chronology/picture-alogy of frying the bacon, but if you need some tips, this is how I fry bacon. I put a nonstick pan on the stove and heat it on medium/medium-high heat. I lay the bacon in the pan and let it do its work. Once I start seeing the bacon get crispy on the edges, I flip it over for the other side to cook. When the bacon is at the color I want, I let it drain on a plate with a paper towel. As the bacon cools/drains, it will get crispier than when it was right out of the pan. 

Avocado Mash: Take the avocado flesh and put it into a bowl. Add in a pinch of salt and the juice of a lime.

TIP: When picking out an avocado at the store, I look for all the normal signs like skin color and firmness, but plenty of times, I’ve gotten a not-so-good avocado even with doing this. Then I learned the stem trick! If you pop the stem off the avocado and it’s a nice yellow-green, even if its a light brown its good to go! If its dark and nasty, you don’t want that one… (^_^)

Poaching the Eggs: This might take you a couple tries to get the hang of, but once you do it, you’ll be a pro! You’re going to simmer around 2 inches of water in a saucepan with the white vinegar. Break one egg into a separate dish to make sure that 1) It’s not broken and 2) You don’t get any any parts of the shell in. You’re going to take a slotted spoon and stir the water in one direction to create a whirlpool effect. (I’m  a counter-clockwise person (^_^).) You’re going to want to do this next part fairly fast so the yolk gets encapsulated in the egg white. Bring the container with the egg in it close to the water and pour half of the egg white in and then the rest of the egg yolk/white. Leave it alone for two and a half minutes until the whites are cooked through. Lift out with the slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel on a plate. Repeat for the other three eggs.

Toast the Muffins and Multi-Tasking: You’ll be multitasking poaching the eggs, toasting the muffins, and making the hollandaise sauce. After I finished one egg, I put the butter in the microwave to melt. After I finished the second egg, I started toasting the bread and making the hollandaise. 

Variation:  You can use other types of bread. Brioche would be fantastic.

Hollandaise Sauce: Put the egg yolks, lime juice, salt, and chipotle in adobo sauce in the blender. (The original recipe called for chipotle in adobo puree, but everything is going in the blender anyways so I just dumped it all in.) The amount of chipotles you put in the hollandaise will vary depending on how spicy/smoky you want it. Blend the ingredients for thirty seconds, then stream in the melted butter. Keep warm until serving. 

Assembling: Spread a small amount of of the hollandaise on the plate so the english muffins don’t slide around the plate. Place the top and bottom of the english muffins on the plate (nooks and cranny side up). Spread a dollop (don’t you love to say that word?) of the avocado on each side of the english muffin. Layer bacon on top of the avocado, followed by the poached egg. Crack some fresh ground pepper on top of the egg, and ladle the hollandaise on top. All done!