Eggs Benedict Recipe (2024)

Learn how to make the best Eggs Benedict with Poached Eggs and easy Hollandaise Sauce on a toasted English muffin. This is a famous American dish and it’s a staple on restaurant breakfast menus. You can absolutely recreate this restaurant classic at home.

Eggs Benedict Recipe (1)

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We love special breakfast and brunch recipes from Crepes to tender Omelettes and Fluffy Waffles. If you love special weekend breakfasts this Eggs Benedict is a must-try!

What is an Egg Benedict?

Egg benedict is essentially an open-faced breakfast sandwich. You can change up eggs benedict in many ways but a classic egg benedict starts with a toasted English muffin half, then meat which is usually Canadian bacon, ham, or regular bacon. That is topped with a poached egg, a generous coating of hollandaise sauce, and finished with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

It all sounds fancy but each step is relatively simple and you can comfortably crank out 4 eggs benedict all at once.

Eggs Benedict Recipe (2)

Ingredients for Eggs Benedict

  • Hollandaise Sauce– the traditional eggs benedict sauce
  • English Muffins – 2 halved English muffins make 4 eggs benedict
  • Unsalted butter – for toasting the English muffins
  • Canadian Bacon, or substitute with thinly shaved ham, or Crispy Bacon
  • Eggs – use large grade AA eggs and super fresh eggs are best for holding their shape
  • Distilled white vinegar – added to the water for poaching eggs
  • Cayenne Pepper, to garnish
  • Garnish – with Chives or dill
Eggs Benedict Recipe (3)

Egg Benedict Variations

  • Classic: Ham, egg, and hollandaise
  • California: Tomato and avocado, air fryer bacon, egg, and hollandaise
  • Sophisticated: smoked salmon, avocado, poached egg, and hollandaise
  • Fancy: 3 blanched asparagus spears, poached egg, hollandaise

Pro Tip: If you really want to go all out and impress someone, try Eggs Benedict with Crab Cakes or Salmon Cakes.

How to Make Eggs Benedict

  1. Make the Hollandaise Sauce: cook according to our hollandaise recipe instructions. Cover to keep warm. Add a little hot water to thin if needed.
  2. Prep for Poached Eggs: Place a pot of water on the stove for making poached eggs and bring it to barely a simmer.
  3. Sauté meat: In a large skillet, sauté meat until warm and golden then transfer to a plate, cover to keep warm.
  4. Toast English muffins: Melt 2 tsp butter on the same skillet and add English muffins cut-side down. Toast until golden brown. Turn off the heat and leave muffins in the pan to keep warm.
  5. Poach Eggs: Once water is barely simmering, poach 4 eggs according to our easy poached eggs recipe.
  6. Assemble: Place English muffin halves on serving plates, cut side up, and top with your meat. Place the egg over the meat. Pour the hollandaise sauce over the eggs, sprinkle the top with cayenne pepper and garnish with chives. Serve immediately.
Eggs Benedict Recipe (4)

Common Questions

Are Eggs Benedict French?

People assume eggs benedict are of French origin because they use Hollandaise Sauce (a popular French sauce), but it actually originated in New York, USA at the Waldorf hotel when a customer requested the combination as a custom order, and the restaurant was so impressed by it, they added it to their menu.

What is the difference between Eggs Florence and Eggs Benedict?

Eggs Florence has a layer of sauteed spinach beneath the poached eggs, but otherwise, they both have a toasted English muffin and are topped with Hollandaise.

When to serve eggs benedict?

This is typically a breakfast or brunch menu item.

Can I substitute hollandaise?

You can serve the poached egg without hollandaise and just add a sprinkle of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. You can also try topping with Salsa, Pico de Gallo, or Adjika.

Eggs Benedict Recipe (5)

Make-Ahead

This is really best when enjoyed freshly made. You can cover and keep the Hollandaise sauce warm while you are making the other components of the recipe, but I don’t recommend making these ahead of time.

More Breakfast Recipes

Breakfast is my favorite meal on weekends because those are our ‘days off,’ we aren’t in a hurry and can afford to take a little extra time to make breakfast special. If you love this Eggs Benedict Recipe, then you won’t want to miss these breakfast favorites:

  • French Toast
  • Shakshuka
  • Easy Frittata
  • Banana Bread
  • Breakfast Burritos

I hope you’re excited to make Eggs Benedict. The combination of poached eggs, warm Canadian bacon, and creamy hollandaise sauce over a buttered and toasted English muffin makes an excellent weekend breakfast.

Eggs Benedict Recipe

5 from 28 votes

Author: Natasha Kravchuk

Eggs Benedict Recipe (7)

How to make the best Eggs Benedict with Poached Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce on an English muffin. This recipe makes 4 Eggs Benedict but you can scale it down and make 1 or 2 if you prefer.

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Prep Time: 5 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

Ingredients

Servings: 4 people

  • 1 recipe Hollandaise Sauce
  • 2 English muffins, halved
  • 4 tsp unsalted butter, to toast muffins
  • 4 slices Canadian bacon, thin shaved ham, or crispy bacon
  • 4 large eggs, for poached eggs
  • 1 Tbsp white vinegar for poaching eggs
  • cayenne pepper, to garnish
  • chives or dill, to garnish

Instructions

  • Make the Hollandaise Sauce: combine hollandaise sauce in a small saucepan and cook according to our hollandaise recipe instructions. Cover with lid to keep warm. If it gets too thick, add a teaspoon of hot water at a time to thin it out.

  • Prep for Poached Eggs: Place a pot of water with 1 Tbsp vinegar on the stove for making poached eggs and bring it just to a simmer.

  • Sauté meat: In a large skillet, sauté your meat until hot and golden then transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.

  • Toast English muffins: Melt 2 tsp butter on the same skillet and add English muffins cut-side down and toast until golden brown. Remove the skillet from the heat, leaving the muffins in the skillet to keep warm.

  • Poach Eggs: Once water is barely simmering, poach 4 eggs according to our easy poached eggs recipe.

  • Assemble: Place English muffin halves on serving plates cut-side up. Top with your desired meat. Place the egg over the meat. Pour the hollandaise sauce over the eggs, dividing the hollandaise recipe between the 4 eggs. Sprinkle the top with cayenne pepper and garnish with chives. Serve immediately.

Notes

Variations:
1. California: Tomato and avocado, bacon, poached egg, hollandaise
2. Sophisticated: Lox smoked Salmon, Avocado, poached egg, hollandaise
3. Fancy: 3 blanched asparagus spears, poached egg, hollandaise

  • Full Nutrition Label
  • Nutrition Disclosure

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: egg benedict recipe, eggs benedict

Skill Level: Easy/Medium

Cost to Make: $$

Natasha Kravchuk

Eggs Benedict Recipe (8)

Welcome to my kitchen! I am Natasha, the blogger behind Natasha's Kitchen (since 2009). My husband and I run this blog together and share only our best, family approved and tested recipes with YOU. Thanks for stopping by! We are so happy you're here.

Read more posts by Natasha

Eggs Benedict Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What ingredients are in Eggs Benedict? ›

Making eggs Benedict requires careful orchestration. You have to have warm, crispy bacon, hot buttered toasted English muffins, eggs poached perfectly to your desire, and a warm, creamy, unbroken hollandaise sauce, all at about the same time.

What is the secret of Eggs Benedict? ›

Hollandaise can break, which means the butter and eggs will separate. The secret is all in the butter–make sure the butter is hot, but not too hot, add it slowly, and don't add too much!

What is the hollandaise sauce made of? ›

hollandaise sauce, one of the classic sauces of French cooking, made of butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and pepper and usually served on fish, eggs, or vegetables.

Why is Eggs Benedict so expensive? ›

The two eggs any style plates are usually priced low because of the volume they make, the ease to put it together. Eggs Benedict is often much more because of the number of items needed as well as the time to make poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.

What is the difference between eggs royale and Eggs Benedict? ›

Eggs royale is similar to Eggs Benedict or florentine but uses smoked salmon instead of ham or spinach. Using cold butter rather than warm, melted butter means the sauce takes a few extra minutes to come together, but there's far less risk of it splitting – worth the time we think.

Why are eggs Benedict so high in calories? ›

Worst: Eggs Benedict

The calories come in the high-fat Hollandaise sauce. When you're eating out, going light on the sauce can help.

What are eggs Benedict with bacon called? ›

Eggs Zenedict – adds toasted scone and peameal bacon smothered in sundried tomato Hollandaise. A specialty of restaurants in the defunct Canadian retail chain Zellers. Huevos Benedictos – adds sliced avocado or Mexican chorizo, topped with salsa (such as salsa roja or salsa brava) and Hollandaise sauce.

Are eggs Benedict good for you? ›

Eggs Benedict is also an excellent source of protein. Eggs provide protein and are also rich in other nutrients, such as vitamin D and choline. Canadian bacon or ham is also a substantial source of protein! Finally, eggs Benedict is versatile and can be customized to suit individual tastes.

What is the most common mistake in hollandaise sauce? ›

One common hollandaise mistake is overcooking the egg yolks, and there's no coming back from that. But the most common problem is that the emulsion breaks, and you see streaks of liquid butter instead of a uniformly creamy sauce.

Can you buy hollandaise sauce in the supermarket? ›

Hollandaise & Bearnaise Sauce - Tesco Groceries.

Can you buy hollandaise sauce at the supermarket? ›

Buy Maille Hollandaise Sauce 200mL | Coles.

What can I put on Eggs Benedict instead of hollandaise? ›

5 Alternative Takes on Hollandaise Sauce for Your Eggs Benedict
  1. Use red wine. For a heartier sauce (that's especially good with steak and eggs), reduce dry red wine and port instead of white wine.
  2. Make a cheese sauce. ...
  3. Brown the butter with capers. ...
  4. Add morels. ...
  5. Use avocado.
Nov 15, 2022

What alcohol goes with Eggs Benedict? ›

If you're eating your 'benedict' at lunchtime or for supper and don't want to drink fizz I'd go for a smooth dry white wine such as an unoaked or lightly oaked chardonnay or an Alsace pinot blanc. These choices will work with egg benedict variations with smoked salmon* or spinach too.

How do you order Eggs Benedict not runny? ›

Over-Hard. An over-hard egg is an over-easy egg whose yolk is completely cooked through. It starts as a fried egg that's cooked on one side, then flipped and cooked yolk-side down until the yolk is no longer runny. You can also order your eggs "over-medium" if you'd like it somewhere in the middle.

What can I put on my Eggs Benedict instead of hollandaise? ›

5 Alternative Takes on Hollandaise Sauce for Your Eggs Benedict
  1. Use red wine. For a heartier sauce (that's especially good with steak and eggs), reduce dry red wine and port instead of white wine.
  2. Make a cheese sauce. ...
  3. Brown the butter with capers. ...
  4. Add morels. ...
  5. Use avocado.
Nov 15, 2022

What is the difference between Eggs Benedict and poached eggs? ›

Poached eggs are eggs that you crack, put into boiling water and leave to cook. Poached eggs are used in dishes such as Eggs Benedict, which is an egg on a slice of ham on an English muffin and topped with Hollandaise sauce, and eggs Florentine, which is the same dish that just substitutes spinach for ham.

What does Hollandaise sauce taste like? ›

What is Hollandaise Sauce? If you've never experienced the magic of hollandaise sauce, let me attempt to describe it to you. It's a very simple savory sauce made with butter, egg yolk, lemon, and salt. It has a smooth, velvety texture with just the right amount of bright lemon flavor to keep it from being too heavy.

Why are Eggs Benedict so high in calories? ›

Worst: Eggs Benedict

The calories come in the high-fat Hollandaise sauce. When you're eating out, going light on the sauce can help.

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