How To Make Eggs Benedict At Home

Every weekend, all over this great country, brunch spots serve up eggs Benedict by the dozens — all while wrangling byzantine Bloody Mary customizations and tantrum-prone toddlers and lines of hangry hipsters stretching out the door. How do they do it? Timing and technique! And believe our friends over at ChefSteps: You, too, can use timing and technique to serve up amazing eggs Benny at home, with zero risk of messing things up. Oh, and guess what else? Your saucy egg dish will be the best version that you — and your guests — have ever tasted.

First off, let's cover timing. When you plan ahead and can focus on one component of a dish at a time, a seemingly complex recipe doesn't just become doable — it becomes fun to make. As for technique, we use sous vide for the eggs and sauce, eliminating the risk of overcooking the former and "breaking" the latter (failing to emulsify and becoming runny and oily). With these once-tricky ingredients on lock, we can home in on the rest of the dish and time things out to a T.

Ready to cook? Check out the brief instructional video and the full recipe below to start making your Benny like a pro.

Can't-F*ck-It-Up Eggs Benedict

Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 2/3 tablespoons champagne vinegar

1/8 cup shallots, minced

1 1/3 sticks butter

Around 5 egg yolks

1/4 cup water

1 1/3 tablespoons lemon juice

Pinch of kosher salt

12 eggs

6 English muffins

Ham, thinly sliced, as needed

Dill, fresh, as needed

Directions:

  • About 2 hours before brunch, preheat your sous vide setup to 147°F. ChefSteps uses its very own Joule device.
  • Combine vinegar and shallots in a small pot. Over high heat, reduce liquid by half.
  • Combine butter, egg yolk, water, lemon juice, vinegar reduction (from above) and salt in a ziplock-style bag and lower it in the bath. No need to mix it ahead of time.
  • Let the hollandaise cook at 147°F for 1-2 hours, or until you're ready to serve brunch.
  • While the hollandaise is cooking, pop all your eggs into another ziplock-style bag. They can cook at the same exact temperature for the same amount of time, so you can cook them in the same pot.
  • About an hour before brunch, toast some muffins. Preheat your oven to 200°F. Halve the muffins and spread some butter on each half. In a skillet over high heat, toast the muffin halves four at a time. Press down on them with another skillet to get an extra-crispy crust.
  • Lay your muffins, nook-and-cranny-side up, on a baking sheet. Top each sheet with a little ham nest, leaving a space in the center to put the egg in later.
  • Reserve the muffins and ham in the preheated oven until you're ready to eat. Put some plates in there, too, so you can serve each masterpiece on a nice, warm palette.
  • Mince up some dill; set aside.
  • About 20 minutes before go time, take the bag of hollandaise out of the water. It's going to look all greasy and separated, but don't stress. Blend everything on medium until it looks nice and fluffy and light yellow.
  • Put two muffin halves on each plate so you can crack all the eggs at once in the next step.
  • Pull those eggs out and put them in a bowl nearby. Rest a slotted spoon in another bowl right next to the eggs. Now carefully crack each egg over the slotted spoon so that the excess runny white drains into the bowl. Transfer the egg to a ham nest. Repeat until all the ham nests are topped with eggs.
  • Pour hollandaise straight from the blender onto each egg. You can just eyeball the amount — be conservative at first, so you don't run out. Sprinkle on the mixed dill. Add other herbs and spices if you want — we like a dusting of paprika.
  • Serve up your effortless brunch!
  • ChefSteps comprises a team of award-winning chefs, filmmakers, scientists, designers and engineers focused on revolutionizing the way people cook by inspiring creativity and encouraging expertise in the kitchen. You can also get access to all of ChefSteps' Premium content — including paid classes and dozens of recipes available only to Premium members for a onetime fee — for the special price of $24 (regularly $39). Classes include Sous Vide: Beyond the BasicsFluid GelsFrench Macarons and more!