Classic Eggs Benedict with Fool Proof Hollandaise Recipe

What's up everybody? Chef Billy Parisi here from billyparisi.com and we're still rolling through with breakfast and I'm gonna be hooking up an insanely delicious classic eggs benedict recipe. I've been making eggs benedict as far back as I can remember to my early culinary restaurant career working at a country club in St. Louis. We would have brunch Sundays where all the club members would come in. I would of course be responsible for making eggs benedict. Seriously, like whipping up a 50,000 gallon bat of hollandaise, oh my gosh. I never wish to go back to that time period. Man, that was crazy. But of course, per usual, I wanna give you a little bit of history around the classic eggs benedict recipe. I found two different stories. Both aren't really validated, but that's what everyone goes with. The first one in the 1860s, a woman named Miss Le Grande Benedict walked into the first ever fine dining establishment, or so they say, Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, was bored with the menu, told the chef, whip me up something new. Essentially what he brought up is what we know as modern day eggs benedict. Sounds like a fun story. The second one being a Mr. Le Mule Benedict, who was a Wall Street broker, woke up hungover as all get out, just needing some grease, some food, went over to the Waldorf Hotel in New York and said, here's what I want. I want some toast, some bacon, some eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Stack it up and bring it out ASAP. I don't know, I like that story, but I also like the first one. Regardless, eggs benedict is awesome. I'm gonna show you from start to end how to make this, including the hollandaise sauce, which is the first thing we're gonna kick off in this recipe. What we need to do is clarify some butter, so go ahead and add a few sticks to a small-sized sauce pot over medium heat. I'm adding in a few extra because I like to use clarified butter. What we wanna do now is cook all those milk fats right to the top. You'll see this sort of white foamy substance at the top. Those are the milk fats. Once they start coming to the top, you wanna use a ladle or a spoon and simply take those out, set them to the side in a bowl. Do not throw those away because you can add them to popcorn, you can put them in sauces. It's delicious. Once you get to a point where all the milk fats have sort of been cooked out and have been scooped out, you'll see that the butter starts becoming more clear. You can see the bottom of your pot. What we're gonna do now is take the clarified butter off the cooktop, go over to your countertop. I've got a large measuring cup, it's a measuring cord, actually. We're gonna use a chinois. If you don't have a chinois, use some cheesecloth over a strainer. We're gonna pour it, strain any excess milk fats that maybe we couldn't get right over the top. Boom, we are done with this. Let's set it to the side. Now go back over to your cooktop, add a medium pot of water over medium heat. We're gonna use it as a double boiler. Now go over to the countertop. I've got a large metal bowl. Make sure it is metal. We're gonna add in some egg yolks. Next, we're gonna squeeze in a little bit of lemon juice. I'm gonna stop right here because a lot of recipes and hollandaise call for using water. You know what? I learned white wine. It's got more flavor, it's got a little bit more acidity to it. It's just better. To me, you can use water. Don't get me wrong. You can use water. But I think white wine just adds another level of complexity to the hollandaise. Makes it super, super good. So add in some white wine. Whisk it vigorously. I mean crazy, like animal. Okay, go nuts here. Once it is nice and foamy, we're gonna go over to the cooktop where our double boiler is or our boiling pot of water or water over medium heat rather. Add the bowl right to the top of that. Whisk it really, really well. Continuously whisk this. You don't wanna stop because the eggs can't cook. If you feel like the eggs start cooking, just simply lift the bowl out of the water while continuing to whisk. You're just gonna cool the bowl down just a little bit. Add it back down when you feel like you're at a good spot. You'll know it's ready because it'll be really foamy and there'll be no sort of egg liquid at the bottom of the bowl. It will be completely emulsified. Now at this point, we need to add in some of that clarified butter. You wanna add in just a little bit at a time. That's why I use a measuring cup instead of a ladle. It's just easier to pour in. It will take about four to six ounces max of butter. If you do anything more than that, it's gonna break and then it's just gonna look really just nasty and not taste very good. So at this point, go ahead and set it to the side. What we're gonna do is season it up with a little bit of sea salt and cayenne pepper. Give it a whisk and that's it. All right, you guys, the hollandaise is finished. That's by far the most complicated part to this recipe. Now everything else is gonna move quickly, so pay attention. We're gonna add a medium-sized pot of water to our cooktop over medium heat. Next, what we wanna do is add a large saute pan to another burner. We're next gonna add some butter to that pan over medium heat. Once the butter's melted, what we wanna do is sort of crisp up, brown up, heat up our Canadian bacon. You can absolutely use some leftover ham if you have it here. We wanna get it just until lightly browned. Go ahead and give it a flip. Turn the heat off because that pan's still hot. It's gonna keep our Canadian bacon plenty warm. Now go over to the water. Hopefully you got a nice little simmer there. We're gonna add in a little bit of vinegar. This is gonna help with smells, nothing else. Eggs can kinda smell funky when you're poaching them. Now what we wanna do to cook these eggs, we wanna poach them. The best way that I know how is by using the vortex method. So grab a spoon and stir it as fast as you can without that water going everywhere. Be careful here. Stir it fast and then add an egg right to the center. You can see it sort of wrap up, the whites wrap right around that yolk beautifully. Simply cook it for three minutes max. You wanna still have a nice egg that will pour that yolk out once you cut into it. I like to set them to the side on a sheet tray lined with just a little bit of paper towel sort of drain it off. Season it up with a little sea salt, cracked black pepper, and now the last part of this recipe. I've got some English muffins. We're just gonna go in the oven on 400 degrees. Gonna toast them. Gonna take maybe four minutes. You've got a toaster, feel free to put them in there. Party to all, everything is done. Let's plate this beauty up. Go ahead and add our toasted English muffins down on a plate. We're next gonna add on our lightly seared pieces of Canadian bacon. Next, we're gonna hit it with that poached seasoned egg. And of course, last but not least, we are gonna top it off with that beautiful, beautiful, delicious hollandaise that we made. And for a little garnish, some chopped fresh parsley and diced fresh chives. Boom. Let's try this out. I'm not sure it gets any more classic when it comes to breakfast than an eggs benedict. It's at every single brunch you've ever been to. It's on every breakfast menu that you've ever witnessed, I swear. It's pretty easy to make once the hollandaise is done, and the hollandaise, honestly, isn't that hard to make once you have the clarified butter. I mean, it really only takes about three or four minutes. And the clarified butter, make plenty extra because it's awesome in cooking. The milk fats, again, popcorn. You could just put it into any batter, whatever it is. It's really, really tasty. So now, let's not waste any more time and get into this fourth breakfast episode. Yeah. The hollandaise is super creamy, you guys. And maybe I should've used like a steak knife or something. Golly, let's go. This is a large bite. What is not to love? The toasted English muffin, salty, delicious Canadian bacon, a perfectly poached egg, and the delicious, fatty, buttery egg yolk, delicious sauce right over the top. Oh my gosh, is that good. I gotta chew. I know it's probably gross hearing me chew. I'm out. We'll see y'all next week. Mm.