An Inspired Cook

It’s chile season here in New Mexico!  I have missed you so!  It’s been too many years since I’ve been home to enjoy the aroma of roasting chiles in the air.  Ask any New Mexican and they will tell you that this is a most special time of year.  Today I’m sharing a favorite breakfast dish and taking it up a notch to make it even more scrumptious if that’s possible.  An eggs benedict with a fry bread base, topped with bacon, poached eggs and a green chile hollandaise sauce ladled over top.  Making this for just the two us us presented a dilemna of scaling everything down from the fry bread to the hollandaise sauce.  As much as I tried it’s really perfect for four.  It’s also a time sensitive dish to make given that everything needs to be prepped and cooked at the same time.  Fortunately for me, Joe volunteered to help out and together we had everything prepared and assembled in no time.  When you taste that first bite, your taste buds will swoon.  This is by far my favorite hollandaise sauce, so creamy and flavorful with freshly roasted green chile.  And if you take the time to make these light and airy fry breads, you will wonder why you haven’t done this sooner.  At least that’s what I’m thinking!

There is much prep work to be done starting with the green chile.  I’m using one fresh Hatch green chile and roasting it myself, however if you can’t get fresh green chile in your area, you can use frozen or canned chiles.

When I roast just a few chiles I find it easiest to skewer them and roast directly over an open flame such as the side burner of my grill or even the gas burner on my stove.  Keep rotating it as it roasts and blisters the skin.

Almost done on all sides.

When satisfied that it is sufficiently roasted, place the chile in a plastic bag and let it steam for 20 minutes or so.  Peel, seed and remove the stem from the chile, then chop into a small dice.  Set aside.

One thing to get out of the way is to fry the bacon bits up ahead of time.  Blot them with a paper towel and set aside.  They can be easily be reheated in the microwave for 15 – 30 seconds just before you assemble the benedict.

Time to prep the fry bread.  I have always heard that Blue Bird Flour is the best flour for making fry bread.  I’m going to test it out today.  You’ll need flour, instant powdered milk, baking powder and salt for the dry ingredients.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.  Pour the water into the dry ingredients and begin to stir.

Stir the dough until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Prepare a work surface with a sprinkle of flour.  Gently work the dough into a ball without kneading it.

Use a pastry cutter to cut the dough into 4 equal parts.

Use your hands to form the triangles into 4 small discs.

With floured hands, begin to form the dough by patting it back and forth between your hands and stretching it out until it is about 4 – 6 inches in diameter.  Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly round.  Let the dough rest while you prep the eggs and hollandaise sauce.

Ok then, all the prep work done, time to get this going.  Fill a cast iron skillet with at least 1 inch of vegetable oil and heat until it is nice and hot.  To check the oil, place a wooden spoon handle into the oil, when it bubbles around the handle it’s ready to go.  Poke a small hole in each piece of dough to allow the oil to flow through.  Place the dough into the hot oil, one at a time and let it bubble up and around. When it has browned on the bottom, turn the dough over and let cook until it crisp and brown.  Once turned it will take less time to brown so watch closely.

Remove the fry bread from the oil and set on a warming plate lined with a paper towel.  As much as I scaled these down they are still too big for just one egg so I assembled them with one fry bread and two poached eggs over top.  If you are serving four people this is the perfect amount of fry breads. Just poach 2 eggs per fry bread.  The hollandaise sauce also makes enough for four servings.  Because there is just the two of us, we ate the extra two fry breads with a drizzle of honey over top.  Can you say STUFFED!

Here is a product that makes poaching eggs easy.  They are little paper wrappers shaped like an egg and will easily fold over a glass.  Drop the egg into the folded paper cup.  Find Perfect Poach wrappers here.

Heat a pot of boiling water and place the eggs along with the wrappers into the boiling water.  Total boil time for the perfect poach is 4 minutes.  If you are in a time sensitive situation and need to do 3 things at a time like this dish, boil for 3 minutes then remove partially cooked eggs to a bowl with ice water to stop the cooking process.  Leave the pot boiling in the meantime.  When you are about a minute out, place the eggs back into the boiling water for 1 minute.

I’ve found that 4 minutes cooks the whites leaving a runny yolk which I love on eggs benedict.

For the hollandaise sauce you will need large egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice, green chile salt and roasted diced green chiles.

Here is another link to buy green chile powder.  I make my own green chile salt with one part green chile powder to one part sea salt. I use it to season the hollandaise sauce as well as sprinkling on top of the benedict.

Place the egg yolks, lemon juice and green chile salt into a blender and process.

As the blender continues to process, pop the top cap off the blender and drizzle in the warm melted butter.  As it blends it will become a thick creamy sauce.  This will only take a minute or so.  I have found that in a pinch you can continue blending on low while you assemble the benedict and the sauce will stay the same consistency.

Last thing is to add the green chile to the hollandaise sauce.

The fry bread was large enough to hold two poached eggs.  Assemble the benedict with the fry bread on the bottom, a sprinkle of chopped bacon, poached eggs and finally the green chile hollandaise sauce.  Sprinkle with green chile salt.  Serve with hash browns to complete the deliciousness!




Hatch Green Chile Benedict with Fry Bread
4 – 6 strips Bacon, diced into bits and fried crisp
4 – 8 Eggs, 2 per person
Green Chile Salt, optional

Fry Bread
1 cup Flour (I used Blue Bird Flour)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 tablespoons Powdered Milk
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Water, warm
Vegetable Oil for frying

Sift together the flour, salt, powdered milk and baking powder into a large bowl.  Pour the warm water over the flour mix and gently stir until all the dry ingredients are incorporated and dough begins to form.

Flour your hands and begin to form the dough into a ball.  Don’t go so far as to knead the dough as it will make the fry bread heavy when cooked.  Make sure the outside is well floured leaving the inside soft and sticky.

Use a pastry cutter to cut the dough into four equal pieces.  Use your hands to form the triangles into a ball.  Pat the dough between your hands back and forth stretching it as you go it to make them approximately 4 – 6 inches in diameter.  Make a small hole in each piece of dough.

They can sit out to rest for up to 30 minutes.

Fill a cast iron skillet with 1 – 2 inches of vegetable oil.  Heat until oil reaches 350 degrees or test with a wooden spoon handle.  When the handle inserted into the oil begins to bubble, the oil is hot enough to fry.  Fry one piece of dough at a time.  Allow to cook until the bottom of the fry bread has browned.  Turn over to cook an additional minute or two until browned.  Set on a warming plate lined with paper towels to absorb any excess oil.

Proceed frying the rest of the dough.

Makes 4 fry breads.

Hatch Green Chile Hollandaise Sauce
3 Egg Yolks, extra large
1 1/2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/4 teaspoon Green Chile Powder
1 stick Unsalted Butter, melted and warm
1 Hatch Green Chile, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped

Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, and green chile salt in a blender and process.  Continue processing on a medium speed while pouring the warm melted butter through the removable cap at the top of the blender.  Process for a minute or so as the sauce begins to thicken.  Use a spatula to scrape hollandaise sauce into a bowl.  Stir in chopped green chile.

Serves 4

To make the Green Chile Benedict:  Roast the green chile over an open flame such as a side burner of a grill or the gas burner on a kitchen stove.  Turn the chile to blister on all sides, place in a plastic bag and let steam for 20 minutes. Peel the chile (if necessary run under running water), remove stem and seed chile.  Dice into small pieces.  Set aside.  **You may substitute 1/4 cup frozen chopped green chile or canned.

Slice bacon into 1/4 inch pieces and fry until crisp.  Remove and place on a plate lined with a paper towel.  Set aside. Can be reheated in the microwave for 15 – 30 seconds.

Prep the bread dough so that it is ready to fry and prep the green chile hollandaise ingredients so they are ready to blend.

In a large pot add water and heat to boiling. Poach eggs in the Perfect Poach bags for 3 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to retrieve eggs and place in an ice bath to stop the cook process.  Leave the pot boiling on the stove while you fry the bread and blend the hollandaise sauce.  Place the eggs back into the boiling water for 1 minute for a runny yolk or 2 minutes for a more firm yolk.

To assemble the benedicts, place 1 fry bread on a plate, sprinkle bacon bits over top.  Lay 2 poached eggs on top and ladle green chile hollandaise sauce over eggs.  Season with green chile salt.  Serve with hash browns.