It’s hard to think of a more iconic brunch order than the classic eggs Benedict. This beloved staple has everything you’re looking for in a morning meal: a golden, toasted English muffin topped with a perfectly runny poached egg, all smothered in creamy hollandaise sauce.
If you’re more of an at-home brunch person, the good news is that perfect eggs Benedict is within reach with the help of a widely available culinary tool — a sous vide. These immersion circulators have been popular in restaurants for decades. More recently, they’re popping up in home kitchens, and it’s easy to see what the hype is about. These easy-to-use devices prepare perfectly cooked meat, poultry, veggies and, of course, eggs with very little hands-on work.
If you’re craving a restaurant-worthy brunch of eggs Benedict at home, here’s everything you need to know to make it with a sous vide.
Start by setting up your water bath and sous vide. You’ll need a container large enough to hold your eggs and submerge the sous vide at least to its minimal fill line. If you like to watch what’s going on inside, a clear plastic container made specifically for cooking sous vide is your best bet.
However, a large stock pot, such as the Misen 8-Quart Stainless Steel Stock Pot, will also work well. If you’re looking for something larger, you can’t go wrong with the spacious All-Clad 12-Quart Lidded Stock Pot.
Fill the container or stock pot with enough water to reach the minimum fill line on your sous vide cooker. Feel free to go well past the fill line because the water will evaporate as you cook.
Next, attach your sous vide cooker to the side of the water bath container. Many sous vide cookers have a clamp that tightens against the side of the pot so it stays in place. However, higher-end options, such as the Breville Joule Sous Vide, use a magnetic base and a simple clip to stay in place in your pot. Another great and less expensive option, the Anova Culinary Nano Sous Vide Precision Cooker uses a manual clamp.
To set your sous vide for perfectly jammy eggs and hollandaise, dial the temperature to 167 degrees. Now, you can cover the container with its lid or cover the pot with a piece of aluminum foil. This traps the heat and water inside so your water bath reaches temperature faster.
While the hot water bath heats, prepare the hollandaise sauce for your eggs Benedict. In addition to the immersion circulator, you’ll also need a pint-sized heat-proof glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and an immersion blender. The Wide-Mouth Mason Jars by Ball are the right size and have a spacious opening to easily blend your sauce.
The Braun 3-in-1 Immersion Hand Blender is powerful enough to emulsify your hollandaise sauce in seconds.
Add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of chopped shallot, 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, four egg yolks, 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of water to the jar. Add the lid and screw it until it’s almost tight.
When the water bath reaches 167 degrees, it will alert you with a beep or a notification on the Bluetooth-connected app. At this point, gently lower the glass jar into the water bath with a set of jar tongs, which will protect your hands from the hot water. Set a timer for half an hour.
You can cook the eggs and hollandaise at the same time. When there are 13 minutes left on the timer for your hollandaise, you’re ready to add the eggs. To do so, place as many eggs as you’d like to cook on a spoon (count on two per person for eggs Benedict), and gently lower the eggs into the water bath.
Once your eggs are in, cover the pot and set a timer for 13 minutes.
When your timer goes off, turn off the sous vide. Remove the jar of hollandaise sauce from the water bath and use the immersion blender to quickly puree it until it’s smooth. You can taste the sauce and add salt, pepper or lemon juice if necessary.
A few minutes before your eggs are done cooking, pop your English muffins into the toaster. If you’re serving a crowd, you can stick them under the broiler on a baking sheet. When the muffins are golden and toasty, spread softened butter on them.
Now you're ready to assemble your meal and dig in. Place the buttered and toasted English muffins on serving plates. Gently crack open a sous vide egg onto each muffin half, then spoon the hollandaise sauce on top. If you like, you can garnish your masterpiece with a crack of fresh black pepper and a sprinkle of fresh tarragon or thyme leaves.
When you’re done cooking with your sous vide, unplug it. Remove the sous vide wand from the water bath and dry it with a clean dish towel. Leave it somewhere to dry, preferably on a rack, so the water inside can evaporate, then empty the container of all water. That’s it — one of the best parts about cooking with an immersion circulator is that cleanup is fast and easy.
A. If you’d like to cook your eggs a bit more, simply increase the sous vide temperature to 170 degrees for 15 minutes.
A. Yes, it’s possible to overcook eggs in a sous vide. To avoid going past the runny-yolk stage, be sure to remove your eggs from the hot water bath after 45 minutes.
A. To simply pasteurize your eggs or kill any potentially harmful bacteria that could cause salmonella, cook them in a hot water bath at 130 degrees for an hour. The egg will still look basically raw, and you can use them to safely make mayonnaise, hollandaise or even edible cookie dough.
A. To complete your dish, serve eggs Benedict with a diner staple. Freshly cut seasonal fruits, such as berries, peaches or melon, are always a refreshing side or cook up some quick hash browns. For some greens, add a lightly dressed salad of arugula and tomatoes.
This compact sous vide is easy to use and pairs with an accompanying smartphone app, so you can control your cooking by Bluetooth from afar. It is easy to store and weighs just 1.28 pounds.
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Anova Culinary Nano Sous Vide Precision Cooker
This is a great budget-friendly sous vide cooker that’s made from durable black plastic. It offers Bluetooth connectivity and a small profile to fit inside your kitchen drawer.
Sold by Amazon
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Lizzy Briskin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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