What’s your favorite breakfast food? Is it a classic American breakfast meal including pancakes, sausages, and orange juice? Or do you prefer something on the lighter side with a European twist? A lot of people skip breakfast altogether! Are you one of those people?

In the famous words of nutritionist Adelle Davis: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” What is a pauper? It’s an old fashioned way of saying “very poor person”. In other words, limit your late night meals, and fill up on a good hearty breakfast instead!

Why is breakfast the most important meal of the day? When you wake up, you need that glucose supply replenished to boost your energy. According to research, eating a large breakfast rather than a large dinner actually lowers your chance of obesity and high blood sugar. Additionally, breakfast eaters may burn twice the amount of calories as a non breakfast eater.

When you consume breakfast, this sends a signal to your body that you will be receiving an adequate amount of calories for the day, meaning your body prepares to burn those calories. But when you skip breakfast, this tells your body to conserve calories instead, since it doesn’t know when the next meal will come.

I don’t personally like to consume a super filling breakfast; I simply like to give my body the energy it needs to jump start my metabolism. My ultimate favorite special- occasion breakfast consists of a hot black coffee, and a perfectly prepared eggs Benedict. Perfect!

So today I bring to you the most delicious eggs Benedict recipe, that also happens to be pretty easy, and who doesn’t love that? This recipe only calls for a handful of ingredients too, so it’s relatively simple. Let’s jump in and get hungry!

What You Need:

(Makes 4 servings)

2 English muffins

4 eggs

2 slices honey ham (sliced 1/4in thick)

1 package McCormick hollandaise sauce

1/4 cup butter

1 cup milk

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp salt

Instructions:

Let’s get cookin’!

I like to get myself organized when I know I’m going to be cooking several things at the same time. So first I prepare my pot and pans. Next I take out a few small bowls or ramekins for the eggs.

Fill the pot up with water, add 1 tsp white vinegar, and 1 tsp salt and bring to a simmer. Crack the eggs into small bowls or ramekins. Once the water is simmering, use a spoon to stir the water in one direction, drop the egg into the center. You may drop the second egg in, but don’t poach more than two eggs at a time for best results.

Cover the pot, and set a timer for 3 minutes. I found that 5 minutes made the egg pretty hard and 2 minutes didn’t cook the egg enough. Once the timer is done, remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Meanwhile heat a little butter in one pan, and drop the English muffins in face down to give them a little bit of a crisp and warm them up. About 3 minutes is enough. Remove the toasted English muffins and set aside.

Now it’s time to heat up and brown the ham! The smell of the sizzling ham will certainly wake up any nose in your house that isn’t already awake, I promise! On medium heat, place the ham into the pan. It should already be cooked, so we don’t need to keep it in the pan for too long, only about 3 minutes per side.

Now the only thing left is to prepare the hollandaise sauce, assemble our English muffins, and … eat! In the third pan, heat milk, butter, and McCormick hollandaise sauce mix. Whisk together and let cook for about 10 minutes, until sauce thickens.

Plating eggs Benedict is super fun. Place toasted English muffins open faced onto a plate. Top with the juicy ham, one poached egg, and smother the whole sandwich with hollandaise sauce. Serve and devour immediately!!!

Now, some of you may have some questions. Aren’t traditional eggs Benedict sandwiches made with Canadian bacon? Yeah, they are. And you’re welcome to use Canadian bacon in place of the honey ham but man, I have to tell you the flavor and texture of the honey ham really is excellent in an eggs Benedict, and is actually my preference! You can’t go wrong either way.

Next, some of you may be wondering what the vinegar does to help with poaching the eggs. I wondered this myself! Egg whites are mostly protein, and so they tend to coagulate as soon as they’re immersed in heat. The vinegar helps to firm the egg whites faster, preventing breakage and minimizing the yucky coagulated egg whites floating around the sides.

Well there you have it- my favorite breakfast recipe for eggs Benedict! In case you’re wondering, eggs Benedict is an American dish with the origin likely in Manhattan, New York. One story states that a retired Wall Street broker named Lemuel Benedict walked into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894, and ordered the “buttered toast, poached eggs, bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise”. He was looking for a breakfast food that would cure his hangover.

The master of the house, or head waiter, Oscar Tschirky, was so impressed with his dish that he added it to the menu. He made some changes however, as he substituted ham for the bacon, and a toasted English muffin for the original toast.

I hope you try your hand at this recipe, and enjoy these scrumptious egg Benedict sandwiches for breakfast soon!