Eggs Benedict Recipe
Learn how to make the best Eggs Benedict with Poached Eggs and easy Hollandaise Sauce on a toasted English muffin. This is a famous American dish and it’s a staple on restaurant breakfast menus. You can absolutely recreate this restaurant classic at home.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
We love special breakfast and brunch recipes from Crepes to tender Omelettes and Fluffy Waffles. If you love special weekend breakfasts this Eggs Benedict is a must-try!
What is an Egg Benedict?
Egg benedict is essentially an open-faced breakfast sandwich. You can change up eggs benedict in many ways but a classic egg benedict starts with a toasted English muffin half, then meat which is usually Canadian bacon, ham, or regular bacon. That is topped with a poached egg, a generous coating of hollandaise sauce, and finished with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
It all sounds fancy but each step is relatively simple and you can comfortably crank out 4 eggs benedict all at once.
Ingredients for Eggs Benedict
- Hollandaise Sauce – the traditional eggs benedict sauce
- English Muffins – 2 halved English muffins make 4 eggs benedict
- Unsalted butter – for toasting the English muffins
- Canadian Bacon, or substitute with thinly shaved ham, or Crispy Bacon
- Eggs – use large grade AA eggs and super fresh eggs are best for holding their shape
- Distilled white vinegar – added to the water for poaching eggs
- Cayenne Pepper, to garnish
- Garnish – with Chives or dill
Egg Benedict Variations
- Classic: Ham, egg, and hollandaise
- California: Tomato and avocado, air fryer bacon, egg, and hollandaise
- Sophisticated: smoked salmon, avocado, poached egg, and hollandaise
- Fancy: 3 blanched asparagus spears, poached egg, hollandaise
Pro Tip: If you really want to go all out and impress someone, try Eggs Benedict with Crab Cakes or Salmon Cakes.
How to Make Eggs Benedict
- Make the Hollandaise Sauce: cook according to our hollandaise recipe instructions. Cover to keep warm. Add a little hot water to thin if needed.
- Prep for Poached Eggs: Place a pot of water on the stove for making poached eggs and bring it to barely a simmer.
- Sauté meat: In a large skillet, sauté meat until warm and golden then transfer to a plate, cover to keep warm.
- Toast English muffins: Melt 2 tsp butter on the same skillet and add English muffins cut-side down. Toast until golden brown. Turn off the heat and leave muffins in the pan to keep warm.
- Poach Eggs: Once water is barely simmering, poach 4 eggs according to our easy poached eggs recipe.
- Assemble: Place English muffin halves on serving plates, cut side up, and top with your meat. Place the egg over the meat. Pour the hollandaise sauce over the eggs, sprinkle the top with cayenne pepper and garnish with chives. Serve immediately.
Common Questions
People assume eggs benedict are of French origin because they use Hollandaise Sauce (a popular French sauce), but it actually originated in New York, USA at the Waldorf hotel when a customer requested the combination as a custom order, and the restaurant was so impressed by it, they added it to their menu.
Eggs Florence has a layer of sauteed spinach beneath the poached eggs, but otherwise, they both have a toasted English muffin and are topped with Hollandaise.
This is typically a breakfast or brunch menu item.
You can serve the poached egg without hollandaise and just add a sprinkle of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. You can also try topping with Salsa, Pico de Gallo, or Adjika.
Make-Ahead
This is really best when enjoyed freshly made. You can cover and keep the Hollandaise sauce warm while you are making the other components of the recipe, but I don’t recommend making these ahead of time.
More Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast is my favorite meal on weekends because those are our ‘days off,’ we aren’t in a hurry and can afford to take a little extra time to make breakfast special. If you love this Eggs Benedict Recipe, then you won’t want to miss these breakfast favorites:
I hope you’re excited to make Eggs Benedict. The combination of poached eggs, warm Canadian bacon, and creamy hollandaise sauce over a buttered and toasted English muffin makes an excellent weekend breakfast.
Eggs Benedict Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Hollandaise Sauce
- 2 English muffins, halved
- 4 tsp unsalted butter, to toast muffins
- 4 slices Canadian bacon, thin shaved ham, or crispy bacon
- 4 large eggs, for poached eggs
- 1 Tbsp white vinegar for poaching eggs
- cayenne pepper, to garnish
- chives or dill, to garnish
Instructions
- Make the Hollandaise Sauce: combine hollandaise sauce in a small saucepan and cook according to our hollandaise recipe instructions. Cover with lid to keep warm. If it gets too thick, add a teaspoon of hot water at a time to thin it out.
- Prep for Poached Eggs: Place a pot of water with 1 Tbsp vinegar on the stove for making poached eggs and bring it just to a simmer.
- Sauté meat: In a large skillet, sauté your meat until hot and golden then transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.
- Toast English muffins: Melt 2 tsp butter on the same skillet and add English muffins cut-side down and toast until golden brown. Remove the skillet from the heat, leaving the muffins in the skillet to keep warm.
- Poach Eggs: Once water is barely simmering, poach 4 eggs according to our easy poached eggs recipe.
- Assemble: Place English muffin halves on serving plates cut-side up. Top with your desired meat. Place the egg over the meat. Pour the hollandaise sauce over the eggs, dividing the hollandaise recipe between the 4 eggs. Sprinkle the top with cayenne pepper and garnish with chives. Serve immediately.
Notes
1. California: Tomato and avocado, bacon, poached egg, hollandaise
2. Sophisticated: Lox smoked Salmon, Avocado, poached egg, hollandaise
3. Fancy: 3 blanched asparagus spears, poached egg, hollandaise
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
I take my eggs Benedict to the next level and make homemade English muffin bread the day before and use slices that are toasted. So easy to make and enjoy often.
Sounds amazing!
I just made this eggs Benedict recipe for breakfast. I’ve been craving eggs Benedict for over a year, and never did it because I never understood hollandaise sauce and if I could successfully make it without giving myself food poisoning. LOL! Your recipe was amazing, turned out lovely and IG worthy! Even with the little bit of cayenne in there, it wasn’t at all spicy. 10/10 would recommend!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Kendall! I’m glad my recipe was a hit!
Love your recipes and also your great sense of humour…..so natural and funny…..
Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Shelley!
WOW! WOW! WOW! I love eggs bennie, but have never made at home because I’ve been afraid of attempting the hollandaise sauce. Your recipe for Hollandaise and your video tips on how to make a perfect poached egg allowed me to make the best eggs bennie I have ever had! Thank you Natasha. I am so happy to have found your website and thoroughly enjoy your recipes.
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Jennifer! I’m so glad you gave this recipe a go!
Oh my goodness! Natasha has given the best written recipe for Eggs Benedict I have ever found (loved Eggs Benedict since the 70’s), with carefully thought out and easy to follow instructions! Hollandaise sauce recipes, before this delicious one, always separated or hardboiled due to poor instructions. When following Natasha’s Hollandaise sauce instructions to the “T”, the sauce thickened perfectly, smooth and silky. And following the poached egg recipe here,(another previous lifelong failure), Eggs are perfectly runny as they should be. I was successful on my first attempt to make these Eggs Benedict. Hubby loved them, too. I highly recommend trying this outstanding recipe.
Thank you, Jann! I’m so glad you and your husband loved it.
I’m so happy I found your site, I use a lot of your ideas and add a few personal touches, not many, because I love all of your recipes, my husband is always asking me to see what’s new from you and is always asking what sides you suggest for the main course, I’m never disappointed. Thank You.
You are so welcome, Patricia. Thanks so much for your good comments and feedback, we appreciate it!
Love eggs Benedict great recipe but in Maryland we also do a version with the lump crab meat from the blue crab out of the Chesapeake Bay
Sounds good too! So glad you love this recipe.
ALWAYS LOVE YOUR RECIPES AND I ALWAYS RECOMMEND YOUR SITE TO MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY
That is so sweet. Thank you!
Hello Natasha, my favorite eggs, but I tried with corn beef a while ago, I highly recommend it
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Edith!
Natasha i saw a receipt with Thomas English muffins ham cheese and egg for breakfast. I can not find it now. Can you please help me. Gail Johnson
Hi Gail, you can find all of our English Muffin recipes HERE.
Cant seem to find the recipe to make the hollandaise sauce could someone help please
Hi Linda, we have it pinned to the first sentence of this recipe, but you can also find the Hollandaise Sauce HERE. I hope you love it!
As always, love your recipes and you are the best at showing everyone they can be the Chef at home. Had the Southern version Egg Benedict in Charlston SC with green fry tomato, fresh crab meat with the poach egg and Hollandaise sauce, it was out of this world.
Thank you so much, Guy! That is very kind. I’m happy to help.
I love your easy Hollandaise sauce recipe. Thank you so much from a retired nurse.
You’re welcome, Maria. Happy that you loved it!
This recipe was restaurant quality! Perfect for Sunday brunch! We loved it.
So glad to hear that, Laura! Thank you for the review and feedback.
Wow! I am really looking forward to making this recipe! Perhaps for my wife on Mother’s Day which is coming up very soon. I’ve made Eggs Benedict before, but few things motivate me more than a recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen! Thank you for sharing this! I know this will become a standard in my repertoire of go-to recipes!
You’re welcome. Steven. I hope your wife will love this and all the other recipes that you will try!
One of my husband’s favorites! Love how easy your directions are! I can totally make this for him whenever he wants because the directions are so easy and the recipe is so delicious! Perfect!
Hello Betsy, that’s good to know! I hope your family will love all the recipes that you will make for them.
My husband started cooking during covid because of the fun you were having in the kitchen with your recipes and videos. Every recipe he tried was a success.
So we started making a collection of the recipes, printed them after we tried them, and again, we weren’t disappointed. So, thanks to you, I have a partner in the kitchen, we have a lot of good recipes and you got two very devoted fans!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing!
Love it, thanks a lot for sharing! That helps motivate and inspire me to do more videos and recipes for you all!
Natasha, have you had an egg sardou?
Hollandaise sauce, artichoke bottoms, creamed spinach, and buttered toast. Bom.
Please try, love your content!
Thanks for your suggestion, Dan! I’ll try to add that to our list.