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This lobster benedict recipe is a luxurious breakfast and brunch dish that is perfect for lobster season! Toasty english muffins are the bed for butter poached lobster meat and lobster tails which are topped with a beautiful poached egg covered in rich and creamy hollandaise sauce. It's absolute decadence and really straightforward to make, especially with my easy blender hollandaise sauce!
I absolutely love lobster bennies because they remind me so much of summer and vacation and the beach. When we lived in Virginia Beach, this brunch place called Citrus, which was literally a block down from the shore, had Lobster Eggs Benedict on their special brunch menu (their menus change all the time, according to the season!) and it was SO dang good! Unfortunately it's not common to find around here in South Florida.
Disney World used to have amazing Lobster Benedict at the Grand Floridian, but unfortunately it's no longer on the menu! So where are you gonna get lobster benedict? By making it at home, y'all!
This recipe is perfect for any special occasion: mother's day, a fancy memorial day, labor day, or 4th of July brunch (it is peak lobster season during that time, after all!), even Christmas or New Year's brunches. This is bougie brunch worthy of digging in while sipping a posh rossini cocktail.
Jump to:
- Who Invented Eggs Benedict
- How to Make Eggs Benedict with Lobster
- Making Hollandaise from Scratch
- Cold Water Lobster vs Warm Water Lobster
- Butter Poaching Lobster
- How To Poach Eggs
- Eggs Benedict Variations
- Make Ahead Instructions
- Want more decadent brunch recipes? Check out:
- Recommended Tools
- Best Lobster Benedict Recipe
Who Invented Eggs Benedict
The oldest account of eggs benedict is by a restaurant in Manhattan, New York, called Delmonico's in the 1860's. Their chef Charles Ranhofer created the dish for a regular at Delmonico's named Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, who asked for him to make her something different than the usual menu.
This recipe, which he called Eggs a la Benedict, was later written in his cookbook published in 1894.
How to Make Eggs Benedict with Lobster
First time making eggs benedict? No worries, traditional eggs benedict is a 'greater than the sum of it's parts' kind of dish. Broken down we have:
You need a bread to use as a bed for the other ingredients. Choices can range from a slice of brioche, a scone half, Toasted english muffins. These are simple and straightforward, you can make english muffins at home or buy them at the store.
On top of the english muffin half we have some sort of meat. Sometimes the meat is replaced by spinach for Eggs Florentine. Classically, we use Canadian bacon (also known as back bacon) but there are so many different variations including crab meat or crab cakes, lobster cakes, pulled pork, or in this case make, a Maine lobster benedict.
Placed on top of the lobster is a poached egg. Worried about making a poached egg? Don't be! I have a really easy way to make it and it will come out perfect every single time, we'll talk more about it down below.
After that glorious poached egg, we pour on decadent hollandaise sauce. It's really rich, so a small amount does go a long way!
Making Hollandaise from Scratch
Hollandaise sauce is one of the five mother sauces and its name means "Dutch sauce" in French. It's a very rich sauce made from egg yolks, melted butter (traditionally clarified butter), lemon juice, white pepper, salt, white wine vinegar, and cayenne pepper.
At home you don't need to make a fancy reduction with peppercorns or whisk your arms to death. If you have a blender or an immersion blender, you can make hollandaise really easily!
First, you melt butter in a small saucepan. You want to make sure it's just warmed up and melted, not burning hot or you could make scrambled eggs. For this recipe I love using the butter I poached my lobster tails in for this to make a really delicious hollandaise-lobster sauce.
If you're making it on top of the stove:
You'll need a pot of hot water, bring it to a simmer (not boiling water!) and have a heatproof bowl, like a pyrex mixing bowl ,on top of it to create a double boiler if you don't have one. In this bowl you'll whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together, then slowly drip in your melted butter.
Literally whisk in drip by drip so you do not end up breaking the sauce (it'll get weirdly clumpy if it's broken) until the sauce becomes thicker, then you can change it to a slow pour while still whisking like a mad man. Once it becomes a homogenous, thickened sauce with all the butter added, season with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.
Super Easy Hollandaise using a Blender
Just add your egg yolks and lemon juice to the blender, pulse it a few times to mix them together, then slowly pour in the melted butter while pulsing the blender to incorporate the butter into the egg mixture to make an emulsion, meaning to bind these ingredients together into a homogenous mixture. Pulse, pulse, pulse until you have a smooth, slightly liquid, thickened sauce. Season it with sea salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, pour into a small bowl or and you're ready to go!
If you don't have a blender, an immersion blender works well, too!
Cold Water Lobster vs Warm Water Lobster
Is there a difference between cold water lobsters like South African or Maine Lobsters and warm water lobsters?
The answer is 100% YES. In fact warm water lobsters aren't even in the same family as cold water lobsters!
Warm water lobsters, also called spiny lobsters or rock lobsters, are from warmer areas like Honduras, the Caribbean, Florida, and Asian coasts. They don't have claws, have huge spiny antennae, and they grow fast. The only edible meat on them is their tail, which you can often find frozen. The tails tend to be much larger than Maine lobster tails, with big black and white spots and mushy, tough flesh that tastes fishier than cold water lobster.
Cold water lobsters come from Canada, the New England area of the United States (Maine, most famously).
They have more edible parts (like the claws, knuckles, legs, and tail) that have white, firm flesh that is tender and doesn't taste fishy. They're used to make lobster rolls, lobster bisque, lobster mac and other dishes we tend to reserve for special occasions.
Butter Poaching Lobster
In these photos, I used a mix of lobster meat from the claws and knuckles mixed with lobster tail meat that I butter poached over medium heat. But the recipe will call just for the lobster tails since it's easier to poach the lobster tails than a whole lobster. I have a how to and recipe for cooking and breaking down a whole lobster if you have a whole lobster you want to use.
To butter poach the lobsters, I like use kitchen scissors to gently cut open the bottom of lobster tails and pry them out with my hands, then poach them gently on the stove top in unsalted butter until they are just opaque.
Then chop them into large pieces to put on top of the english muffins. Super simple with great results, and the best part is using that butter as part of your hollandaise sauce!
How To Poach Eggs
I know we've heard about all these tricks for perfectly poached eggs: spin the water in a tornado, add a capful of vinegar, sing Amazing Grace two times, I mean it's a lot, y'all.
I don't know why everyone has a crazy trick to poaching eggs! It's really simple so long as you follow these steps.
Step one, drain the excess egg white. The whites, or albumin, can get really watery. Drain them through a small mesh sieve to get that watery egg white separated from the rest of the thicker egg white that will surround the yolk without getting those dreaded wispy bits mucking up your simmering water.
Step two, have your pot of poaching water at a gentle simmer. There should be tiny columns of bubbles in the water, nowhere near a rolling boil. Drop the drained eggs into the water and set a cook time for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. This is the exact time for perfectly poached eggs.
Note: Make sure you're using fresh eggs, as fresh as you can get them. Poached eggs have set whites with very runny yolks, so fresh is best!
Step three, use a slotted spoon to scoop the poached eggs from the pot of water onto a plate lined with a paper towel or two to get rid of the excess water. You can also use an asian spider strainer, which gives a little more control than a slotted spoon. Now it's ready to eat!
Eggs Benedict Variations
Eggs Omar have slices of steak and steamed asparagus spears with bearnaise instead of hollandaise sauce!
Swap the lobster for a crab cake, you have an Eggs Chesapeake!
Try Eggs Mornay by swapping out the hollandaise for a mornay sauce, which is like a cheesy bechamel sauce!
Make Ahead Instructions
Lobster Benedict is best eaten the day of, but you can prepare everything ahead of time!
- The lobster can be poached the night before, reheat gently in a pan over medium low heat in about a tablespoon of butter until warmed through.
- The hollandaise can also be made the night before, but to reheat it you'll need to stir it up in a double boiler over a gentle simmer until it's warmed through.
- The eggs can be made ahead the day of, which is great for when you need to feed a small crowd. Simply poach the eggs and set them in a large bowl full of ice water until it's time to serve, then rewarm them in a saute pan of barely simmering water for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. We don't want to over cook them.
Want more decadent brunch recipes? Check out:
Recommended Tools
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Best Lobster Benedict Recipe
Ingredients
- English Muffins, split in half and toasted
- 4 fresh eggs
- Fresh herbs or sliced green onions, for garnish
Butter Poached Lobster Tails
- 4 4 ounce cold water lobster tails, uncooked and defrosted if frozen
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter
Hollandaise Sauce
- 3 egg yolks
- ½ 1 stick unsalted butter (or use butter that the lobster was poached in)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
- Cayenne pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Butter Poached Lobster
- Using sharp pair of kitchen scissors, cut down the full length of underside and top of the lobster tail.
- Gently pull the shell apart and pry the meat from the shell. Pat the tails dry with a paper towel and season very lightly with salt and pepper.
- Add the unsalted butter to a medium saute pan or frying pan and melt it over medium heat.
- Once the butter is hot, add the lobster meat and lower the temperature to medium low and allow them to cook about 2 minutes on each side or until they are opaque completely through. Cutting one open is perfectly okay, we're cutting the lobster up anyway.
- Once the lobster is fully cooked, place them onto a cutting board, give them a rough chop with a sharp knife for big chunks of lobster, and set them aside.
Blender Hollandaise- Add the egg yolks and lemon juice into your blender. Pulse the egg yolk mixture until it lightens in color, about 20 seconds.
- Once the egg mixture has lightened in color, turn the blender on to its lowest setting and drizzle in the hot melted butter slowly, while the blender is going.
- Continue to blend for another couple seconds after the butter is all incorporated.
- Turn off the blender and add about ½ teaspoon kosher salt and pepper and just a pinch of cayenne, if using. Give a taste, it should be buttery, lemony, and a little salty.
- If you want a thinner consistency, add a little warm water. Pulse briefly to emulsify the ingredients one more time so the sauce doesn't break.
Poaching the Eggs- Bring a 12 inch saute pan with about 3 inches of water to a gentle simmer over medium heat.
- While the water is coming up to a simmer, carefully crack an egg into a small mesh sieve to remove the watery albumin. Move it around the sieve gently to get all the watery egg white to drain. Put the egg into a small bowl. Repeat this step and place each egg into its own bowl.
- Once you see columns of bubbles in the water, place the egg(s) into the pan and set a timer for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Make sure your water doesn't begin to boil, if the eggs are being jostled around turn the heat down slightly.
- Once the eggs are poached, use a slotted spoon or asian spider to scoop the eggs out and place them onto a plate lined with paper towels. Set aside.
- To Serve
- Place two English muffin halve cut side up on a plate. Repeat on another plate. Top them with a generous amount of lobster meat, then place a poach egg onto each english muffin half. Pour the hollandaise sauce over each egg, then top with dill, chives, or green onion.
- Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Make Ahead Instructions
Lobster Benedict is best eaten the day of, but you can prepare everything ahead of time!- The lobster can be poached the night before, reheat gently in a pan over medium low heat in about a tablespoon of butter until warmed through.
- The hollandaise can also be made the night before, but to reheat it you'll need to stir it up in a double boiler over a gentle simmer until it's warmed through.
- The eggs can be made ahead the day of, which is great for when you need to feed a small crowd. Simply poach the eggs and set them in a large bowl full of ice water until it's time to serve, then rewarm them in a saute pan of barely simmering water for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. We don't want to over cook them.
- After reheating all the components, toast your english muffin halves and top them according to the lobster benedict recipe instructions
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