Fried Green Tomato Benedict with Chipotle Crema

Hello everyone, I hope your week is going well. Today I have a fun take on Eggs Benedict: Instead of a biscuit, or English muffin as the base for the ham and eggs, we have a short stack of Fried Green Tomatoes. We are skipping the meat in favor of smooth avocado for this recipe, and we are topping the dish with a savory Chipotle Crema. This recipe has a more than a few steps, but don’t let that intimidate you – it’s not hard and the results are so worth the effort. Let’s get to it!

Green Tomatoes

The first thing we want to do is slice our tomatoes so we can let them drain on a few paper towels, just to get rid of the excess moisture. I have three really large green tomatoes, but you want between 1.5 and 2 pounds of tomatoes. Core and slice them 1/4-inch thick. Then spread them out flat on a rimmed baking sheet lined with two layers of paper towels. Let them sit for about 20 minutes.

Chipotle Crema

Now, let’s make the chipotle crema. I have about half a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I gave them a rough chop and blended them with 1/4 cup Crema Mexicana, 1/4 cup sour cream and the juice of one lime. For a thinner crema, you can nix the sour cream and do all crema if you like.

Set the crema aside and blot the tops of the tomatoes with a couple paper towels.

Fried Green Tomato Breading

In a shallow bowl or pie plate, combine flour, corn meal, salt, pepper and cayenne. Mix well with a whisk. In a second pie plate whisk together buttermilk and one egg.

Then let’s set up the dredging station. Go from left to right, with the green tomatoes on the left, wet dredge at the center top, dry dredge center bottom, and then a fresh rimmed sheet tray to catch the breaded tomatoes.

Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 degrees, we will put the fried tomatoes in the oven to keep them crisp and warm while we poach our eggs in the last step.

First dredge in the buttermilk mixture. Then in the cornmeal mixture. Place each breaded tomato on the rimmed sheet tray to the right. Repeat with all the tomato slices. Set the dredging pie plates aside and toss the paper towels lining the first sheet tray. Place one or two wire racks in that first sheet tray. And let’s set up the frying station.

Frying the Tomatoes

Working again from left to right, set the breaded tomato slices on the left; get a large skillet, or braiser set on the burner in the center. Then the sheet tray with the wire racks on the right.

Pour two cups of vegetable or peanut oil in the pan and get a thermometer in the oil, heat over medium-high heat until the temp hits 350 degrees. Carefully place a tomato slice into the hot oil, making sure to release the slice away from you because it will splash in the hot oil. Repeat to have four tomato slices in the pan at a time. Keep an eye on the oil temp and adjust burner to keep at 350 degrees.

Let the tomatoes fry for about four minutes on one side. I like to use two fish spatulas to carefully flip the tomato slices: one spatula under the tomato, the other in my left hand holds the tomato slice in place on the underside spatula, then carefully turn it over and release. Repeat for all of the tomato slices, letting them sit on the wire racks. Then place the whole sheet tray in the oven.

Poached Eggs

Now we move on to the poached eggs. Check out my How to Make: Eggs post for step by step egg poaching, if you are unfamiliar with this method for cooking eggs. While the water is heating up to poach the eggs, slice an avocado in half, remove the pit and slice each half into thin slices and set aside. Take the crema we made earlier and give it a good stir, if it’s thickened up too much, add a little more crema to thin it out slightly, so it’s spreadable. Then finally, finely slice some chives for garnish.

When each egg is poached, use a slotted spoon to remove it from the water and let it drain for a second and then slide the egg into a small dish, repeat with each egg, each getting its own little dish. This will make sliding the egg on top a lot easier and lessens the chance of breaking the yolk by handling it too much.

Plate it up!

I think the plating of this brunch or breakfast dish is what makes it feel really special and kinda fancy. On a plate, smear a spoon full of the crema in a semi circle shape.

Then, make a short stack of two to three fried tomato slices slightly off center on top of the crema; so that some of the crema can be seen under the tomatoes.

Spoon a little more crema on top of the tomato stack.

Then, place three or four slices of avocado evenly over the top; keeping the avocado slices in a flat layer so the egg won’t slide off.

Then, gently slide one poached egg on top of the avocado slices.

Now, top the egg with a little more crema and top with chives.

So gorgeous!

This dish clearly has a lot of steps. But don’t let that discourage you from making Fried Green Tomato Benedict with Chipotle Crema. I promise, it will be worth every effort you put in. And imagine the reaction from whomever you set this plate in front of! It’s a showstopper, for sure.

Fried Green Tomato Benedict with Chipotle Crema

This is a great brunch dish, you can start it in the morning and have a late breakfast. Unlike a lot of brunch dishes that can be stressful to get out all together, hot and perfectly cooked; the oven is your friend to keep the fried tomatoes hot and crispy. Poaching the eggs goes quickly once the pot of water is hot. I won’t lie, there’s a lot of cleanup with this one, but the presentation and flavors of this dish will have people volunteering to help clean up the kitchen!

The fried green tomatoes are crispy on the outside while tender on the inside; chipotle crema is slightly spicy, while the avocado is cool and rich. A perfectly poached egg tops this masterpiece and its runny yolk mixes with the crema to make a rich and flavorful sauce.

Thank you all for stopping by today! You can find this recipe on Pinterest and you can pin your own photos of Fried Green Tomato Benedict with Chipotle Crema directly to the pin, to show me how it comes out for you! Take care and be well everyone, xo Kelly

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Fried Green Tomato Benedict with Chipotle Crema

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Breakfast, Brunch – American

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-8

Prep Time: 40 Minutes – Cooking Time: 40 Minutes – Total Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes

A new take on Eggs Benedict with Fried Green Tomatoes instead of bread, and Chipotle Crema instead of Hollandaise. With Avocado and chives.

Ingredients

• Fried Green Tomatoes
• 1.5 - 2 lbs. Green Tomatoes, cored and sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 2/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp. Kosher Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Pepper
• 1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
• 2/3 cup Buttermilk
• 1 large Egg
• 2 cups Peanut or Vegetable oil
• Chipotle Crema
• 2-3 Chipotle Peppers (rough chopped) with at least 1 tablespoon Adobo Sauce
• 1/4 cup Crema Mexicana
• 1/4 cup Sour Cream
• Juice of one Lime
• Fried Green Tomato Benedict
• Poached Eggs (one egg per serving)
• Finely chopped Chives

Instructions

1

First, spread the green tomato slices out flat on a rimmed baking sheet lined with two layers of paper towels. Let them sit for about 20 minutes.

2

Meanwhile, in a blender, blend the sour cream, crema, lime and the chipotle peppers with adobo sauce. Transfer to a dish and set aside.

3

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4

In a shallow dish or pie plate, whisk together the flour, salt, corn meal, pepper and cayenne until well combined.

5

In a separate dish or pie plate, whisk together the buttermilk and the egg until emulsified.

6

Pat the tops of the tomato slices dry then, dredge each slice in the buttermilk mixture and then the flour mixture, shaking off the excess. Place each breaded tomato on a clean rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the tomato slices.

7

Heat 2 cups of vegetable oil in a large skillet or braiser until the temp reached 350 degrees.

8

Line a rimmed sheet tray with two wire cooling racks and set next to skillet.

9

Gently lay slices of breaded tomato in the hot oil, being careful to release the tomato away from you to avoid splashing hot oil on yourself. Fry tomato slices in batches of four, for about 4 minutes on each side. Keep an eye on the oil temp and adjust burner to keep at 350 degrees.

10

Transfer fried tomatoes to the wire racks and repeat until all tomatoes are fried.

11

Transfer the tomatoes on the wire rack-lined sheet tray to the oven to stay warm while you poach the eggs.

12

To plate the dish, smear a dollop of chipotle crema on a plate; then place a stack of 2-3 fried tomatoes just off center of the chipotle crema.

13

Smear another dollop of crema on the top tomato and lay 3-4 slices of avocado on top of the crema, being sure to leave a flat surface for the egg.

14

Place a poached egg on top of the avocado and place another dollop of crema on the egg. Top with chopped chives.