Serves 2 / Difficulty – Medium / Prep 20 mins and cooks in 1 hour (includes roasting time)
The first time I tried this was in a local restaurant I was amazed by the flavours. I asked the owner how they got the smoked flavour and he told me a local supplier provided him with smoked chicken. I tried adding smoked paprika and I must admit it was a bit of genius as the flavour is so close. This is one of my wife’s favourite weekend brunches.
You can cut down the cooking time by just using hash browns instead of roasting the potatoes but that is a bit of a calorie bomb – but soooo good.
Ingredients
1 large or 2 small chicken breasts, diced (the smaller the better)
About 75-100g of chorizo (the sausage, not sliced), skin peeled and diced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2cm cubes
2-3 hash browns
2 spring onions, chopped
1 heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
For the hollandaise sauce
125g butter
2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon of white wine vinegar
Squeeze of lemon
A pinch of cayenne pepper
Method
For the potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 220°C, add the chopped potatoes to a roasting tin, add some olive oil, salt and cook for 45 minutes turning occasionally.
Next make the hollandaise sauce
- Melt the butter in a saucepan, remove any white solids from the surface then set aside and keep warm
- Add the egg yolks, white wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and a splash of ice-cold water in a metal or glass bowl and place over a small saucepan of barely simmering water. Whisk continuously until pale and thick, about 3-5 mins.
- Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the melted butter, bit by bit, until its combined and you have a creamy hollandaise sauce. Squeeze in the lemon juice and dust with a little cayenne pepper.
The chicken hash
- Take a large frying pan and put on a medium heat, add the olive oil and then add the chicken. Season with the smoked paprika, salt and freshly ground pepper. Fry for a few minutes then add the chorizo. Fry for about 5-10 minutes until the chicken looks cooked through.
- Next add the spring onion, potatoes and hash browns. Turn up the heat and cook for another 5 minutes, turn the contents regularly to make sure nothing sticks and break up the hash browns whilst you are stirring.
- Once everything looks nicely cooked and combined set aside.
The poached eggs
- Put a saucepan of water on a low to medium heat and get it simmering
- Stir the water and crack in 2 eggs
- Simmer for 4 minutes
While the eggs are cooking and the chicken hash to 2 large warm bowls. Top with the eggs once they are done and then pour over the hollandaise sauce and serve.
