Baked Eggs with Corned Beef Hash

Today I’m sharing my second post for Emeril’s One-Pot Blogger Cooking Party.  We are cooking and blogging about our experiences with Emeril’s new book, Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders, which will be released on September 27.  Over the weekend I posted the first dish we tried – the true bolognese.  Shane hasn’t stopped talking about that meal since we made it, so I have a feeling it’s going to become a favorite around here.  But, since we are blogging nine different recipes from the book, I had to ignore his requests to make it again immediately and move on to something new.

Up next?  Baked eggs with corned beef hash.  Emeril mentions in the headnote to the recipe that this dish is good anytime of day, but I associate it most with breakfast.  It was one of the recipes Shane flagged when I received the book, and frankly, I was a bit surprised.  As much as I love breakfast for dinner, he is generally not on board when I suggest it.  I certainly wasn’t going to argue though!  If you can believe it, I’ve never actually had corned beef hash (best I can recall anyway) so that’s probably one of the biggest reasons I was looking forward to trying the recipe.  Well, that and the short ingredient list and brief set of instructions.  Show me a baking recipe with 20 ingredients and 3 pages of instructions, I won’t give it a second thought, but I want my dinners to be relatively quick most nights, so you’ll rarely see me blog anything too complicated.

The first step in getting started on the baked eggs with corned beef hash was cooking a piece of corned beef so I’d have leftovers to use for the recipe.  I’ve only made corned beef a few times, generally around St Patrick’s Day, so I’m in no way an expert but here’s what I did this time.  I added the corned beef to my slow cooker (fat side up), along with a few cloves of peeled garlic, a bay leaf or two, some black peppercorns and a 12-oz bottle of Guinness stout.  I set it on low and let it cook for about 6-7 hours until it was completely tender.  It couldn’t have been easier.  The hard part was trying to convince Shane we needed to save some of the corned beef for the hash.  He LOVES corned beef and since we have it so infrequently, this was a real treat.  I set aside the portion needed for the hash and refrigerated it overnight, which made it much easier to cut into cubes for the hash the next day.

With the corned beef ready to go, the dish came together in no time.  The remaining ingredients include diced potatoes, onion, pepper (which I omitted), garlic, eggs and parsley.  Because the diced potatoes require a little extra cooking time, they get a head start in a pot of water on the stove top.  You only cook them until the water comes to a boil, though, so it’s a quick step.  Then, the potatoes are browned in a skillet, followed by the onion and pepper and finally the garlic and corned beef.  The last step is to create wells for the eggs, crack them in and transfer your skillet to the oven for the eggs to bake.  Sprinkle a little parsley on top, and you’re ready to eat!

I knew I was going to love this dish, and only became more convinced as its wonderful aroma started to fill my house.  I was a little less sure about Shane.  Not only was it breakfast for dinner, but the recipe doesn’t skimp on the onion, and to say he doesn’t like it is a giant understatement.  Turns out, we were both big fans.  I would gladly eat this once a week it was so simple and delicious.  Some of the potatoes and corned beef developed slightly crisp edges as a result of the time in the oven and those were my very favorite parts.  Breaking into the eggs and combining the creamy yolk with the other ingredients was a highlight too.  I was a little sad that the yolks developed a thin white coating in the oven so the eggs just looked like white blobs, but purely an aesthetic complaint.

This is a guaranteed repeat for us, and although I can’t share the recipe, I will be giving away one copy of the book very soon!  If you’re interested, you can pre-order your own copy here.  On Saturday I’ll share my third dish from the book, and guess what?  I will be able to include the recipe in case you want to try it!  Here’s a hint – it’s a Cajun dish, and it involves shrimp…

{Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders in exchange for participating in the party.  All of the opinions expressed are mine alone.}