Stuffed Hatch Peppers with Bacon and Eggs

This Stuffed Hatch Peppers with Bacon and Eggs recipe is over-the-top delicious for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. It's the perfect way to celebrate Hatch Chile season and it's super fun to make.

With only a few basic ingredients, you'll love making this super impressive Hatch Chile dish with bacon and eggs.

I think you'll find this recipe is super fun to make, and whomever you're serving it to will definitely thank you.

It's (almost) all of the quintessential elements of a savory breakfast in one dish!

The Ingredients

• Hatch Chiles - Hot, medium or mild, depending on preference. Hatch chiles are almost always marked with their heat level where they're sold.
• bacon - I love applewood smoked bacon, but use your favorite.
• onion - Try to choose onions that are firm, heavy for their size and without bruises.
• Pepper Jack cheese - Though there are variations, Pepper Jack cheese is essentially Monterey Jack cheese, a cow's milk semi-soft cheese, with the addition of spicy peppers, usually jalapeños, serranos and/or habañeros.
• eggs
• salt
• black pepper - Preferably freshly ground.

(See recipe card below for quantities.)

Substitutions and Variations

• Hatch Chiles. Poblanos would be my second choice after Hatch for this recipe. (Here's a delicious stuffed Poblano recipe.) Bell peppers and Anaheims (often called green chiles) would also be great.
• Pepper Jack cheese. For a milder version, substitute this with regular Jack cheese, white or sharp.
• Vegetarian version. Substitute the bacon with sautéed mushrooms, potatoes or Mexican Black Beans. And use olive oil in the pan when it says to use the bacon fat.
• Mild version. Definitely use one of the aforementioned Pepper Jack substitutes. And when you purchase the Hatch Chiles, be sure to look for those that are labeled mild.
• Extra spicy version. Leave the seeds in the Hatch Chiles.

Recipe Tips and Substitutions

• When you are slicing open the roasted peppers and removing the seeds, trying to keep them intact might be difficult, depending on the thickness of the pepper and how long it's been roasted. Don't worry about it if they tear -- you can still easily layer in the stuffing ingredients.
• While in many markets you can purchase pre-roasted Hatch Chiles, in this particular recipe, I'd encourage you to do it yourself. (Here's How to Roast and Peel Peppers.) This way you can select peppers that are more or less the size/weight you want, and the closer it is to the time you roast them, the easier it will be to keep them intact to stuff .
• The raw eggs might spill out of the chiles as you add them. Try to lift up the edges of them to capture them, but don't fret if they spill into the pan a bit. They will also be hard to center in the pepper, so I don't even try. They will land where they land and it might even look more like a casserole when you're done. 😉 

How to Make it

- Roast and peel the peppers. (Here's a step-by-step guide for How to Roast and Peel Peppers.) Preheat the oven to 375°F.

- Place a paper towel on a large plate and set it aside. In a large ovenproof skillet (one that will ultimately fit 8 opened Hatch chiles quite snugly), cook the bacon over medium heat until it's crisp, a few minutes per side.

- Remove the bacon from the pan and place it on the paper towel-lined plate to let the grease drain. Leave a thin coating of bacon grease in the pan. You might need to pour some off if it seems excessive.

- Add the onions to the pan, and over medium-high heat, cook until they are nicely browned, about 4 minutes. Put the browned onions in a small bowl, keeping any remaining bacon grease in the pan. Set aside.

- Use a paring knife to make a slit in each of the peppers to open them, keeping them as intact as possible. Then remove all of the seeds. (Unless you want the added heat.)

- Place the peppers, slit side up in the pan.

- Sprinkle each pepper with an equal, thin layer of the cheese. Break the bacon into smaller pieces and add a layer to each pepper, on top of the cheese. Then evenly distribute the onion on the bacon.

- Crack an egg into each pepper, directly on top of the onion and bacon. You might need to gently hold the edges of the peppers up, to capture the whites as they run out of the shell -- it's fine if some runs out into the pan. (This is why the peppers should be a rather tight fit in the pan.)

- Sprinkle each one with salt and pepper and place the pan in the 375°F preheated oven just until the eggs are cooked, 15 to 20 minutes. Let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and serve!

Serving Suggestions

Stuffed Hatch Peppers are just as amazing for dinner just as they are for breakfast and brunch.

• For breakfast and brunch I love serving it with a pretty fruit dish with papaya and avocado and a side of spicy potatoes (the other quintessential savory breakfast item).
• For dinner, it's excellent with a super refreshing salad with tomato and cucumber, and these really unique Cornbread "pancakes" to sop up any leftover egg.

Can you make it ahead?

You can make the onion-bacon filling and roast the peppers a day ahead of time. Then assemble and bake about 30 minutes before you're ready to serve.

* Click here for a dozen more of my favorite Hatch Chile recipes *

I hope you love these Stuffed Hatch Peppers with Bacon and Eggs as much as my family and I do.

Enjoy!

You find a Hatch Chile Roasting near you during August via the Melissa's Produce guide.

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