Stuffed Hatch Chiles with Bacon and Eggs

Stuffed Hatch Chiles with Bacon and Eggs is an incredible baked breakfast featuring roasted Hatch chiles filled with crispy bacon, melted cheese, and eggs. It's a delicious way to celebrate Hatch chile season for breakfast, brunch, or even dinner.

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

It looks like a lot of work, but it comes together with just one skillet and a handful of pantry staples - roast, sauté, stuff, and bake.

Each Hatch Chile becomes its own little breakfast boat, with smoky bacon, gooey cheese, and a perfectly baked egg in every bite.

Ingredient Notes

• Hatch Chiles - Hot, medium or mild, depending on preference. Hatch chiles are almost always marked with their heat level where they're sold. Substitutions: 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.
• 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. Substitutions: For a milder version, substitute this with regular Monterey Jack cheese, white or sharp, or a cheddar cheese you like.
• eggs - If possible, for the best flavor and texture, I recommend using pasture-raised eggs - they're an ethical choice, too
• salt, black pepper - Preferably freshly ground.

Where to Get Hatch Chiles

You should see them all over during their season. Whole Foods, Gelson's, Bristol Farms, Vallarta's, Northgate, Kroger Family of Stores, Safeway, Albertsons, etc. You can also purchase them from Melissa's Produce (Use my code: COTW46 for a 10% discount!)

How to Make Stuffed Hatch Chiles with Bacon and Eggs

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

Recipe Tip: 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.

- 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 - a 12-inch cast iron skillet is ideal), 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.

Recipe Tip: 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.

- 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.)

Recipe Tip: To help situate the eggs, you can try to lift up the edges of the peppers to capture the whites, 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. 😉 

- 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!

Variations

• Vegetarian version. Substitute the bacon with sautéed mushrooms, potatoes with Ancho sauce, or Mexican Black Beans. Use olive oil in the pan in place of the bacon fat.
• Mild version. Use a mild cheddar cheese, and when you purchase the Hatch Chiles, be sure to look for those that are labeled "mild."
• Extra spicy version. Use Hatch Chiles labeled "hot" and keep some of the seeds intact if you really want to go for it.

Serving Suggestions

FYI, these Stuffed Hatch Chiles are just as amazing for dinner as they are for breakfast and brunch.

• For breakfast and brunch I love serving this dish with a pretty fruit dish like papaya and avocado and a side of crispy potatoes.
• 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 *

More Must-Try Egg Breakfast Recipes

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

Enjoy!

S