Alex Guarnaschelli is here to spice up your Easter holiday! The frequent Chopped judge, 46, partnered with McCormick to create a unique deviled egg recipe, and she didn’t disappoint. Her “gussied up” take on the Easter classic is simultaneously spicy and sweet, and topped with crispy bacon bits to boot.
“I always just go for the truth,” Guarnaschelli tells Us Weekly exclusively of her holiday creation. “My mother always made deviled eggs when I was growing up. She would make the egg yolk mixture, crush it with a fork, and add spices and mustard. And then she would fold in whipped cream, which I just thought was the coolest, cleverest thing ever.”
Speaking of her own dish and the “secret touches” she added to make it stand out, Guarnaschelli explains, “I’m a big cayenne person. I know maybe paprika would be the more classic spice choice, but I just love cayenne. Then I integrated some French’s mustard. And with that I put a pinch of dry ginger, which just kind of ends up giving this kind of slightly tingly heat. Not spicy, just like that like little tingle.”
Then comes the bacon, which the Food Network star cooks by tossing in a skillet with a little bit of sugar and cayenne. “Just toss the bacon in [a skillet] for a minute, and drop that on the top,” she advises. “It’s like this crunchy, slightly sweet, slightly spicy bacon on top of the deviled egg. I mean, forget it.”
Unlike most deviled egg recipes, this one calls for seasoning the egg yolks and the whites – a trick Guarnaschelli swears by. “People always kind of neglect [the whites.] It’s like the unwanted part,” she tells Us. “I think just putting a little bit of cayenne into a tea strainer and just dusting them lightly with cayenne and a pinch of salt, or a sprinkle of scallions or chives, then putting the egg yolk and the bacon on top, forget it. Lights out.”
When Guarnaschelli was testing this recipe out at home, she did so with assistance from her daughter, 11-year-old Ava Clark, who helped peel the eggs and cook the bacon. “It’s really nice when you get a recipe like this, where the kids can do some of it, and you can do some of it, and you come together at the end,” the Home Cook: Recipes to Know by Heart author notes. “That natural collaborative feeling, that’s how you get things going with kids. Get them excited about eating, or food or both.”
Check out Guarnaschelli’s deviled egg recipe below!
Alex Guarnaschelli’s Fiery Bacon Deviled Eggs
Makes 10 servings
INGREDIENTS:
For the egg mix:
• 10 large eggs
• Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tsps French’s classic yellow mustard
• 2 tsps Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp McCormick ground ginger
• Scant 1⁄2 tsp McCormick cayenne red pepper plus additional for dusting
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
For the garnish:
• 4 strips pre-sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 scallions, trimmed, cut into thin rounds
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Cook the eggs: In a medium pot, cover the eggs with cold water about a full inch above the eggs. Bring the water to a rolling boil over medium heat. Shut off the heat, cover the eggs and let them “stand” in the water for 10 minutes. Gently pour out hot water and run cool water over the eggs to stop them from cooking further.
- Peel the eggs: If necessary, rinse quickly under cool water to remove any small shell bits and dry them off thoroughly. Using a sharp knife, cut the eggs in half, lengthwise, and remove the yolk from the center of each egg. Arrange the egg white halves on a platter.
- Make the filling: Use a fork to crush the egg yolks with 1 teaspoon salt, the mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ginger, cayenne and vinegar until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whip the cream until medium peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the yolk mixture. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a fluted tip (or, alternatively, a plastic sandwich bag with one of the bottom corners cut off) with the egg yolk mixture.
- Cook the bacon: In a medium sauté pan, cook the bacon until crispy, 5-8 minutes. Pour off the excess grease and add the sugar. Cook 2-3 minutes longer, allowing the sugar to caramelize lightly. Cool and the sugar will harden. The bacon will get crunchy.
- Season egg whites with a tiny pinch salt and some of the scallions. If desired, fill a tea strainer with little bit of extra cayenne and lightly dust the whites. Fill the crevices in the egg white with the yolk mixture. Top with the scallions and bacon.
