Huevos Rotos con Jamón, tapas recipes Spanish Starters & Appetisers, Tapas Recipes 5 1 5 0 https://www.bascofinefoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/huevo-rotos-con-jamon-1.jpg

Huevos Rotos con Jamón

2 people
Easy

Prep time
5 mins

Cook time
10 mins

Total time
15 mins

Javier De La Hormaza

Recipe provided by

Javier De La Hormaza

View Profile

Ingredients

2 large free-range eggs
8 slices of jamón ibérico de bellota
1 maris piper potato, cut into thin straw potatoes
Olive oil to shallow fry
Salt to taste

Add ingredients to basket

Introduction

Huevos rotos con jamón, with chorizo or chistorra, on their own or with morcilla, gulas or black truffle has to be Spain’s oldest tapas dish.

The origin of this peasant dish can be linked back a far as 1605 and Spain’s literature masterpiece, Don Quixote of La Mancha, where after describing the origin of his ingenious gentleman, Miguel De Cervantes describes his character through his eating habits and his routine of having duelos y quebrantos (scrambled eggs with chorizo and panceta) on Saturdays.

Even Spanish painter Diego Velázquez immortalised the humble fried egg in his oil paint of an old woman frying eggs (vieja friendo huevos) in 1618. A place to mention, who has elevated the humble huevos rotos to international acclaim is Casa Lucio in Madrid, who has included this dish in his menu since 1975 and was inspired by his grandmother’s invention that each time an egg broke on her, she would rescue it by breaking it over some fried potatoes and serving it.

I like to serve my huevos rotos con jamón with straw potatoes instead of chips, as they provide a lovely crunchy texture to the dish.

Method

To fry the straw potatoes, heat about a finger deep of oil in a large frying pan. Once hot, fry the potatoes until golden brown, it takes between 3 and 4 minutes. Keep on stirring them, so they don’t stick. Drain them on some kitchen paper, season with salt and keep warm while you fry the eggs.
In another frying pan, heat about 3 tablespoons of oil until hot and smoky. Break your eggs into the pan and fry until the egg white is lightly brown and crispy but the egg yolk is still runny, about 2 minutes.
To serve, place the straw potatoes on the centre of the plate, place one fried egg on each plate and lay your slices of Jamon Ibérico around the egg, season with salt and serve with some crusty bread. Use your knife and fork to break the eggs and turn them into ‘huevos rotos’ and say gracias to Don Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra.