Roast chicken bagels with smashed avocado & poached eggs

I’ve been making a lot of bagels lately. With tuna, with chicken and smoked salmon.

Directly after our wonderful lunch at Las Chicas in Balaclava the other day, we headed straight for Woolworths and bought a bag of bagels. They were a good change from the usual loaf bread that we always have and they are tasty, fluffy and so versatile.

You’d think after having just had so much bagel goodness we couldn’t walk and so many poached eggs that I’m sure I’d get heart disease at some stage that I’d give up on eating them for a while. Well, sorry to disappoint because I just can’t get enough of them.

I was quite a sickly child when I was young. Up until the moment I stepped foot in Australia, I was constantly down with colds, fevers, headaches and had just about every bad habit a child could have. Coming to Australia not only changed my lifestyles and upbringing, it also changed my health to which I am so grateful for.

During the days when I was sick, I would not eat anything. The dish I remember the most from my childhood was my aunt’s steamed eggs (this reminds me I must make this dish some day) which really put me off eggs for quite some time. I feel that my sickly childhood and lack of appetite for a prolonged period of time has caused the bounce back in appetite in recent years. I blame it on that. Yes, it has to be that.

This of course also explains why I like eggs so much at the moment.

This recipe is very easy and fast to make, you just have to pre-purchase a roast chicken from the supermarket or roast chicken store and debone it. The chicken meat can be stored in an airtight bag or container and stored in the freezer for when you need to use it.

I actually used the cling wrap method to poach my eggs this time compared to the twirling water method last time and I found it easier to get the egg right, although it was harder to make it look pretty. My egg turned out just like a xiao long bao which is a Chinese pork dumpling. Don’t you agree? Yuye and I both cracked up laughing over this. I quite like the look actually. 😛

Roast chicken bagel with smashed avocado and poached eggs
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients

– 2 bagels
– 2 eggs
– 1/4 roast chicken meat
– 2 pieces of cheddar cheese
– 1/2 large avocado or 1 small avocado
– wedge of lemon
– olive oil
– salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to roughly 200C
2. Cut the bagel in half (if it’s not pre-cut) and slightly oil the insides. Place cheese on top layer of bagel then toast all bagel pieces in the oven until slightly browned and cheese melted.

Poached Eggs
3. Use a large piece of cling wrap film and cover the inside of a small bowl. Crack an egg into the centre of the bowl and tie the top of the cling wrap after squeezing out the air.
4. Slowly put the egg into hot water on the stove – the water needs to have small bubbles rising to the surface but not boiling
5. Cook the egg for around 4 minutes and run it under cold water. Cut the cling wrap or untie it to release the egg (refer to this post by Not Quite Nigella for photos of how to make these poached eggs)

Avocado
6. Smash the avocado in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add squeeze of lemon juice and spread on the bagel.

7. Put on chicken, top with egg and salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve immediately while still warm.

I also added a few pieces of left over pancetta and that went perfectly well with the chicken, although it was added after I took the photos.

Question time: Were you often sick when you were a child? Did your diet change considerably since then?