Huevos Rotos Recipe – Spanish Broken Eggs With Jamon

This is one of our Spanish comfort food recipes! This huevos rotos recipe is the perfect chance to use up ingredients commonly found at home. At a bit of cured ham and you have Spanish broken eggs with jamon. This dish works well for breakfast, brunch, or even dinner.

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What Are Huevos Rotos

We first ate huevos rotos in Madrid during our first trip to Spain almost 15 years ago. It was a Saturday morning, just before what would be considered lunch in the US, but it was barely after breakfast.

We wandered into a tapas bar and saw huevos rotos con jamon on the menu. I didn’t know what rotos meant at the time but eggs and jamon sounded good. We later found out that rotos in English means broken. Hence the name.

The huevos rotos were one of the best things we ate during that first Madrid trip. It was a lot larger of a plate than I anticipated, thinking we were at a tapas bar.

It was a large bowl of fried potatoes, topped with shreds of jamon iberico and topped with a fried egg. The yolk was all runny and coated the potatoes and the Spanish-cured ham. I fell in love.

Huevos rotos translates to broken eggs. That’s just what this dish is – runny, broken eggs, that drip all over potatoes. The dish is normally served with jamon or chorizo.

When we lived in Spain this was on a constant rotation in the house. It was particularly good for a weekend brunch but also became a great way to use up leftover ingredients.

Check out some of our other favorite authentic Spanish tapas recipes:

Chorizo Al Vino Tinto Recipe- Spanish Chorizo In Red Wine

Spanish Pisto Recipe – Vegan Spanish Ratatouille

Berenjenas Con Miel Recipe – Spanish Fried Eggplant With Honey

Calamares Fritos Recipe – Authentic Spanish Calamari

Huevos Rotos vs. Huevos Estrellados

Huevos is Spanish for eggs. There are so many different types of eggs in Spanish, just like anywhere else in the world. The other way you might see this dish on a menu is huevos estrellados. 

Whereas rotos is Spanish for broken (in this case, the eggs are what is broken), estrellados translates to stars in Spanish. This dish is known by both terms. I think stars is the reference to the flecks of yellow from the egg yolks on the dish.

Ingredients For This Huevos Rotos Recipe

One of the reasons we made Spanish broken eggs a staple of our Spanish home cooking is that it can be made with ingredients we mostly keep around the house. This includes: 

• Medium yellow potato
• Olive oil
• Salt
• jamón ibérico

Okay, I recognize that living in Spain we almost always had jamon lying around the house. It’s just part of life. In the US, it might not be as common. You can substitute jamón ibérico with serrano jam, chorizo, or even simply freshly cooked bacon crumbs! 

Or, you can make this a vegetarian huevos rotos by skipping the pork and instead adding roasted red peppers or diced tomatoes.

The most important ingredients in huevos rotos are really the potatoes and the running eggs. The rest is a bonus!

If you want to try your hand at other Spanish potato recipes, check out this recipe for Canary Island potatoes.

How To Make Spanish Broken Eggs

The most difficult thing about making this recipe is cooking the potatoes just right! Well, that plus not overcooking the fried eggs. 

Prepping The Potatoes

Start by peeling the potatoes and then cut them in half. Slice them into thick strips. They should look like rustic french fries. You can also make them into round slices if you prefer, or even cubes.

But I like the rustic, mismatched shape of the strips. Place the potatoes into a colander and rinse under cold water for 2-3 minutes to soften the potatoes. Dry the potatoes with a paper towel or kitchen towel.

Cooking The Potatoes And Spanish Eggs

Heat the olive oil over medium-hot heat until it is hot enough to fry the potatoes. You can test the oil by adding a drop of water. If the water sizzles, the oil is warm enough. 

Fry the potatoes following two steps. First, cook them at medium heat for about 15 minutes, until tender. Then, increase the heat and fry them for 10 minutes to seal them. We don’t want the potatoes to be too crispy but tender and creamy. 

Drain the potatoes in a colander and season well with salt. There is no need to drain the potatoes on a paper towel.

We want them a little moist with oil to blend and melt the Jamon. Place the potatoes on a plate or shallow bowl and top with the shredded jamón ibérico. 

Drain the excess oil from the pain. In the remaining warm oil, fry the eggs. Do not cook them completely, but only until the egg whites are done. We want the egg yolks to be really runny to cover the potatoes. 

Finishing The Spanish Broken Eggs

Place the eggs on top of the potatoes and serve immediately while warm, topped with salt flakes, freshly ground black pepper, and chopped parsley.

Just before eating, gently break the eggs with a fork, until partially combined with the potatoes and ham. This is what gives the huevos rotos their name – Spanish broken eggs. 

How To Serve Huevos Rotos

This is a recipe for huevos rotos con jamon, but if you’re vegan, you can skip the Jamon. Feel free to add red or green pepper instead, or diced tomatoes. 

On the opposite end, it’s also possible to make this recipe as huevos rotos con chorizo and swap out diced chorizo for the shredded cured ham. 

In addition to sprinkling the top with salt and pepper some fresh chopped parsley adds some color. Serve with sliced, warm, crusty bread to sop up any extra sauce.

The most important thing here is that huevos rotos be served immediately, warm. And, it can be a meal unto itself.