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How to make hard boiled eggs including cooking time variations, tips for perfect eggs every time and ways to use hard boiled eggs.
I have a staple recipe for you today! It’s such a simple recipe, but something that I get asked all the time.
How to make hard boiled eggs.
Boiling eggs was something my mom taught me how to do early on, but there was a period of time where I definitely had to Google to be reminded of the cooking time. Now it’s second nature to whip up a batch of hard boiled eggs and I do it often as part of my weekly meal prep!
In this post I’m sharing the methods I use to make hard boiled eggs, cooking time variations, tips for perfect eggs every time and ways to use hard boiled eggs.
If you didn’t grow up eating these, you might be wondering why make hard boiled eggs? There are so many reasons!
There are actually a bunch of different ways to make hard boiled eggs, but I like using the method my mom taught me which involves boiling the eggs with the water, removing the heat and letting the eggs sit in the hot water to “cook.” This method is pretty fool-proof and makes for easy hard boiled eggs every time. Here’s how to do it:
Boil water and eggs – Place eggs in a large saucepan and cover with water by at least 1 inch. Bring water to a boil over high heat. Let the water rapidly boil for 30 seconds, cover and remove from heat.
Let eggs sit – Let eggs sit in the hot water for 4-12 minutes, depending on how boiled you want the eggs.
Cool – After eggs have sat for the allotted time, carefully drain the water or use a slotted spoon to remove the eggs from the hot water. Transfer the eggs into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and cool the eggs.
Peel – Peel the eggs by tapping all over to crack and then carefully remove the shell.
This depends on your personal preference or what you’ll be using them for!
6 minutes – Jammy eggs (the whites will be fully cooked but the yolk with have a jammy consistency).
8 minutes – Mostly jammy but some more cooked areas of yolk.
10 minutes – Mostly cooked but some jammy areas of yolk.
12 minutes – Fully hard boiled eggs with a firm yolk.
I personally like to let the eggs sit in the hot water for 6-8 minutes if I’m eating hard boiled eggs for breakfast or on a salad. I like to boil the eggs for 10-12 minutes if I’m using the egg for tuna or egg salad.
Don’t use fresh eggs – Sounds counterintuitive, but super fresh eggs will be harder to peel. For easy-to-peel hard boiled eggs use eggs that are about a week old.
Don’t skip the ice bath – Don’t skip the ice bath! This is super important to stop the cooking process and helps with peeling the eggs. Don’t attempt to peel the eggs until they are completely cool.
You can store peeled or unpeeled hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I feel like they stay fresher and become easier to peel as they sit in the fridge do I typically store them in the shell until I’m ready to use them for a recipe or eat as a snack.
Oh my goodness, there are so many great ways to use hard boiled eggs. Here are a few ideas:
If you make hard boiled eggs be sure to leave a comment and star rating below letting us know how they turned out for you. Your feedback is so helpful for the EBF team and our readers!
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Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Leave a Comment
I’ve been cooking for 5 years and never come across a recipe for poached eggs with all these great tips incorporated into one sash. The process has always frustrated me, with wispiest, overcooked yolks, bare yolk tops, completely separated white and yolk, or when tried in a ramekin, inability to clean the ramekin and still not a good result! But this morning, a perfect hard boiled eggs with Hollandaise, wow, wow, wow. Thank you!!!
Yay!! I’m so glad this recipe was helpful, Ethelyn!
When it comes to boiling eggs, the biggest problem is that people can easily over-cook them, leading to a dark green color around the yolk, and a somewhat sulphuric taste. By doing above you can avoid this scenario. Thank you so much for sharing the tips!
You’re so welcome!!
HI Brittany, In step one it says to remove the pan from the heat after boiling and let sit for allotted time. In step two it again says to remove from heat. I’m going with the “remove from heat” in step one since the narrative confirms that one. Eggs are cooking as I type! I’m going for the avocado egg salad.
Sorry, Erin. I could see how that could be confusing. I just updated the post! You did the right thing. 🙂 Let me know how the avocado egg salad turns out for you!!
Avocado Egg Salad? Unbelievably delicious! I saved some for my husband who worked late. Unfortunately he worked too late and I ate it all. It was calling me from the refrigerator and I succumbed.
So glad you loved the avocado egg salad recipe, Erin!! Thanks for coming back to leave a review, I so appreciate it.
Am I misreading? The directions in the script are different from those in the recipe
Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry for the oversight. I have updated the blog post to the correct method!
I had the same confusion. The script says to add the eggs AFTER the water has boiled. The recipe has them in the cool water before boiling. That’s gotta make a big difference in outcome.
So sorry about the confusion! I updated the blog post to the correct method!!