Want to make the perfect poached eggs? Got an Instant Pot? With the Instant Pot, you’ll get perfectly poached eggs every time!
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Instant Pot Poached Eggs
Sometimes when I think about how much money I spend on brunch, I feel a little bad. Why? Because I love having poached eggs but because I absolutely suck at making it at home, I’d just pay the insane brunch mark up for them at restaurants. I mean the thought of having to carefully pour an egg into a large pot of boiling water that you had stirred to make a little water tornado so the eggs will poach roundly kinda gives me anxiety because I made a whole bunch of ugly poached eggs before one worked out. Needless to say, the restaurant option seemed like a better deal, labour-wise.
While chatting with my friend Julia (from Imagelicious), she mentioned that she was poaching an egg in the Instant Pot. At first, I thought she was pulling my leg. I mean, how does the egg keep its shape? Does the egg come out weird looking? Or wait, was she talking about doing the tornado vortex method with a low simmer?! Turns out she puts it in the egg mold or glass bowl and pressure cooks it. I was like “seriously?!” and went off to try it myself right away.
Julia was right, it was so easy! No more weird tornado vortex method or paying the $$ at brunch for a poached egg (unless my friends insist on making me wake up early on a weekend for breakfast) for me! Of course this took some trial and error, also when I compared notes with Julia, even though we had the same Instant Pot, we seemed to have gotten the same results with different timings so I feel obliged to say that potentially, your results may vary. However, I had spent over a day testing more than a carton of eggs (my dog was quite excited to eat the failures), and these are the results that I got.
What You’ll Need To Make Instant Pot Poached Eggs
- I used the Instant Pot DUO Plus 60, 6 Qt 9-in-1
- 4 oz mason jar or a small pressure cooker friendly bowl
- cooking spray
- room temperature egg
- rack (that came with the Instant Pot)
Note: if you feel that the shape of your poach egg is super important, keep in mind that if you use a small mason jar like I did, the shape will be closer to a disk. I also testing out using a 1/2 cup oven safe ceramic measuring cup to see if I could get a prettier traditional poached egg look. It worked :) See the image down below to compare the more “bowl” shaped measuring cup (top) vs mason jar (bottom).
Also, manufacturers do not recommend using glass in the Instant Pot as they have not tested their product in the Instant Pot. However, myself and others have used oven-safe glass in the pressure cooker with no issue. Please keep that in mind and use at your own risk. You can also use a silicone egg mold instead of glass! The timing is slightly different for silicone vs glass. You can check out Julia’s post for the timing for silicone egg molds as silicone heats up differently than glass.
How To Make Instant Pot Poached Eggs Easily
- Spray your mason jar with cooking spray and then crack your egg into the jar.
- Put your rack inside your Instant Pot (this makes it easier to remove your mason jars if you use more than 1 at a time) and then pour in 1 cup of tap water into the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid and set it to sealing and set the timer for manual pressure to either 3, 4, or 5 minutes.
- Once done, quick release and remove the poached egg by carefully flipping the jar upside down (the jar will be hot! use oven gloves).
How Long To Poach Eggs in The Instant Pot For
- 5 minutes: solid whites, jammy to soft yolk
- 4 minutes: soft whites, soft yolk, slightly liquidly
- 3 minutes: soft whites, runny yolk
Can You Meal Prep / Make Ahead Poached Eggs?
Yes!
- After your egg is done poaching, place it into a bowl of iced water before putting in the fridge, the eggs should keep for up to 2 days.
- To serve: bring a pan of water to a boil. Remove the pan from heat before using a slotted spoon to gently lower the poached eggs into the water for 30-60 seconds.
- Because you are “reheating” these poached eggs, keep in mind that if you like 5 minute eggs, you might want to only cook it for 4 minutes as it’ll cook a bit when you reheat it.
Instant Pot Poached Egg
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- room temperature egg
Instructions
- Spray your mason jar with cooking spray and then crack your egg into the jar.
- Put your rack inside your Instant Pot (this makes it easier to remove your mason jars if you use more than 1 at a time) and then pour in 1 cup of tap water into the Instant Pot.
- Add your eggs to the pot then close the lid and set it to sealing and set the timer for manual pressure to either 3, 4, or 5 minutes.
- Once done, quick release and remove the poached egg by carefully flipping the jar upside down (the jar will be hot! use oven gloves).
Notes
How Long To Poach An Egg In the Instant Pot
-
5 minutes: solid whites, jammy to soft yolk
-
4 minutes: soft whites, soft yolk, slightly liquidly
-
3 minutes: soft whites, runny yolk
Julia
Dozen eggs! Haha :) I’m glad you and your dog enjoyed all the goodies. And thanks for your kind mentions :)
Christy
Why do you specify a room temperature egg?
Carmy
If you use a cold egg, it might affect the cook time as it might take a little longer to cook. I only tested each cook time with room temperature eggs.
Mike
My 4 minute poached egg came out perfect.
Heidi
Do you use high pressure or low pressure when cooking the eggs? Thanks for your help!
Carmy
High :)
Valli Garza
I was wondering that too. I’m glad you asked.
Sarah
Woah I love this!!! My husband loves poached eggs and I HATE MAKING THEM, so this kind of saved my marriage. Lol but for real :P
Tricia
Are sold whites cooked but soft, or still runny, not-quite-cooked? I’m ok with soft cooked, but runny translucent whites are ick. That’s why I rarely poach eggs or eat them out. I want runny yolks but cooked whites.
Carmy
Hi Tricia, the whites are cooked in the 4 and 5 minute version :)
Cheryl
Do you count the time it takes to get up to pressure? Or is it 5 min from pressing start? My 5 min eggs were hard :(
Carmy
I put it in the pot, set it to 5 minutes, and then immediately quick release once the timer went off. I’m sorry yours came out hard! I’ve tried it in a little ceramic bowl as well as the glass mason jar and they came out fine for me!
Pam reid
My eggs were hard boiled when pressure cooked for 3.5 mins.
Carmy
Hi Pam. I’m sorry this didn’t work for you. Do you mind sharing if you used a different container to poach them in or the model/size of your Instant Pot? This can be tricky which is why I suggest using 1 to test things out first as some models take longer to come up to pressure and what you cook it in can affect how quickly your eggs cook through.
Barb
Cheryl, All recipes are timed after the pot comes to pressure.
HL
Yummy
Barb
If I can make hardboiled eggs in shell, can’t I do the same for poached or soft boiled? I don’t really want to use jars (which I have but don’t want to dirty). Any ideas?
Carmy
Hi Barb,
You can do soft boiled in the shell: https://carmyy.com/instant-pot-hard-boiled-eggs/
However, I do not think you can do poached egg in a shell.
Pam
How do you stop the steam falling down on top of eggs do you need to cover them
Carmy
I don’t cover mine – I find that the water tends to stay on the lid itself so just be careful when opening it!
Rae Young
I assume you put the mason jars in the IP after adding the water and before putting on the lid. I don’t see that in the instructions.
Carmy
Thanks for catching that Rae! It’s been updated
Kim
Use high pressure cook 6quarts instant pot. Came out solid yokes and whites. Definitely not poached but will try it at 1-2 mins next time.
Carmy
Hey Kim! Sorry to hear it didn’t work out! The altitude of where you live also changes the pressure so that might be a factor.
Karen
I hear you. I made mine in instant pot mini. 3 mins 2 eggs in ramekin cups they came out hard boiled
Carmy
Hi Karen, are you adjusting to the right amount of liquid? An Instant Pot mini requires less water to come up to pressure. When adding “additional” liquid (as this post is for a 6QT), it takes longer for the pot to come up to pressure leading to a longer cook time.
Leah Schwartzentruber
Hi! I’m excited to try this! Have you ever attempted in a silicone egg bite tray? I’m curious if the result would be the same!
Carmy
You’d have to increase the cooking time since a silicone egg mold is thicker!
Ashley Brittingham
I only have 8 oz mason jars! Would that be a problem?
Carmy
If the base is the same size as the 4oz, it should be ok. If it’s a wider jar, the egg whites may be spread too thin around the yolk for it to “poach” over it!
Donna
4 minutes yielded semi-hard boiled yolks and the whites stuck to the jar even though i sprayed the sides and bottom. Will do shorter cook time next time, but any tips to prevent sticking?
Carmy
Hi Donna, I’m sorry the timing didn’t work for you. Pressure cooking can be fickle since not all IP models are the same and altitude plays a part as well. For the sticking, I’m not sure what went wrong! I usually use PAM and haven’t had any issues. My only suggestion would be using more or maybe coat with olive oil? Mine always slide out with minimum resistance so I’m not sure what else can be done!
Cecile
Could i us stainless steel egg poaching cups?
Carmy
Hi Cecile, I’d suggest you try poaching a single one first as the cook time will change with stainless steel as it heats differently.
Derek
I tested a silicone egg poacher for 3 minutes (high altitude) and it turned out great! Spray a little PAM so it doesn’t stick when taking it out.
Carmy
Thanks for sharing, Derek!
Jess
Mine came out just like the pictured 4 minute poached egg. It was perfect! I will be making it again for weekend brunch.
Mindy
These came out perfectly, thank you!
Jess
I made the 5 minute version and it’s perfect.
Deb
My husband just tried this recipe in a Crockpot Express. He did the 3 minute version and said that it came out hard as a rock and inedible.
What on earth could he have done wrong?
Carmy
Hi Deb! I’m sorry to hear. Unfortunately, I haven’t tested this in the crockpot express. My best guess is that potentially the two have a difference in how long it takes for them to come up to pressure? If the CE takes longer to come up to pressure than my IP then it’ll definitely be overcooked.
Deb
Yes, I suspect that you may be correct. Somebody commented on Facebook that although IP recipes work very well in the CPE, there is a big difference in heating time, so that must be it.
Great recipe anyway, we will keep trying to get the timing right!
Roberta
I did 2 eggs at 5min , one in 1/2 pint jelly jar, 1 in glass poaching dish. both came out beautifully…jammy yolks, cooked egg white. I would add that I have layers and used very fresh ( yesterday’s) eggs. There is a huge difference in egg quality from caged hens to free range. Membranes etc are much stronger in fresh eggs… they don’t break when you fry them like most store bought eggs, very difficult to peel when hard boiled. I wonder if cheap store eggs cook faster because membranes are weaker?? (fyi live in Kansas about 900 ft above sea level)
Carmy
Poached eggs can definitely be a little fickle, especially when different types of eggs (and elevation) come into play. Thank you for sharing your experiment, hopefully, other readers are able to adjust their timing with this info!