Ready to rock your mornings and meal preps with the perfect hard boiled eggs? Here’s all you need to know to nail the timing to get hard boiled eggs just the way you like ’em!
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How to Make the Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
I love a good hard boiled egg! Hard boiled eggs are a must-have for meal prepping. If you boil the perfect hard boiled eggs, they’re perfect as a snack or as an on-the-go breakfast. What I don’t like are over-cooked boiled eggs. More than once I’ve been in a rush and left a pot of boiling eggs on the stove top in the morning and ended up with a dry grey-ish yolk! Now, I meal prep a handful of hard boiled eggs at the beginning of the week when I do the rest of my meal prepping. Not being in a rush and setting a timer is key to the perfect hard boiled egg.
What You Need To Make the Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
- sauce pan
- slotted spoon
- timer
- ice water
How To Boil Eggs
While some people like to place their eggs in the pot with the water already boiled, I prefer to bring the pot to a boil with the eggs inside. I let the water come to a boil with the eggs in the water already and once the water is boiled, I set the timer. You’re going to want a saucepan or pot that fit all your eggs comfortably in one layer and have space to cover the eggs with one inch of water on top of the eggs.
How Long to Boil Eggs for the Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
- 4 minutes: soft boiled egg, very soft whites and runny yolk
- 5 minutes: slightly soft boiled eggs with a soft yolk
- 6 minutes: a soft jammy yolk with soft whites
- 7 minutes: firm but creamy yolk
- 8 minutes: hard boiled egg with a soft yolk
- 9 minutes: traditional firm hard boiled egg
Tips to Make Peeling Hard Boil Eggs Easily
- use older eggs: have your eggs in your fridge for at least a week for them to be considered “aged.” They have lost their moisture and fresher egg will tend to ‘cling’ onto the shell a little more.
- use an ice bath for the eggs immediately afterwards to stop the eggs’ cooking process and help loosen the membrane on the egg that’s stuck to the shell.
- make sure don’t put a cold egg into hot water as that’ll cause the egg to crack
Ideas for what to do with hard boiled eggs
- breakfast on the go or slice it up and put it on top of avocado toast
- snack (sprinkle a bit of salt on top!)
- devilled eggs
- marinate a 4 minute soft boiled egg (peeled) and use it as a ramen topper
- egg salad
- cobb salad
- salad topper
- if you have more suggestions, leave them down below in the comments!
How To Make The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg
Ready to rock your mornings and meal preps with the perfect hard boiled eggs? Here’s all you need to know to nail the timing to get hard boiled eggs just the way you like ’em!
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- cold water
- ice
Instructions
Place the eggs in a large saucepan then cover them with cool water by 1 inch. Cover with a lid and bring water to a boil over high heat
Once the water has reached it's boiling point, set the timer for the desired time.
Time to boil for the perfect hard boiled eggs:
4 minutes: soft boiled egg, very soft whites and runny yolk
5 minutes: slightly soft boiled eggs with a soft yolk
6 minutes: a soft jammy yolk with soft whites
7 minutes: firm but creamy yolk
8 minutes: hard boiled egg with a soft yolk
9 minutes: traditional firm hard boiled egg
Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a large bowl with ice and cold water immediately and let them cool down for a couple of minutes before peeling.
Recipe Notes
Refrigerate eggs, still in their shells if you are meal prepping. They can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week.
RESOURCES AND TIPS FOR MEAL PREPPING
- Meal Prep 101
- How To Cook Chicken Breasts Perfectly
- Tips To Help You Meal Prep For The Week Successfully
- Tips on Meal Prepping on a Budget
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Did you make this recipe? I'm always so happy when that happens! I'd love to see how it turned out! Tag me @CarmysHungry and #HealthyIsAttainable on Instagram so I can see it! You can also email me at carmy(@)carmyy.com if you don't have Instagram ♥
4 minutes is my FAVORITE. Thanks for cheat sheet this!
Love the peeling tips!! The struggle is real.
Love all the tips! Love boiled egg! It’s always been a go-to snack, or addition to a lunch, or salad for me!!
This is such a helpful post! I love the images (never thought pictures of hard-boiled eggs could be beautiful) – I prefer 7 minutes myself.
I love a good hard-boiled egg, and appreciate that you’ve taken the time to photograph each egg after a certain amount of cooking… Really helpful for novice cooks.
That cheat sheet is awesome- I love it! Great post!!
Such a great guide! A lot of people don’t know how to this! Its the perfect cheat sheet!!
Love this post. Takes the guess work out of making the perfect egg to suit your taste. We make hard boiled eggs every week as part of meal prep as well and this is a super handy chart. Thank you.