Perfectly Cooked Hard Boiled Eggs

I love eggs. I love them poached, I love them fried, I love them shirred, I love them hard-cooked. I even love a bright orange, raw yolk nestled in the center of a good steak tartare.

Hard cooking an egg – also known as hard-boiled – is not always as easy as it seems. The white should be fully cooked without being rubbery. The yolk needs to be cooked all the way through, but not to the point of it being gray.

I know, I know…hard boiling an egg isn’t rocket science, right? But if you take the time to hard cook an egg properly, you’ll be rewarded with one of the simplest joys in life. I don’t actually boil my eggs for very long – just enough for them to come to a full rolling boil and then off the heat they go.

Aren’t they beautiful?

Perfectly Cooked Hard Boiled Eggs

• Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with at least 1/2 inch of cold water and let rest for 5 minutes
• Start heating over medium heat
• When small bubbles start popping to the surface, increase heat a little higher
• When larger bubbles start popping to the surface, increase heat to high
• When water comes to a rolling boil, immediately shut off heat
• Move pan to a cool burner, leaving pan uncovered
• Set timer for 8.5 minutes
• Carefully drain hot water from the pan
• Immediately run cold water over the eggs, filling the pan
• Add 8-10 cubes of ice to the pan, to stop the cooking process
• Let sit for 15 minutes
• Drain
• Peel and eat or refrigerate immediately

I love eggs so much that I typically boil 10-12 eggs on Sunday so that I can have a couple each morning throughout the week,

A favorite of mine: still warm eggs sliced over the top of a salad made with romaine and arugula, olives, roasted red peppers, thinly sliced red onions and a bit of minced garlic. I top it with a crumble of whatever cheese I have on hand – Parmesan, asiago, blue cheese, goat cheese, etc. – and drizzle it with a good quality extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar.

When I’m simply craving an egg, I enjoy it with sriracha drizzled on top, as pictured here. Who doesn’t love sriracha with eggs?

I don’t add any salt, or baking soda, or vinegar to my water – all of which I’ve heard makes them easier to peel and less likely to crack. I don’t know if anyone has truly had any luck with these but they don’t seem to make any difference at all for me.

Enjoy!