Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

Boiled eggs are a staple around our house. My husband loves them for breakfast and we snack on them a lot during the week. They are also a great addition to most Indian curries, which we eat a lot!

All that to say, I’ve worked hard to figure out the best way to make them so that they are delicious and easy to peel!

And these boiled eggs are great to use in other recipes too, like angeled (deviled) eggs or egg salad (or any salad really).

Eggs

In general, I would recommend buying organic eggs. If you can afford it, cage-free organic eggs are great too. Even better are fresh pastured eggs. If you can find an egg farmer close to you or even raise your own, then do that. I’ve found the pastured eggs taste so much better and are definitely higher in nutrition. But don’t take my word for it, here is a quote from the Weston A. Price foundation’s website:

“Without a doubt, fresh, pastured eggs are superior in taste and nutrition to conventionally raised commercially available varieties. Eggs have been a highly valued foods since the beginning of time—eggs from chickens, ducks, geese, turtles and fish. Egg yolks are the richest source of two superstar carotenoids—lutein and zeaxanthin. Not only are bright yellow yolks loaded with these fat-soluble antioxidant nutrients, they are more bioavailable than those found in vegetables, corn and most supplements. While these nutrients have a reputation of combating macular degeneration and cataracts and supporting overall healthy vision, they have a long list of other benefits, including protecting the skin from sun damage and even reducing one’s risk of colon and breast cancer.

Besides providing all eight essential protein-building amino acids, a large whole, fresh egg offers about six to seven grams of protein and five grams of fat (with about 1.5 grams of it saturated), which comes in handy to help in the absorption of all the egg’s fat-soluble vitamins. One egg also serves up around 200 milligrams of brain-loving cholesterol and contains the valuable vitamins A, K, E, D, B-complex and minerals iron, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. Choline, another egg-nutrient, is a fatty substance found in every living cell and is a major component of our brain. Additionally, choline helps break up cholesterol deposits by preventing fat and cholesterol from sticking to the arteries. So the bottom line is, don’t be chicken about eating eggs, especially the cholesterol-rich yolks!”
Read the whole article here.

Boil the Eggs

Place the eggs in a pot and fill with water just until the eggs are covered. Bring to a rolling boil. Let it boil for 7 minutes and remove immediately. Be careful to only boil them for 7 minutes. If you boil them longer, they will get overdone and have that green stuff on the inside. I always set a timer on my oven or on my Echo Dot.

Cool the Eggs

Set the pot in the sink and let the cold tap water run over the eggs (I sometimes set the pot on the side with the eggs still inside so the water just runs over the eggs). Once the eggs have cooled, cover the eggs with cold water (from the tap) and put it in the fridge to chill for 2-3 hours. Don’t chill them too long! If your tap water doesn’t get cool/cold then use an ice bath instead, my tap water is pretty cold, so I don’t use an ice bath.

Peel the Eggs

The best way I’ve found to peel hard-boiled eggs is to crack the shell on the counter first, then (don’t peel it yet!) crack the rest of the shell using your fingers. Once all of the shell is cracked, start to peel off in a small place. You’ll notice that just under the shell is a tiny filmy layer, be sure to break that layer and then peel the entire egg shell off with that layer. That’s how I am able to get nice looking hard-boiled eggs, peeling that layer along with the shell.

There you have it… easy, and easy to peel hard-boiled eggs. Now you can make this deliciously simply snack or breakfast for yourself. Let me know how it turns out in the comments below!