How to Prepare Hard Boil Eggs at Home

Hard Boiled Eggs Recipe Card

Recipe Description for Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs, a meal prepper’s staple, bring convenience and protein-packed versatility to your weekly prep, offering a ready-to-go ingredient for salads, snacks, and on-the-go nourishment.

Hard Boiled Eggs Recipe Ingredients

Kitchen Tools

Step-by-Step Cooking Directions

1. Place eggs in a dry pot. Fill with cold water until eggs are fully submerged. Pro tip: store bought eggs are easiest to hard boil. Farm fresh eggs tend to have a thicker shell and inner membrane, often making the peeling process much harder. Some chefs report that storing farm fresh eggs in a refrigerator for 7 days prior to boiling can alleviate the difficulty with peeling. Turn your cooktop on High heat, and place your pot to be boiled.

   

   Fill the pot with cold water ½” higher than the eggs.

   
   

2. Bring the water to a rolling boil, then turn off the heat, and cover. Let sit for 10-12 minutes. Safety tip: your hard boiled eggs will be extremely hot and pressure can build up inside a cooked egg shell, potentially causing the egg to explode. We recommend covering the hands, arms, and eyes with the appropriate kitchen protective equipment when handling hard boiled eggs, until they’ve adequately cooled.

   

   After the water achieves a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover.

   
   

3. Lay a kitchen towel on your cutting board to have a dry, non-slip surface to place the hard boiled eggs. Use your slotted spoon to retrieve the eggs from the pot, and lay them on your prepared surface. Let cool for 30 minutes before handling. Alternatively, you can cool the eggs quicker by filling a bowl with ice cubes and cold water, and ladling the eggs directly into the ice water. Some chefs purport that this method also helps with the peeling process.

   

   Hard boiled eggs are easy to slice up and add to a salad.

   
   

4. Once cooled, you can peel the hard boiled eggs as follows: gently tap the egg on a flat surface to create cracks to loosen the shell. With your fingers, begin peeling; if peeling is difficult, run cold water over the egg as you peel. Sometimes the peel is very difficult, if not impossible to remove. This is an indicator the inner membrane is still firmly adhered to both the shell, and the egg white. Try refrigerating any problem eggs for another hour and try to peel again. Ultimately you may lose a substantial portion of the egg white trying to peel an impossible egg, so you may elect to simply dispose of these.

   

   A cooled, hard boiled egg should peel like this.

5. Hard boiled eggs can be enjoyed any time after mostly cooling. They store well in a refrigerator safe container or Ziploc bag, in the refrigerator for up to seven (7) days, making them a perfect weekly meal-prep food item. Eggs are a blank canvas, and pair well with a wide range of flavors and seasonings. At 6g of protein, 5g of fat, and 0.5g of carbohydrates per egg, they are a great way to add healthy calories into your diet.

   

   Try enjoying a hard boiled egg with a little salt and pepper.

Suggestions for Servings and Sides

Hard boiled eggs provide a protein-rich base for many meals. They are an essential component of the classic potato egg salad. Or, try them in a healthy keto cobb salad. Hard boiled eggs are also a popular option for bodybuilding and fitness meal prepping. You can easily remove the yolks to create a low-fat protein option.