Looking for hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel? Make Instant Pot Eggs! They’re ready in 15 minutes and make perfect, easily peeled eggs every time. Promise.
Like many of you, I recently gave up on dreams of finding a surefire way to consistently make perfect hard-boiled eggs. After trying a few too many “foolproof” tricks with spotty results, I relegated easy-to-peel eggs into the same category as unicorns and cheap plane tickets: nice to fantasize about, but if they were actually real you’d think we had she heard about it.
But that’s the thing about myths – just after you’ve thrown your hands up and walked away, something new comes along to reignite your hope. Like Fox Mulder, we want to believe.
Video: How to Make Easy-Peel Pressure Cooker Eggs
1:06
How to easily peel hard boiled eggs in the pressure cooker
Why the pressure cooker works
Actually, I’ve been sitting on this revelation for a few months now simply because I didn’t trust the evidence I saw with my own eyes: two eggs or a dozen, fresh eggs or weeks old, white eggs or brown eggs, it didn’t matter. The shells slid off easily every time, leaving a smooth and unblemished hard boiled egg.
There are a few theories as to why this is so. Some say that similar to steaming eggs, the pressure cooker pushes steam into the eggshell as it cooks, causing it to separate from the egg whites. Alton Brown’s theory is that it’s more about the rapid temperature change in the sealed pot.
Whatever the reason, it works! Making hard boiled eggs in the pressure cooker is the only method I’ve found that has worked for me every time.
How to cook eggs in the Instant Pot
I prepared my eggs in the Instant Pot using the popular “5-5-5” method for hard boiled eggs. The idea is to place your eggs in a steamer basket and seal them in your pressure cooker along with a cup or so of water. It takes about five minutes for the cooker to reach high pressure, five minutes to boil the eggs, and then five minutes for natural pressure relief before the eggs are removed from the cooker – hence the “5-5-5” Method.
I found this basic formula to work well, although my pressure cooker typically takes closer to 10 minutes before fully pressurizing.
I’ve also decided that I like the texture of 4 minute eggs better than 5 minute eggs. After four minutes, the whites are set but soft and the yolks are cooked through but still creamy; After five minutes I felt like the whites were starting to get gummy and the yolks were a little chalky. Try both ways and see which one you prefer.
- New to Instant Pot? Check out our post How To Use an Instant Pot: A First-Timer’s Guide.
Instructions for the pressure cooker on the stove
For those of you with pressure cookers on the stove, I recommend a shorter cook time of 3 minutes. Stovetop pressure cookers can reach higher pressures than electric stovetops and tend to cook food faster. (For reference, a friend of mine tested this recipe with her pressure cooker on the stovetop and her verdict was that 4-minute eggs were fine but tasted slightly overcooked.)
A caveat about pressure cooker eggs
The only imperfection about this way of hard-boiling eggs is that one of the eggs will occasionally crack the shell while cooking. When this has happened to me, it has usually been during the 5 minute “natural release” period after the eggs have already been cooked, so the crack is only superficially cosmetic. Not ideal if you’re planning on coloring some Easter eggs, of course, but perfect for deviled eggs.
If your eggs seem to crack frequently, or crack before the whites have set, try cooking them on low pressure instead of high. My own low pressure testing gave conflicting results. But every pressure cooker is a little different, and you might have better luck with yours.
When it comes to unicorns and affordable airfares, the jury is still out. But easy-to-peel eggs? At least they are real.
Don’t have a pressure cooker? Try steaming your eggs on the stove!
More Essential Instant Pot Recipes
- How to make chicken broth in the Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Yogurt
- How to cook frozen chicken in the Instant Pot
- How to make rice in the Instant Pot
- How to make quick beans without soaking in the Instant Pot
What pressure settings to use for hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot
We boiled the eggs high in the Instant Pot. At this setting, an IP is 10.2 to 11.6 psi.
Some electric pressure cookers have an “egg” or “steam” setting, but we’ll bypass those here to keep things super simple. If you use high pressure on the manual setting, your eggs will be perfectly steamed, don’t worry.
Quick cooking tips for really fresh eggs
If you’re lucky enough to have chickens or got super fresh eggs from the farmer’s market, you may need to adjust the cooking time a bit. Try pressure cooking for 5 minutes, wait 5 minutes before releasing the pressure, then cool in an ice bath for 10 minutes.
If you’re going to use the eggs right away, try giving each egg a small crack before pressure-cooking to make peeling easier.
From the editors of Simply Recipes
Instant Pot Easy-Peel Hard Boiled Eggs
Check your pressure cooker manual for the minimum amount of liquid needed in the pot and add at least that amount. If no directions are given, add 1 inch of water.
If your pressure cooker did not come with its own steamer basket, you can use a standard metal or silicone steamer basket instead. (If you don’t have a steam basket, you can skip it, but you may get a larger number of beaten eggs.)
Avoid stacking eggs on top of each other as this can also lead to more broken eggs. If you need to cook more eggs than can fit in a single layer, we recommend cooking multiple batches.
ingredients
-
Big Eggscold from the fridge – at least 1 egg or as many as will fit in your pressure cooker on one level
method
-
Prepare the pressure cooker:
Place a steamer basket on the bottom of your pressure cooker. Add 1/2 to 1 inch of water (1 to 2 cups) to the pressure cooker (check your pressure cooker manual for minimum amounts of liquid). The water level should be just below the steam basket.
-
Add All Eggs:
Use cold eggs straight from the fridge. You can cook as many eggs as you like at once, but be careful not to press eggs too tightly against one another or stack eggs on top of each other as this can cause eggs to crack.
-
Pressurize the pot:
Close the pressure cooker lid and make sure the steam valve is set to the “sealed” position. Set the pressure to high and the timer to 4 minutes for electric pressure cookers (3 minutes for stovetop).
The pressure cooker takes 5 to 10 minutes to reach full pressure and then boil. The cooking time begins as soon as the pot is under pressure.
-
Release the pressure naturally for 5 minutes:
After cooking, leave the pressure cooker with the lid on and the steam outlet “sealed” for 5 minutes to allow the steam to release naturally. (If using a pressure cooker, remove it from the heat.)
-
Release residual pressure quickly:
After 5 minutes of natural release, gently turn the steam valve to “Vent” and quickly release the remaining pressure.
-
Cool eggs:
Place the eggs in a bowl of cold water to cool (add ice for faster cooling, but ice isn’t essential for making easy-to-peel eggs). Change the water while it is heating until the eggs have cooled, then refrigerate the eggs until needed.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 72 | calories |
| 5g | Fat |
| 0g | carbohydrates |
| 6g | protein |
