Cooking Hard Boiled Eggs in Instant Pot

Last updated on April 12th, 2021 at 11:06 am

Cooking Hard Boiled Eggs in Instant Pot – a simple 10-minute method (yes, say bye to the 5-5-5 method) to get perfectly cooked Hard Boiled Eggs and a super neat trick to easily peel off the shells!

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How do you like your eggs?

I like them fried with a drizzle of freshly milled black pepper and salt. I like the yolks completely cooked through, flipped and roasted on the top as well. Next to that, I like ’em hard-boiled.

I’m not a fan of soft boiled eggs. Actually, I’m not a fan of soft boiled anything for that matter. So naturally, I like hard-boiled eggs but my husband, on the other hand, likes sunny side up most of the time. But of course for salads and stir-fries and curries, we use hard-boiled eggs. So we make hardboiled eggs pretty often.

The water then enters the egg through the cracks, thus separating the egg and the egg shells. This way when you peel, the shells would come off easily to giving way to perfect looking Instant Pot eggs!

Cooking the eggs to perfect desirable stages are a real hassle until I brought Instant Pot home. There have been a dozen different methods to get perfect eggs an number of other “tips” from friends and family. A drop in egg sensor that changes color, have you had one of those? Someone gifted it to me and I may have used it once. I really didn’t want plastic boiling along with eggs.

See also:

Instant Pot Lentil Soup/curry recipe

Other times I used to keep watch at the time and staying close to the stovetop so that I don’t forget to remove the pan from heat. And to be honest there, when I began cooking, have been a dozen times I’ve got overcooked eggs and a dozen more times I’ve got undercooked eggs.

And don’t even get me started with the peeling!

My best friend always messed it up, I used to tease her whenever she made hard-boiled eggs. It came out with pits and bumps, layers of peeled egg whites got away with the shell. She always put the eggs in a curry or stir fry to try and cover it up it, never worked! Fortunately for her, she got this easy method from me!

Serving Suggestions:

Like I mentioned before, I like hard-boiled eggs with a dash of salt and freshly milled black pepper. Just writing about it makes me wanna boil some eggs, yes I like hard-boiled eggs to that extent.

When I’m bored of eating hard-boiled eggs that way, which I rarely am but my family gets bored with it. Anyway, whenever I get bored, I make

• Easy Egg curry with it
• Simple South Indian Egg Masala
• Creamy Egg Salad
• Egg puffs with the egg masala

These are some of my favorite ways to have hard-boiled eggs, but seriously you can use your imagination or your cravings as a guide!

See also:

INSTANT POT super easy mushroom rice recipe

Storage:

I don’t like to store Instant Pot hard-boiled eggs and because it comes together in a jiffy in an Instant Pot, I make it whenever I need them. But if you have to, store the hardboiled eggs with the shells in your refrigerator for about 3 days. To use, remove from refrigerator and follow the same steps as given below to peel the shell.

Instant Pot egg time:

Normally, that I before Instant Pot, I used to boil the eggs for 10 minutes, but with the Instant Pot, the total cook time is 5 minutes. This is exclusive of the time take for the Instant Pot to come to full pressure, which might take 2 minutes. But once the cook time is over, you can get the hard-boiled eggs on your plate in 10 minutes max. So, the total Instant Pot Egg time is 15 minutes at the maximum.

See also:

Effortless Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe

With Rack/ Without Rack:

I have used the steamer rack to make hardboiled eggs and I have cooked without it. It really doesn’t matter if you use it or not. As far as this recipe goes, the eggs are to be covered with water. Some of the methods use water just below the steamer rack and create a “steaming” kinda action to cook the eggs. In those cases, you’ll need a steamer rack. But with this recipe/method, you’re immersing the eggs and cooking ’em. Using a trivet/ steamer rack, in this case, is completely only for convenience and ease. So you don’t need the rack to cook hardboiled eggs.

Altitude:

If you follow this 10-minute method and your eggs are uncooked, you should probably check the altitude of your place and adjust the cooking time according to you Instant Pot’s manual. Now, if you have a model with automatic altitude adjustments, don’t bother about this. For more info on altitude and cooking time, check this out.

Variations :

No Instant Pot?

No worries. Using an Instant Pot is definitely easier but it is not the only way to cook food. Before I started using my Instant Pot to cook eggs, I used to do it on a stovetop. I literally just do the same process where I boil eggs in a saucepan full of water and set a timer on my phone or watch for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, follow the same recipe instructions as given below, that’s it!

Why not the 5-5-5 method?

The 5-5-5 method is the latest sure shot way to cook perfect eggs in an Instant Pot. But it does take a bit of extra time and you NEED lots of ICE. Well my method is simple, it uses the Chinese Tea Eggs method to peel the shells easily. You tap the eggs to create cracks and drop them in normal water.

The water then enters the egg through the cracks, thus separating the egg and the eggshells. This way when you peel the shells would come off easily to give way to perfect-looking eggs! Chuck ICE, try this method instead!

See also:

INSTANT POT simple and easy Vegetable Briyani recipe

Cooking Hard Boiled Eggs in Instant Pot:

Let’s get on to cooking Hard Boiled Eggs in Instant Pot As a matter of fact, once you make it this way, you’ll never go back to the stovetop method by choice, it is that simple and quick.

Step 1:

• Place the inner bowl into the Instant Pot. Place the trivet inside the Instant Pot. Alternatively, you can place the steamer rack on top of the trivet. (more on this below)
• Place the eggs on the trivet. Pour enough water into the Instant Pot to cover the eggs.
• Close the lid and SEAL it. Set the Instant Pot to PRESSURE COOK mode for 5 minutes. The Instant Pot would take a few minutes to get to the HIGH-Pressure point. This is the only extra time and it would be around 2-3 minutes.

Step 2:

• After the 5-minute cook time, release the pressure (QUICK RELEASE) and open the lid.
• Fill another bowl, large enough to hold all the eggs, with regular tap water.
• Using a ladle or tongs, transfer the eggs from the Instant Pot to the bowl of water. Now, this is where the steamer rack (if using) might come in handy. You can just lift off the steamer rack, drain the excess water and put in another bowl large enough to hold the steamer basket. If you don’t have the steamer rack, use the ladle like I do.
• Once all the eggs are in the bowl of water, pick each egg and quickly and gently tap it on your kitchen counter to form cracks all over the eggs. Rough and uneven cracks will do!
• Put the cracked eggs back into the bowl of tap water. Repeat the same with all the eggs. The whole process took me 2 minutes for about 9 eggs.
• You can begin with the first egg that you formed cracks and start to peel the shells. You can see that the shells seem distant from the eggs, lol. Remove the shells from all the eggs.
• Slice open to serve or slit to put them in curries or make a salad! Enjoy!

Recipe source: inspired by Chinese tea eggs method

Notes:

• Cooking time is for the 6-quart model. Time may vary for other models and brands.
• If using a steamer rack, place it on the trivet and then place the eggs on the steamer rack.
• The Instant Pot takes 2-3 minutes to come to full pressure.
• If living in a higher altitude, you might wanna adjust the cooking time.
• This recipe was made using 9 medium eggs. The time would be the same for small/large eggs alike.
• I’ve used battery eggs here, however, free-range eggs did take the same amount of time to get cooked.

Made this? Got doubts? Let me know what you think in the comments below!