The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

Hard boiled eggs are the perfect way to start out the day. However, things can quickly take a turn for the worse if they are not cooked properly. Since my parents got chickens about 6 months ago, I set out to perfect my method for hard boiling eggs so I can have easy-to-peel eggs for breakfast almost every morning.

This cooking method results in hard boiled eggs that are incredibly easy to peel, making it much more convenient to pack them in a lunch or have them ready for a quick breakfast option.

-Chickens (optional)

-Eggs (Store-bought or homegrown)

-Scoop colander

-Pot for boiling the eggs

-pot for ice bath

Either store-bought or homegrown eggs will work well with this method, but I definitely recommend using fresh homegrown eggs whenever you can. The shells are much thicker, and the yolks are richer than the store-bought eggs. Also, with the right chickens, you can even have speckled eggs and light blue eggs as well!

Fill a pot large enough to fit all of the eggs with enough water to completely cover the eggs. Bring the water to a rolling boil. Load the eggs in the scoop colander and carefully load them into the pot AFTER the water is boiling. Cook them for 8-11 minutes. Cook them in this range depending on what you like or what you need for a recipe. I like to cook mine for 9 minutes, and it results in eggs that are right in between a soft boil and a hard boil. Some eggs will cook differently depending on their size and starting temperature, so experiment with the time a bit to find what works best for you.

Immediately after the time is up, transfer the eggs to an ice bath for 5-10 minutes. You can use the scoop colander to do this, but my preferred method is draining most of the water from the cooking pot and then carefully dumping them into the ice bath.

The ice bath will bring the cooking to a stop more quickly than rinsing them or letting them air cool.

Also, you may have some casualties in the cooking process. Make sure you are handling the eggs as carefully as possible so you can avoid creating tiny cracks that will later result in semi-blown up eggs. That being said, don't worry if they do explode. They will still be fine to eat as the only issue with them is the blemish from the crack.

Once the eggs are done with the ice bath, they are ready to enjoy. Either eat them right away or toss them in the refrigerator and save them for later.

When peeling them, tap them on something hard until the shell starts to break. Peel away the shell, making sure you take the membrane off as well.

In the pictures, you can see how well the shell comes off after cooking the eggs like this. Also, I added an example of the yolk to demonstrate what it looks like after boiling the eggs for 9 minutes.