The Unexpected Appliance That Cooks Easier-To-Peel Hard-Boiled Eggs In Under 20 Minutes

Making hard-boiled or soft-boiled eggs can be a bit of a kitchen riddle. Sometimes they burst in the water. Sometimes they come out over- or undercooked. And the biggest conundrum of all can be when it's time to peel them to get a perfectly smooth exterior, without inadvertently removing part of the white. There are a number of tips for improving hard-boiled eggs — like, use a steam basket or choose slightly older eggs. To easily remove the shells, you can use the Gordon Ramsay method for peeling eggs — crack them, then resubmerge them in cold water once boiled.

But we have an unexpected method that removes the need for a pot altogether. The best appliance for amazing hard-boiled eggs might be a surprise because it doesn't even boil them at all. Get easy-to-peel, perfectly cooked, "hard-boiled-style" eggs with an air fryer. An air fryer is the ideal way to make hard-boiled eggs because it's easy to regulate the temperature, and you can fit enough for just about any recipe. And you don't have to watch the water to make sure it's not boiling too hard or not boiling at all. With a few simple tips, you'll get your eggs right every time in the air fryer.

As with many other air fryer hacks, boiled eggs are a cinch with the help of this little modern countertop appliance. Preheat your air fryer to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and cook the eggs for 12 to 16 minutes, depending on how hard you'd like them "boiled." Around 12 minutes will have them come out with soft, even, slightly runny yolks; and 16 minutes will get them deliciously hardened, perfect for an egg salad or amazingly creamy deviled eggs. After cooking, you'll need to put them in a cold water bath for about 10 minutes to cool them off for easy peeling. After that, you don't even have to run water over them as you peel.

You can do this with just a few eggs or a whole dozen — pretty much however many can fit in your air fryer. Because an air fryer is convective, it's constantly circulating heat. It will cook them evenly, as long as they are all laid flat and not stacked on top of each other, which would limit the proper dispersal of heat. It might just be the easiest hard-boiled egg you've ever made. And if you want to put the appliance to work on other egg preparations, it can also work great as one of the easy tricks for cooking poached eggs.