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Everyone—and I mean everyone—needs a recipe for hard-boiling eggs! This is a true kitchen essential. Whether you’re prepping for a batch of beautiful dyed Easter eggs, whipping up a platter of deviled eggs for a potluck, or need a healthy, protein-packed snack on hand, hard-boiled eggs are a recipe box staple.
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Getting Started
Let’s take a quick moment to look at a little kitchen safety. With the current bird flu concerns, it’s extra important to practice the safe handling of raw eggs. This includes the shells. Wash your hands thoroughly after touching them, and sanitize any surfaces they touch. Once eggs are boiled, any potential germs should be eliminated.
And because of those same concerns, I don’t recommend soft-boiling eggs right now. This post is all about hard boiling—fully cooked, safe, and versatile.
Ingredient Recommendations
Eggs: Large supermarket eggs are just fine, but if you have access to farm-fresh eggs, go for it! Just keep in mind, if you’re planning to dye them, a nice clean white shell gives the best results.
Pro tip: If you’ve got eggs nearing their expiration date, hard boil them! You get an extra week out of eggs that would have otherwise been thrown away.
Hard-Boiled Eggs Finishing Touches
Here’s the thing about peeling hard-boiled eggs: it’s a little bit of a love-hate relationship. The hands-on time for this recipe? Almost none—unless you’re peeling eggs. That part can be finicky, especially when the shells stick or your fingers get sore if you’re peeling more than one or two at a time. But when the peel slides off in one piece? Oh, that’s the good stuff. Weirdly satisfying, right?
I’ve tried many of the tricks shared out there to make peeling easier but haven’t found one that makes a difference. Have a good trick? Let me know in the comments below!
For egg dyeing purposes, this recipe’s “hands-on time” is spot-on for you!
Hard-Boiled Eggs Pairings
The possibilities are endless! Here are just a few ways I like to use hard-boiled eggs:
- Plain with a sprinkle of salt
- Chopped on a salad
- Dyed for Easter
- Turned into deviled eggs
- Mashed into egg salad
Hard-Boiled Eggs Leftovers
I usually boil my eggs the night before I want to use them—especially if I’m planning to make egg salad. I refrigerate them in their shells overnight, then peel and prep the next morning. The eggs, when kept in their shells, can keep for up to one week.
This recipe might seem basic, but it’s one I find myself turning to again and again. That’s why I keep it close at hand—and why you should too. Whether you print it out, bookmark it, or pin it to your favorite Pinterest board, it’s a good one to have ready when you need it.
Hard Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
- 4-5 eggs
- water
Instructions
- Place eggs in single layer in a medium saucepan. Add enough cold water to just cover eggs. Bring to a rapid boil over high heat (large breaking bubbles).
- Remove from heat, cover, let stand for 15 minutes.
- Drain carefully.
- Run cold water over eggs or place them in ice water until cool enough to handle. Drain.
- At this point eggs may be stored in the refrigerator. When ready to use, to peel eggs, gently tap each on on the top. Roll egg between palms of hands. Peel off eggshell starting at the large end.
Feature Image by Mustafa Bashari on Unsplash
How Long Do Hard-Boiled Eggs Keep?While it’s fine to make egg salad from pre-cooked hard-boiled eggs that have been stored in the fridge (think Easter eggs), you’ll want to make sure they are relatively fresh. Make your egg salad using eggs (in the shell) that are less than a week old. If the eggs were already peeled, use them within the day of peeling so they don’t absorb odors from the refrigerator. In general, the rule for eggs is the fresher the egg, the better tasting the egg salad.
I always make the hard boiled eggs up right before I want to make the egg salad. Usually I’ll do ’em up the night before, stick ’em in the fridge and then peel and make the salad the next morning to take for lunch. I’ll make enough for 2-3 days. If, for some crazy reason, it doesn’t get eaten up in that time I toss it.