Air Fryer Soft Boiled Eggs Technique

I love air fryer soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, and I have discovered a great new way to make them. The results are perfect every time.

When the cooking is done, which takes only minutes, they are as easy as could be to peel.

This alternative way of cooking eggs works just as well for soft-boiled, as it does for hard-boiled.

Which for me is important because I love nothing more than dipping my toast soldiers into a lovely soft egg yolk.

Using my newfound cooking method, I now make hard-boiled eggs regularly, putting them in salads, laying them on avocado toast, or just as a quick snack sprinkled with a bit of salt and black pepper.

Jump to:

• Tools needed
• Step by step instructions
• The soft boiled egg experience à la air-fryer
• How long to cook in the air fryer?
• How to lop off the top of a soft-boiled egg?
• The best way of storing eggs
• The reason you should not wash eggs
• Decorated hard-boiled Easter Eggs
• A Guide to peeling hard-boiled eggs
• How to make hard-boiled eggs taste good?
• Interesting recipes with eggs

A boiled egg that isn't boiled.

My favorite method of eating eggs has to be soft-boiled, which given my new method of cooking, is something of a misnomer because I air fry them!

If you love soft-boiled eggs for breakfast as much as I do, then learning this air fryer cooking trick is an absolute must, and all you have to do is read on.

Let's start with the tools you're going to need.

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Tools needed

• Air-fryer - this is the brand I use, but any other will do
• Egg-top cracker - this is optional
• Egg cups
• A medium-sized bowl
• Mini egg spoons - I like to have all the trimmings, but a teaspoon will do
• Teaspoon - if you don't have an egg-top cracker, use a teaspoon to smash and peel
• Pair of tongs
• Toaster - for the toast soldiers, of course

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Step by step instructions

Step 1

Preheat the air fryer to 270°F. Carefully put the eggs straight from the fridge into your air fryer's basket.

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Step 2

Set the timer to eleven minutes. Start cooking.

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Step 3

After eleven minutes, remove the eggs using a pair of tongs, and place them into a bowl of cold water (ice bath) for rapid cooling.

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Step 4

Allow the eggs to cool down for about five minutes. Putting the eggs into the ice bath will immediately shock the eggs and stops them from further cooking.

This is also an important step to make eggs easier to peel particularly for the hard-boiled.

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Step 5

Take out of the water and dry the eggs with a paper kitchen towel. Place into egg cups (if available).

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Step 6

Remove the top of the egg with your egg cracker topper or gently tap and peel with a teaspoon, then slice off the top of the remaining egg.

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Step 7

Season with salt and pepper and enjoy.

Since I was a kid, I have always dipped toast soldiers into my soft "boiled" eggs. It's got to be done.

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The soft boiled egg experience à la air-fryer

Soft "boiled" eggs are a breakfast staple - at least they are in my house. The kids love them, and so does the biggest kid of all - yours truly.

There is nothing better than a lovely runny, velvety, warm egg yolk, tempted out of the shell on a toast soldier.

It's not something you can rush. Take your time while praising the Guy in the Sky for chickens and their bounty.

Okay, some people can't stand runny yolks, and they have my sympathy. They don't know what they're missing.

All my family loves 'em, and it gives me an excuse to put my air fryer to work more often.

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How long to cook in the air fryer?

It all depends on how you plan to use your cooked eggs; either you want it soft-boiled or hard-boiled.

Follow the following timelines to get different types of egg textures.

• 11 minutes: perfect soft-boiled egg with a runny center and soft egg white.
• 12 minutes: Soft-boiled egg with a slightly runny center.
• 13 minutes: A soft yolk with a custard-like texture.
• 15 minutes: this is the early stage of a hard-boiled egg.
• 16 minutes: A hard-boiled egg with a lighter yolk.
• 17 minutes: Perfect for deviled eggs or egg salad since the yolk is completely hard-boiled. It has the lightest yolk and firm white but not overcooked.

Once your eggs are ready, plunge them in ice water or an ice bath to stop them from cooking further and maintain the perfect texture.

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How to lop off the top of a soft-boiled egg?

I normally use the egg cracker topper which I bought from Amazon. Here are some steps to use it properly.

• You just hold the cap on the top of the egg, pull up the spring-loaded stem, and release.
• Two good snaps and the top of the shell comes right off.

This topper makes a clean cut all the way around. How does it work? The device works by removing the top of the soft-boiled egg when you pull up the spring-powered shaft with the other hand and then releasing it.

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The best way of storing eggs

Ensuring that your eggs are in good condition is the best basis for any boiled egg - hard or soft.

The advice from the USDA is that you should keep eggs at the back of a refrigerator as this is where it is coldest.

Although many fridge manufacturers position egg holders in the back of fridge doors, that is not the best place to store them.

It is, in fact, one of the worst because the frequent opening and closing mean that is where the inside temperature will fluctuate the most.

• Hard-boiled eggs are best stored in egg cartons or any other type of closed container, again at the back of the fridge, where they will remain fresh for up to 7 days.

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Storing other types of cooked egg

Eggs are pretty versatile and can be cooked in many ways, including coddling, poaching, scrambling, and frying.

In all instances, because the shells have been removed, these types of cooked eggs won't keep as long as hard-boiled eggs with their shells intact.

As a rule, cooked eggs that will be stored should be cooled as quickly as possible, then transferred into shallow airtight containers, and refrigerated within two hours.

They will then keep for as long as three or four days maximum.

If you are separating yolks from egg whites for recipes of one kind or another, you can keep the unused part of the egg in a sealed container inside your fridge for up to four days.

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The reason you should not wash eggs

I can't say I know anyone who washes their eggs before using them. Why would you?

However, there is also a scientific explanation as to why you shouldn't wash eggs, and that is because the outside of their shells has a protective coating of mineral oil.

This could be removed when eggs are washed, allowing bacteria to work their way into the egg.

Now some of you may ask whether or not boiling an egg in water will remove this protective coating.

The answer is yes, it will, and that is why it is recommended you do not store hard-boiled eggs in your fridge for more than seven days,

Raw eggs which remain un-washed can be stored in a fridge at a temperature of just below 40°F for as long as five weeks as long as the shells are intact.

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Decorated hard-boiled Easter Eggs

What about hard-boiled eggs painted for Easter and used in Easter egg hunts or as decorations on the table?

Good question.

According to the University of Arizona, the answer is that they will only remain safe in terms of eating, providing they are not left out of the fridge for more than two hours.

After that time, they will not only begin to dry out, but they will become more prone to invasion by bacteria or be susceptible to the growth of mold.

Once bacteria are present inside an egg, they will multiply at an astonishingly fast rate.

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A Guide to peeling hard-boiled eggs

While you might think, and quite rightly so, that the fresher an egg is, the better for eating, somewhat ironically, the older the egg is, the easier it will be to peel once it's been boiled.

To make it even easier, immersing them in a cold-water bath immediately after boiling also helps.

The best way of preparing hard-boiled eggs for easy peeling, to use sliced in salads or as a presentation topping, is to transfer them from the cold water bath into the fridge.

The coldness of the refrigerator causes the inside of the egg to separate from the shell, thus making them a doddle to peel.

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How to make hard-boiled eggs taste good?

Eggs are at their very best taste-wise when they have just been laid.

Unfortunately, for most of us, unless we live next door to a farm, the eggs we buy from supermarkets or our local stores are several days old or more.

So very often there taste is quite bland. Click here to learn how to decipher the freshness data of store-bought eggs.

There is an upside to the bland taste. It helps eggs to pair with and absorb other flavors easily.

A little salt-and-pepper seasoning can really bring their flavor out, which is great for things like soft-boiled breakfast eggs, and egg salad.

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Other flavor enhancers include:

• Sprinkling with a little chili powder and/or garlic salt
• Dusting with a little smoked paprika for a lovely "woody" taste
• If you haven't tried curried eggs yet, they're great too.

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1 Adding to salads

Adding eggs to salads, be they creamy or crispy, gives the salad another taste dimension and the eggs.

You can make a great-tasting spreadable egg salad by dicing hard-boiled eggs and mixing them with celery, onion, mayonnaise, and a little Dijon mustard.

How about mixing finely diced hard-boiled eggs with baby spinach, celery, red onions, tomatoes and tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette?

You could go all Meditteranean and mix sliced hard-boiled eggs with black olives, little cherry tomatoes, some green onions, a few chunks of mozzarella cheese in an Italian-seasoned vinaigrette.

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2 As Part of a Sandwich Filling

Hard-boiled eggs are great as a sandwich filling, especially when mixed with other goodies.

• Make a sublime layered egg salad roll with sliced hard-boiled egg, green bell peppers, lettuce, onion, sunflower seeds, and a mustard seasoned mayonnaise.
• Egg mayo is one of the best sandwich fillers ever and easy to make with some diced eggs, a little Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and mayonnaise. Sandwich heaven!
• For those of you who like that old devil spice, dice the egg and spoon it onto a slice of sourdough with some lovely rare sliced beef, iceberg lettuce, red onion, with a healthy dollop of hot horseradish sauce.

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3 Soup Sprinklings

Instead of sprinkling soups with croutons, why not add some diced hard-boiled egg, or let the devil take you and add both?

• Wonton soup perks up nicely with a little sprinkling of diced egg
• A sliced hard-boiled egg is delicious when added to minestrone
• A chopped egg can also be added to beef stews and casseroles

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4 As a Part of a Stuffing Mixture

Mother nature might have designed eggs for potential use in stuffings such as these:

• You can scoop out halved egg whites stuffed with a mixture of egg yolk, mayo, a little curry powder, and some diced cashew nuts.
• Lop out the egg whites and filled with a stuffing made from egg yolk, cream cheese, green onion, and Dijon mustard.
• Stuffed with egg yolk, salary, walnuts, water chestnuts, and honey mustard. Crunchy egg paradise.

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Is it safe to hard-boil a cracked egg?

When the shell of the egg cracks, it opens the door to the possibility of bacteria getting inside, and if this happens, it can pose a threat to your health.

As soon as you spot an egg with a cracked shell at home, it would help if you disposed of it. It's impossible to know whether it will be safe to eat or not.

If you crack an egg in the process of getting it ready for boiling, there won't be a problem as long as was appropriately stored and within the recommended time frame, and you cook it immediately.

Most random cracks tend to be light, and as long as the break hasn't gone through the complete shell, the egg inside will be safe to eat.

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Eggs that crack when boiling

Sometimes an egg will crack as it is boiling. This doesn't create any health threat, so you can continue to cook it and, when ready, eat it.

The only problem is that water might seek inside the egg, making the inside watery and dilating the flavor.

If, when boiling, you spot a cracked egg quickly, you can add some vinegar into the water.

The characteristics of the acetic acid in the vinegar will help prevent the white from oozing out through the crack.

Sometimes when an egg cracks during boiling and you don't spot it in time, any of the white oozes through the shell will solidify, making the egg look misshapen.

If it's just a breakfast boiled egg, it is probably of no concern. You scrape it off and get on with eating the rest of the egg.

It's only if you're worried about the presentation then this might be a problem, and you may have to start again.

If the eggs are being boiled for mashing or dicing into things like an egg salad recipe, the presentation aspect is not a concern.

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Interesting recipes with eggs

• Creamy, Moist Scrambled Eggs with Tuna
• Pulled Pork Omelette
• Bacon and Egg Toast in Cups
• Eggs Tuna Salad Sandwich

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