How to Cook Easy Peel Steamed Hard Boiled Eggs

How to cook easy peel steamed hard boiled eggs is a simple recipe to get perfectly hard boiled eggs that peel easily, even with farm fresh eggs. Within minutes you can have nicely cooked eggs, perfect for your salad topping or an egg salad sandwich. 

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Forget bringing a full pot of water to a boil then having to submerge the eggs into the boiling water, then removing the eggs from the boiling water. Steaming is a much faster and easier way to get hard boil eggs that are easily peeled, for fresh or older eggs. 

Hard boiled eggs are a great addition to so many meals. With having over 30 chickens in my backyard flock, I have been getting dozens of eggs weekly with the coming of Spring. I’m constantly making recipes that call for a lot of eggs, like Frittatas and Dutch Baby Pancakes. This calls for doubling the recipes to use up even more eggs if I can’t sell or give them away fast enough. 

One thing that is always easy to fall back on is to hard-boil eggs or even soft-boiled eggs. They are great to take as a snack on the road or at work or make into a salad. So many possibilities. 

What you need to steam hard boil eggs

• Eggs 
• Large saucepan with a lid
• Steamer Insert – I use the trivet from my Instant Pot
• Cold Water
• Large bowl to cool eggs
• Slotted Spoon

How to Cook Easy Peel Steamed Hard Boiled Eggs

To your large sauce pan add your steamer insert and add about an inch of water. You want there to be enough water to come just below the steamer insert. 

Put the lid on the pan and put it over medium-high heat.

Once the water comes to a boil, carefully remove the lid and gently place eggs in the pan.

Put them in a single layer on the steamer rack.

Cover pan and set your timer for the correct cooking time. 12 minutes for hard boiled or 6 minutes for soft boiled.

Just before your timer goes off, make your ice water bath for the eggs in a large bowl. 

Once the timer is done, carefully remove the eggs with your slotted spoon and add them to the ice bath.

Once your eggs are completely cooled now is when you can peel them if you want to use them right away. 

Gently tap the egg shell on a hard surface to crack the shell all over the egg.

With cold running water, gently peel back the egg shell under the running water.

Notes: 

• Make sure you cover your pan before and during the cooking time to trap the hot steam in the pan so it can properly cook the eggs and have enough water for the whole cooking time. 
• An ice bath is not completely necessary. If you do not have ice on hand, just use the coldest water you have. You may need to drain and refill the bowl a couple times until the eggs are completely cooled, depending on how many eggs you cooked.
• Peeling the eggs under the cold running water allows for more water to get between the egg and the shell. This makes for easier peeling without removing the egg white.  

Storage

Hard boiled eggs are good for 7 days in the fridge. Either peeled or with the shell on. Keep peeled eggs in an airtight container.

Ways to use steamed hard boiled eggs

Egg salad sandwiches as well as chopping them up and adding to chicken salad for a sandwich. Bacon and Egg Sandwich is a great choice for a bacon lover.

Potato salad is also a great recipe that I love to make.

Deviled eggs are a great appetizer and great for taking on picnics or to social gatherings at the holidays.

Adding as a topping for your green salad mix like Salad in a Jar.

Make a Cobb Salad Sandwich

Scotch Eggs

Other ways to steam hard boiled eggs

The Instant Pot or other pressure cooker is another great way to cook hard boiled eggs. The cook time for using a pressure cooker will be different then steaming. Because of the machine coming to pressure it starts to cook the eggs inside. So the set time for cooking the eggs will be about half the time or less than steaming. About 5 minutes to come to pressure and then about a 3-5 minute cook time with a quick release of the pressure valve and straight into a ice bath to stop the cooking process. I find this method also makes for great easy peel eggs.  

Products Mentioned

Steamer Basket – I use the trivet from my Instant Pot

Slotted Spoon

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Steamed Hard-boil eggs FAQ

Do I have to do an ice water bath?

While a bowl of ice water may be best to ensure you have enough cold water to completely cool the eggs, I don’t find it to be completely necessary. If you don’t have any ice cubes on hand just keeping a bowl of water to cool your steamed eggs is sufficient. You may need to change out the water for more cold water if it is no longer cold but I find that’s easy enough to do.

Chilling the eggs immediately after steaming them will also help to make them nicely shaped with out an indent from the air pocket on the fat end of the egg.

Why are there green rings around my egg yolks of hard boiled eggs?

This usually means that the eggs have been overcooked. They were left in the pot of steaming water for too long. The green ring is caused by sulfur and iron in the egg and then reacting on the surface of the egg yolk.

Should I use cold or room temperature eggs when steaming?

I use my eggs cold, right out of the fridge.

Are undercooked hard boiled eggs safe to eat?

It is typicially advised not to eat egg yolk or egg whites that are not completely cooked due to the chance of salmonella bacteria.

Is it safe to eat overcooked hard boiled eggs?

Over boiled eggs are not bad for you. It is actually safer to eat overcooked eggs than undercooked eggs. 

Can I make easy peel steamed eggs with fresh eggs?

Yes you can. I have used my fresh chicken eggs with great success and peeling is perfect not removing any egg white. You can use older eggs just be sure they are not past their expiration date.

Other Recipes You May Like

2-Ingredient Animal Based Pancakes – Dairy Free

Smoked Salmon Bagel – You can add chopped hard boiled eggs to make this tasty sandwich.

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