How To Get Hard Boiled Eggs To Peel Easy

Hard Boiled Eggs (+ Easy Peel Tips)

Learn how to make hard boiled eggs so that they're easy to peel! It's the sequence of steps that's most important. And with a few extra tips, you'll always have beautiful, perfect hard boiled eggs.

Hard boiled eggs on the counter.

Perfect hard boiled eggs are a frequent ingredient in many meals. They can be cut in half for deviled eggs, diced into egg salad, or eaten on their own with a dash of salt. And when it comes to prepping, there's nothing more satisfying than peeling the shell off with no sticking or divots.

But I know the struggle as I've been there before. You're peeling your eggs and chunks of egg white pull off with the skin, leaving you with ugly pocketed eggs. So after testing many tutorials online, I've adopted a series of steps that brings perfect results every time.

Hard Boiled Eggs Video

Before we dive into the individual steps, watch this quick video below!

How To Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

There's not just one single things that makes hard boiled eggs easy to peel. Instead, it's a combination of how you cook the eggs, how you cool them, and how you crack the shell afterwards.

So if you're thinking of adding eggs to a pot of cold water first, then boiling it – scratch that. The key is to have a hot boiling start, time it correctly, then shock the eggs in an ice water bath. I describe this in more detail in my soft boiled and hard boiled eggs post, but here's the process.

A pot of hot water on the stove and an ice water bath.

Prep The Hot And Cold Water

First, you'll bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Make sure there's enough water to cover the eggs by about an inch. And while you're waiting for it to boil, remove the eggs from the fridge (set them on the counter) and prep an ice water bath in a large bowl.

Place eggs into a pot of hot water.

Cook The Eggs Until Hard Boiled

Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low and use a skimmer to gently and slowly add the eggs into the water. Then, turn the heat back up to a boil. Here, you'll want to be conscious of how long you cook the eggs for. So, set a timer and cook for 12-14 minutes. 12 minutes has a little more softness to the yolk, 14 minutes is a fully hard boiled egg. See my egg timer chart.

Hard boiled eggs in an ice water bath.

Put The Eggs In The Ice Water Bath

Once the eggs have cooked to your preferred time, use the skimmer to remove the eggs and immediately submerge them in the ice water bath to stop them from cooking. You'll let the eggs sit here for about 10-15 minutes before peeling.

Slicing hard boiled eggs in half.

Tap, Roll, Then Peel The Eggs

Ah, the final peel test is here. Here's what I do:

First, tap the egg on the bottom.
Then, gently roll the egg on your countertop with the palm of your hand. Cracks will start to form and loosen the outer shell.
Start peeling from the bottom first (always), as there's a little air pocket and you'll be able to get under the membrane. The shell should come off easily from there!

Tips To Prevent Cracking

Your eggs shouldn't crack when placing in the water. If they do, here's a few extra tips to ensure that won't happen.

Allow the eggs to warm up. As you're waiting for water to boil, don't forget to take the eggs out of the fridge to let them sit on the counter. This will allow them to come to room temperature.
Reduce the heat to low. This is important. Reduce the heat to low while "slowly" placing the eggs in the hot water. The water should not be boiling or bubbling. Otherwise, the eggs will bounce around and likely crack.
Don't crowd the pan.You want to make sure your eggs have enough room in the pan, so that they're not stacking or touching.
Buy a different brand. Sometimes different brands have different thickness of shells. If you've done all of the above, switching brands might be the clincher.

How Long Can You Store Hard Boiled Eggs

According to Foodsafety.gov, you can store hard boiled eggs (with the shell on) for up to a week in the fridge. But from my experience, you can also store peeled eggs in the fridge for up to three days in a storage container without any issues.

Hard Boiled Egg Recipes

So you've made the perfect hard boiled egg – hooray. You can of course eat them plain with a sprinkle of salt for a snack. Or you can enjoy some of my favorite hard boiled egg recipes, such as:

Deviled Eggs
Bacon Deviled Eggs
Avocado Deviled Eggs
Egg Salad
Avocado Egg Salad
Cobb Salad

More Ways To Cook Eggs

If you're like me and love eggs, you're in luck. I have a ton of delicious egg recipes on the website. But here are a few other methods to keep up your sleeve:

Create the perfect poached egg
Get crispy edges with this fried egg recipe
Bake into egg muffins

Hard boiled eggs on the counter.

Hard Boiled Eggs (+ Easy Peel Tips)

Learn how to make easy-peel hard boiled eggs in a few simple steps. Just boil them, put them in an ice water bath, roll them and peel away - that's it! Watch the video above to see how I do it!

▢ 1-6 large eggs

Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil. Ensure there's enough water in the pot to cover the eggs by about an inch.
While you're waiting for the water to boil, remove the eggs from the fridge (set them on the counter) and prepare ice water bath in a large bowl.
Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low and use skimmer to gently and slowly add the eggs to the water. Then, turn the heat back up to a boil.
Set a timer and cook the eggs for 12-14 minutes.
Use the skimmer to remove the eggs and immediately submerge them in the ice water bath to stop them from cooking.
To peel the eggs, you can either roll them on the countertop gently or tap the egg all around against the countertop to create cracks. Then, peel from the bottom to remove the shell.

I love this skimmer as it can easily add and remove multiple eggs at the same time.

Calories: 77.5 kcal , Carbohydrates: 0.6 g , Protein: 6.3 g , Fat: 5.3 g , Saturated Fat: 1.6 g , Cholesterol: 186.5 mg , Sodium: 62 mg , Sugar: 0.6 g

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