Make Hard-boiled Eggs You Can Actually Peel

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Hard-boiled eggs are a nice quick-to-grab snack, high in protein and also in yum. But, as any homesteader knows, it can also be a pain to make them if you’re using fresh-from-the-coop eggs. How in the world do you get them to peel?

I’ll be honest with you. There are times I’ve been so frustrated with peeling eggs that are too fresh that I’ve thrown a tantrum and fast-balled that stubborn egg right at the kitchen floor.

(Which, by the way, I don’t advise, because although the peel still won’t come off, you will have bits of hard-boiled egg e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e in the kitchen.)

For Christmas last year, my sons bought me an electric pressure cooker. It’s pretty much my BFF in the kitchen…

…and the best way I’ve found to make hard-boiled eggs that you can actually peel is to use an electric pressure cooker to steam them.

The secret to easy to peel hard-boiled eggs!

My directions here are for a Power Cooker. An Instant Pot is also a popular choice. Regardless of which cooker you have, all electric pressure cookers work pretty much the same. You just have different buttons and beeps and lights. Tweak my directions a bit for your specific electric pressure cooker—because I know you’re super smart like that.

Put a couple cups of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Put the steamer shelf/basket in, and place the eggs on top of it.

Lock the lid on and make sure the pressure knob is on CLOSE, not RELEASE. (We’re trying to make steam, silly, not let it all go.)

Plug in your pressure cooker. On the Power Cooker, you will now press the RICE button. (No we’re not making rice, but the timer for rice is the same as for hard-boiled eggs: 10 minutes.)

When the pressure finally builds up in the cooker, the timer will automatically start. When the timer beeps, your eggs are done. Release the pressure in the cooker by moving the pressure knob from CLOSE to RELEASE. After all the pressure is done hissing out, take the lid off (remembering to tip the lid away from you as you remove it from the cooker).

Now immediately plunge those hard-boiled eggs into a giant bowl or sink full of ice water. (This is so they stop cooking.) Let them sit in there for a couple minutes.

Now take them out of their icy bath and let’s get to this whole peeling thing.

My trick for actually peeling hard-boiled eggs

Not only does steaming your eggs work better for peeling, but I’m going to show you how we actually go about peeling the eggs here at Clucky Dickens Farm. Grab yourself a spoon and one of those hard-boiled eggs.

Tap the egg and peel a little bit off. If you happen to open it at the air sac spot, even better.

Slide your spoon into the hole you made and underneath the shell.

Gently lift up and pop off that piece of shell.

Slide the spoon under another spot on the shell and repeat the process until the entire shell is removed.

It works pretty darn slick, 99% of the time.

Try it yourself. Ever since making hard-boiled eggs became this easy, we’ve got yet another way to use all the fresh eggs our gals are giving us everyday here at Clucky Dickens Farm.