10 Different Ways to Cook Eggs

Eggs are a staple in the American diet. It seems that no breakfast plate is complete without an egg or two, whether they’re scrambled, fried, or hard-boiled. However, eggs aren’t just for breakfast and there are many ways to cook eggs that allow you to enjoy them for any meal.

According to one survey, the most popular way to cook eggs in America is by boiling them. Hard-boiled or soft-boiled eggs are a great snack to have on hand and one boiled egg has about six grams of protein. One of the best things about eggs is how diverse they are. There are so many ways to cook them that it’s easy to incorporate them into your meals throughout the week. If you’re looking for a way to mix things up in the kitchen, here are 10 ways to cook eggs.

Scrambled

Scrambled eggs are one of the most popular breakfast foods. They’re easy to make at home and they’re a popular dish at breakfast restaurants as well. To make scrambled eggs, all you have to do is beat your eggs in a bowl. Then, add butter or oil to a pan. Once the pan is hot, add your eggs, letting them cook for about a minute. Then, scramble them by stirring them with a spatula. You can add salt, pepper, cheese, vegetables, and any other seasonings or ingredients you choose.

Poached

Poached eggs are the kind of eggs used in popular recipes like Eggs Benedict. This method involves cooking your eggs in water. However, unlike a hard-boiled or soft-boiled egg, poached eggs are cooked outside of the shell. Instead of boiling the egg in the shell, you crack an egg into hot water and let it cook for about 3 minutes. It can be challenging to master this method if you’ve never done it before, but once you get the hang of it poached eggs are easy to make.

Sunny-Side Up

Sunny-side-up eggs are fried eggs that are only fried on one side. When making a fried egg, you will flip the egg halfway through. However, with sunny-side-up eggs, there’s no flipping involved and you only fry it on one side. This leaves a liquid yolk and egg whites that are barely cooked. To ensure your egg whites cook properly while leaving the yolk runny, you can cover your pan while you cook sunny-side-up eggs.

Over-Easy

There are generally three ways to fry your eggs: over-easy, over-medium, and over-hard. When you go out to a restaurant and order fried eggs, you’ll typically get an egg that’s over-hard unless you specify. Over-easy eggs are fried over medium-low heat until the egg white is cooked and the yolk is still soft. Out of the three types of fried eggs, over-easy eggs are cooked for the shortest amount of time.

Over-Medium

As the name suggests, over-medium eggs are the middle ground between over-easy eggs and over-hard. If you like your egg yolks slightly firm but not completely cooked all the way through, over-medium is the right choice for you. You cook over-medium eggs the same way as over-easy but before flipping your eggs, let them cook for a little longer to ensure the yolk isn’t as runny.

Over-Hard

Over-hard eggs are fried eggs with a yolk that’s completely cooked through. This type of egg, when cooked properly, will have a yolk that’s not runny at all. You cook over-hard eggs the same way as over-easy and over-medium. However, instead of letting the yolk stay runny, you cook the eggs until the yolk is completely firm.

Hard-Boiled

Boiling eggs is the most popular way to cook them in the US and they’re great for deviled eggs or egg salad. Even when boiling eggs, you get to choose how well you’d like them done, and cooking them until the yolks are solid is called hard-boiling. To hard-boil eggs, you can cook them on the stovetop, in the oven, or in the Instant Pot. To help make it easier to peel your eggs, add them to a bowl of ice water and let them chill for at least 10 minutes once they’re done cooking.

Soft-Boiled

Soft-boiled eggs are the same concept as hard-boiled. However, instead of cooking them so that the yolks are completely cooked through, the yolks of soft-boiled eggs are still runny. With this type of egg, you boil it the same way you do hard-boiled but you cook them for a shorter amount of time. This allows the egg white to cook completely but leaves the yolks with a softer texture.

Baked

If you’re looking for a method of cooking eggs with the least amount of effort, baked eggs are really simple to make. There are numerous ways to make baked eggs, but one of the easiest ways is to use a muffin tin. You can simply crack an egg into each section and bake them in the oven for between 10-15 minutes. The cooking time will depend on how firm you want your yolks to be. You can also bake eggs in individual ramekins if you have them on hand.

Omelet

Another popular way to make your morning eggs is in the form of an omelet. An omelet is like a fried egg but uses multiple eggs beaten together instead of just one. Traditionally, omelets include different fillings, such as vegetables, cheese, and even types of meat such as turkey or bacon. You can make an omelet with any fillings you choose, which makes it a perfect choice for breakfast any day of the week.

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