Ditch The Pot: Make Hard Boiled Eggs Like This For Perfect Results, Every Time

Building a plate of deviled eggs? Whipping up a nice and spicy egg curry? One thing you can't miss: hard-boiled eggs. They're simple, and take almost no time to make — but you can make them even quicker and with perfect, fully-set whites by ditching the classic pot-and-tap-water setup. Use a rice cooker instead.

Turns out, your rice cooker is essentially a smart steamer. It works by boiling water and holding heat while the rice soaks it all up. That process creates a bunch of hot steam that usually just vents out, which is a waste. Why not use that steam? Add an inch of water, set your eggs in a steamer basket on the rim, and turn the cooker on. That's it.

It should only take around 20 minutes before your eggs are ready, and trust us, they'll all be perfect every time. Steam is also much more gentle on eggs than a hard boil. In a bubbling pot, the eggs are constantly bumping against each other and the pot itself (that's why they sometimes come out of the pot cracked). But this isn't such a problem with steaming. When the time's up, immediately dunk the eggs into a bath of ice-cold water. The milky membrane inside the shell will part from the egg, and you can pick off the shell in (almost) one piece.

If you have a rice cooker in your home, then we bet you also have a bag of rice somewhere. Jasmine, basmati — whatever you've got — pour a cup into the boiling water at the bottom of the pot while the eggs are cooking. They'll take a fair bit longer to cook than the eggs, but when they do, you've got a convenient meal ready for you. 

Though, to be fair, hard-boiled eggs on plain rice do seem a bit boring. But there are plenty of ways to make this doubly awesome. If you have some time, make a marinade for the eggs. Just three ingredients: soy sauce, sugar, and water. Halve your boiled eggs and add the eggs, cut-side-down, to this mixture. After about thirty minutes, what emerges is umami in its simplest form — a glaze you can pile onto rice without restraint. You can also swirl sesame oil or butter through the grains, then drizzle that same soy liquid across the top. Everything's cooked already, so there's nothing to worry about. Just eat.

But really, the best part about hard-boiled eggs is their sheer versatility. Even if you don't serve them together with rice, there are a million-and-one different ways to serve (or upgrade) them. Whisk them into a silky egg salad with fresh herbs and on a slice of toasted sourdough, or halve them and tuck them into creamy avocado to get an avocado egg salad. With the perfect eggs you got, courtesy of your rice cooker, you're never more than a few steps away from a full, satisfying meal.