Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs Easy Peel

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Wondering how to make perfect hard boiled eggs that are easy peel? I have tested 4 popular methods including boiling on the stove, in the Instant Pot, baked in the oven and in the microwave to find the best way to cook hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel. The results may surprise you.

How to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs

I’m going to start this post with a confession. For most of my adult life, I could not make a hard boiled egg to save my life. Every single time I would call my mother to find out to make them. Every. Single. Time.

Sad. I know. But hey, nobody’s perfect, right?!

Recently, I decided that it was high time I learned how to make a proper hard cooked egg. I’ve seen so many methods online – boiling, microwave, oven and Instant Pot. Remove them immediately or let them sit in the hot water? Ice bath? No ice bath? Then you have the old egg vs new egg theories. There were just so many variables.

But which is the best? That was the million dollar question.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs (Easy Peel)

There were many times when I tried making hard boiled eggs only to have the egg whites shred when I tried to peel them. It’s one of the most frustrating things.

It’s not a big deal if you’re making something like my 5 Star Egg Salad recipe, but if you want to make my Classic Deviled Eggs, you need pretty, smooth egg whites. Not ones that look like they were hacked up.

I decided it was time to test all of the methods for making perfect hard boiled eggs that were easy to peel.

Ways to Make Hard Boiled Egg

For my testing I tried the following methods – oven, microwave, stove top and Instant Pot. To keep the results in check, I used eggs that were all the same age.

I also decided to cool all of the eggs immediately after cooking in an ice bath. To make the ice bath, I filled large bowl with cold water and ice.

The final step was to peel the eggs to see which ones were easy peel and which ones were hard peel. Here’s a breakdown:

Stove Top Method

Fill pot with enough water to cover eggs. Do not add eggs yet.
Add one teaspoon of white vinegar to the pot.
Bring to boil over high heat.
Add eggs and lower heat to simmer. I used this tool to lower the eggs into the water.
Simmer for 13 minutes.
Remove eggs immediately and place in an ice bath for 5 minutes.

Oven Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Crumble a piece of aluminum foil to make a nest that will fit into the well of a muffin tin.
Place egg into the foil “nest” being careful that the egg isn’t touching the sides of the muffin tin.
Bake eggs for 30 minutes.
Remove eggs immediately and place in an ice bath for 5 minutes.

Microwave Method

Add 1 cup of water to a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave the bowl of water on high for 3 minutes.
Carefully, add 8 eggs to the bowl of hot water. This works great to keep from getting burned.
Place a microwave safe plate on top of the bowl to fully cover it.
Cook on 50% power for 8 minutes.
Remove eggs immediately and place in an ice bath for 5 minutes.

Instant Pot (pressure cooker) Method

Add 1 cup of water to the bowl of your Instant Pot.
Place eggs in a single layer on the trivet.
Use the manual setting to cook on high pressure for 5 minutes.
Allow to natural release for 5 minutes
Remove eggs immediately and place in an ice bath for 5 minutes.

The Results of my Experiment

The results of my quest to make the perfect hard boiled egg were a little surprising. Based on what I read, I figured the Instant Pot method would be the best way, but it wasn’t. It was a close second though.

Here’s the summary:

Stove Top Method

Total cook time: 13 minutes
Total cool time: 5 minutes
Easy to peel: The easiest!

Oven Method

Total cook time: 30 minutes
Total cool time: 5 minutes
Easy to peel: So-so.
Note: Cooking the eggs in oven yielded a spotted egg shell and an off-color egg white. These would be fine if you were just going to eat them plain, but they wouldn’t be good for coloring Easter eggs or for making deviled eggs or egg salad.