Okay, raise your hand if you own a rice cooker. Keep your hand up if you don’t use that steamer tray that comes with the cooker and it’s somewhere lost in your cupboard (don’t worry…I’m not looking!). Keep your hand up if you didn’t even know what that tray was for! 🙂
No worries…you are one of MANY who fall into that group and I’ve got a recipe coming to the rescue! I’ll show you one thing you can do with it and it’s actually pretty cool!
Rice cookers aren’t just for cooking rice. I’m about to show you how to cook eggs in a rice cooker! And you’re going to use that mysterious plastic steamer tray that came with your rice cooker, so you’d better go look for it!
I know – you’re thinking, “What? That doesn’t sound good…”
I had my doubts when I first heard about it, too, and the idea seemed crazy! Cook eggs in a rice cooker?? Seriously?
However, as crazy as idea sounds, it works! I was of the old school – put eggs in a pot with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for a certain number of minutes to reach the desired doneness. Sounds simple enough. However, boiling eggs in a pot did have its shortcomings.
Sometimes the shells cracks when they’re bouncing around in the boiling water, and some of the egg leaks out. Well, then you’ve got a really messy pot and very unsightly eggs. You know what I’m talking about. It’s like something out of a horror movie. And if you’ve got lumpy unsightly eggs, you can forget about perfect eggs for Easter decorating. Or deviled eggs. Or any dish where you need a nice looking hard-boiled egg.
But the rice cooker eliminates that problem. The steaming water cooks the eggs while they sit, undisturbed in the steaming tray. I guess you could consider it an egg sauna. 🙂 And because the cooking method is more gentle, it is also easier to achieve the desired doneness. No more unsightly grey color around the yolks from overcooking the eggs.
All you do is put water in the rice pot. Put the eggs in the steamer tray and set it in the pot. Close the lid and press ON. Turn on your timer.
Remove eggs at the appropriate time and place eggs immediately into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.
Wait a minute before you get cracking! And then you get these!
Cool, right??
Here’s the formula: 20 minutes for hard-cooked eggs. 13-15 minutes for soft-cooked eggs (depending on how soft or runny you like them).
(NOTE: These times are based on my rice cooker and the time starts when put the eggs in and start the rice cooker. Your times may vary a little, give or take, depending on your rice cooker. However, these times are a good reference point and are a good place to start when trying this out.)
It’s so simple, you can’t NOT try this out.
How To Peel Hard Cooked Eggs
By the way, I’m going to assume that you can all peel an egg, but just in case… There is actually a method that works really well.
Tap on the fat end of the egg (opposite the small, “pointier” end) to crack it first. There is often an air bubble there and that is a good place to start peeling away at the shell, without digging into the egg itself.
Then gently tap on the sides of the egg, rolling as you go. You don’t have to be rough with it…just tap hard enough to crack the shell.
Next step…gently roll the egg back and forth a couple of times on the counter. This helps to loosen the shell and you will feel the shell pull away from the egg as you roll. Then start peeling from that first bottom crack you made at the beginning!
And voila!
You remember I mentioned you can make soft “boiled” eggs in the rice cooker, too, right??
Being Chinese, it is an assumption that I have a rice cooker. I will happily confirm that the assumption is correct! Of course, you don’t have to be Chinese or of Asian descent to have a rice cooker. But if you don’t have one, you’re missing out on, not only, perfectly cooked rice every time, but also hard- and soft-cooked eggs!
Are you intrigued?? Seriously, I thought it was a crazy idea when I first heard of it, but it is now my preferred method to make hard cooked eggs. I still know how to do it in a pot, obviously, but I have never had as good as results as I do with the rice cooker. You should definitely cook eggs in a rice cooker if you’ve got one. You will be amazed how easy it is. Give it a try and leave a comment below!
