Eggs, boiled or pan-fried, are a staple in many household’s breakfasts. They’re easy to make, require little to no skill in the kitchen, and can be prepared and served in a matter of minutes. Usually, eggs are boiled in a designated egg cooker or in a pot on the stove.
However, if you’ve ever used your microwave to bring water to a boil for tea or coffee, I’m sure you’ve thought about boiling your eggs in the microwave, and if it works?
You can boil eggs in a microwave by placing a deep microwave-safe bowl with warm water or an EggPod in the microwave. Place the eggs in the bowl, add salt, and run the microwave at 800-900 watts for 5-8 minutes depending on how you want them cooked. Poke a minuscule hole in the shell to prevent the egg from exploding.
Boiling eggs in a microwave can be a simple procedure. With a few adjustments, you can spare yourself the trouble of cleaning the microwave after an egg explosion. Continue reading to learn the best method of approach when it comes to boiling eggs in a microwave.
How to Boil Eggs in a Microwave Oven
When boiling eggs in a microwave, the main precaution is to ensure the eggs do not explode when cooking. In this exercise, you will need a microwave-safe bowl. You only need to follow these simple steps, and your eggs will boil without exploding.
Step 1: Fill the microwave-safe bowl with water and place the eggs in the bowl. Ensure the eggs are completely submerged in the water.
Step 2: Add half a teaspoon of table salt for every egg in the bowl. The added salt prevents the eggs from exploding when boiling inside the microwave.
Step 3: Let the eggs boil in the microwave for 5-8 minutes. The boiling time depends on how you prefer the eggs, soft, medium, or hard.
Alternatively, you can follow this procedure to prevent the eggs from exploding when cooking.
Step1: Fill a microwave-safe bowl with water and heat it in the microwave for three minutes.
Step 2: Use a safety pin or a thin sharp object to pierce the bottom of an egg. This step is essential, and it prevents the boiling eggs from exploding.
Step 3: Place the pricked eggs into the bowl with hot water and cover it: Microwave the eggs at a reduced heating power of 50 percent.
Step 4: Let the eggs boil for 4-10 minutes, depending on how soft or hard you want the eggs to be.
Peeling the boiled eggs shouldn’t be challenging, especially for hard-boiled eggs. Soft-boiled eggs are half-cooked with the shell intact and could bring you a slight challenge.
If you’re having a challenge using your bare hands, consider using a spoon. Tap on each side of the egg until the shell cracks. You can use the spoon to lift off the shell carefully, which should go rather smoothly.
The shell of an egg peels off better the day after they’re cooked. So, if you’re cooking a tremendous amount of eggs that you’re going to peel as well, consider waiting until the next day to peel them to save some time.
How Do You Hard, Medium, and Soft Boil an Egg in the Microwave?
Boiling eggs in a microwave can start as a trial and error for many people because each microwave works differently. You may have to make adjustments to your microwave to achieve satisfactory results.
It’s advisable to start with a single egg to figure out your preferred settings then add more eggs. The eggs that don’t turn out as you imagined can be fixed by frying them in the pan or trying to re-boil them.
Hard-Boiled Eggs In the Microwave
When you want to get hard eggs, you boil them for 5-8 minutes, depending on your microwave. You may need to adjust these timings until you get a perfectly hard egg. After boiling, let the eggs stay in hot water for three minutes. Transfer the eggs to an ice bath for cooling.
Medium-Boiled Eggs In the Microwave
Eggs get harder depending on how long they stay in hot water after boiling. When making medium-boiled eggs, ensure that you transfer them into an ice bath after staying for one minute in hot water.
To cook medium-boiled eggs in the microwave, run two eggs in the microwave oven for 4 minutes.
You’ll want to add time the more eggs you’re boiling. Adding 30 seconds for each additional egg should keep you on the right track.
Soft-Boiled Eggs In the Microwave
If you like soft-boiled eggs, run your eggs in the microwave for 3 minutes then transfer them into an ice bath immediately.
Depending on the wattage of your microwave, you may have to add or remove time. If your eggs are large, set the timer closer to 4 minutes and try from there. Adjust time when boiling more than 3 eggs.
I Recommend Microwaving Your Eggs In an Egg Pod
Have you heard of egg pods before? It’s basically a little steamer that will hold 4 eggs and boil them in the microwave. Then, when they’re done, the eggs can be peeled by shaking the egg pod with the eggs inside. With an egg pod, you will have your eggs ready to be consumed under 9 minutes.
Boiling eggs in the microwave has never been as easy as it is with egg pods. They’re amazing for microwave-boiled eggs, especially hard-boiled, but can also be used for vegetables.
How Do You Use an Egg Pod In the Microwave?
An egg pod doesn’t require very much of you. The components you need come with the product, except for the microwave, but I’m quite sure you’ve got one or are planning to buy one considering you’re reading this article.
With all components in place, simply follow these instructions.
Step 1: Pour water of around 50 milliliters into the bottom tray of the egg pod. The amount of water depends on the size of your egg pod. In this example, we use an egg pod that accommodates four eggs.
Step 2: Seal the top of the bottom tray and place it inside a microwave. Set the time to 9 minutes and start heating at high temperatures.
Step 3: Do not open the microwave after 9 minutes elapses when the timer goes off. Set another alarm for two minutes and wait.
Step 4: Once two minutes have elapsed, transfer the egg pod to the sink with running cold water. Let the water run over the eggs for two minutes. If you have no cold running water, you can pour cold water over the eggs using a jar.
Step 5: Without replacing the water in the bottom pod, close its top with the other half and shake the pod for 10 -15 times. Shaking the pod cracks the shells of the boiled eggs.
Step 6: Open the lid of the egg pod. The eggs are ready to peel, and you can easily remove the cracked shells. Sometimes you may have to run clean water over the eggs and remove any bits of the broken shell from the eggs.
Is It Safe To Boil Eggs In A Microwave?
Yes, boiling eggs in a microwave is safe as long as the recommended safety precautions are applied to prevent the eggs from exploding or water from leaking out of the bowl and into your microwave oven.
Other than that, microwaving eggs is a rather harmless procedure.
It is recommended you use a microwave-safe bowl when boiling eggs. This rule is also applicable when preparing other foods using a microwave. Safe bowls do not contain plastics and are mostly made from ceramics and glass. You should also avoid using metal or aluminum foil in the microwave.
Precautions to prevent eggs from exploding when boiling include adding salt to the bowl or piercing the eggs with a sharp object before boiling them in the microwave.
Handle the eggs in the bowl carefully to avoid splashing water in your microwave or damaging the eggs. Make sure the bowl is deep enough to hold the water without it running over the brim.
Lastly, don’t leave your eggs in the microwave for too long – and stay close enough to monitor them the first couple of times.
Can Raw Eggs Explode In The Microwave?
Without the necessary precaution, boiling a raw egg in a microwave can result in an explosion. If you boil an egg in a microwave, piercing or poking it will allow the trapped air to escape from underneath the eggshell, reducing the pressure inside the shell.
An egg is transformed from a plasma state into a solid-state when placed in boiling water, and it gains rubber properties. As an egg solidifies, some of its water content is superheated. The superheated water boils spontaneously in the air when the egg is cracked, hence the explosion.
A recent study established that the yolk of an egg when cooking in a microwave has a higher temperature than the boiling water. This could probably be the cause of the explosion. To me, it sounds like the egg becomes a superheated sauna or a pressure cooker of sorts.
In the same study, the exploding eggs produced a sound of over 100 decibels, which is equivalent to being close to a running motorcycle. While the sound occurs for a short time and won’t cause any physical damage, you can still imagine the mess it will create inside the microwave.
However, you don’t need to worry about explosions following the simple outlined step. Always remember to pierce the eggs or add salt to the boiling bowl.