The Best Way to Make 'Boiled' Eggs Requires No Boiling at All. Here's How It Works

Boiled eggs present a quandary about which method is best. There’s a camp that insists you must begin with cold water, bring it to a boil and then set a timer. This method requires near-constant watching to avoid overcooking.

If you’re noticing your air fryer giving side-eye from the corner of the kitchen counter…yes, that’s probably actually happening. “Boiling” eggs is easy work for an air fryer of any size, with no boiling involved.

Best practices for making “boiled” eggs in the air fryer

From yolks between runny to jammy to hard-cooked, the air fryer can handle it. No waiting for water to boil, no forgetting to set a timer at the key moment. There’s a lot of internet voodoo about dos and don’ts when it comes to boiled eggs in the air fryer, but in my experience, you can disregard most of it. You don’t need to bring eggs to room temperature first. You don’t need a layer of foil as a nest for your eggs. You don’t really even need to preheat the air fryer. (Who started the rumor that air fryers need to preheat anyway? They’re not ovens.)

Here’s what you should do for the best air fryer boiled eggs

Test with a single egg first to determine the best temperature and timing for your air fryer model. (While I wholeheartedly stand by this method, I wouldn’t go in with a dozen all at once without having tried it out first.)
Use a low temperature setting, between 270 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit
Arrange eggs in a single layer
Set the air fryer timer according to the kind of yolk you seek:
Plunge cooked eggs in cold water, removing from the air fryer to stop residual heat from taking the yolk any further and to ensure easy peeling

Cooking times for air fryer boiled eggs

Runny yolk: 7-8 minutes
Soft yolk: 9-10 minutes
Jammy yolk: 12-13 minutes
Hard-cooked yolk: 15-17 minutes

Mistakes to avoid for air-fryer “boiled” eggs

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that cranking the heat on the air fryer will allow you to shave a significant number of minutes off the cooking time. While air fryer-boiled eggs take a little less time, as they don’t require waiting for water to boil, they aren’t designed to get the job done quickly. In my experience, a higher temperature in the convection environment of the air fryer caused the eggs to cook unevenly. (Consider that boiling water is only 212 degrees Fahrenheit.)

I read a handful of comments on air fryer boiled eggs that suggested they were harder to peel. I didn’t find that to be the case at all when using a lower temperature setting; however, I did find that to be true for the one egg I cooked at about 400 degrees. It also produced an “eggier” smell while the egg was cooking.

Source: CNET.