When I started writing Instant Pot recipes almost 10 years ago, I realized quickly that the electric pressure cooker would become my favorite appliance for eggs. It’s so simple: Just pour in some water, add the eggs, press a button, and walk away. After hard-boiling (well, technically pressure-steaming) eggs in the IP just once, I never went back to boiling them on the stove. But I also use the pressure cooker for batches of café-style egg bites, and if I’m feeling a little fancy, I’ll make the British breakfast favorite, coddled eggs. Today I’ll show you how.
What are coddled eggs?
Think of coddled eggs as poached eggs’ easier-to-prepare cousin. Since they’re cooked in ramekins, they take the shape of the dish, perfectly round and about ½" thick. Traditionally, they’re simmered in a water bath on the stove. But the Instant Pot makes this process even easier.
How to make coddled eggs in the Instant Pot
Pour 1 cup water into the Instant Pot and place a long-handled silicone steam rack into the pot. Grease four 4-oz. ramekins with some butter. Crack an egg into each ramekin. Place the ramekins on the steam rack in the pot. Secure the lid and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Select the Steam setting and set the cooking time for 3 minutes at low pressure. (The pot will take about 5 minutes to come up to pressure.)
Instant Pot coddled eggs come out with tender whites and just-cooked-through yolks after 3 minutes at low pressure with a 5-minute pressure release, or with jammy yolks with a quick pressure release.
You can always adjust the timing to tailor this method to your taste. After all, people are particular about their eggs like nothing else. If you want firmer yolks, you can add a minute to the cook time.
What to do with coddled eggs
Coddled eggs can be eaten as is, or used in any dish that normally calls for poached or fried eggs. Unmold them onto English muffins for breakfast sandwiches or benedicts, and they won’t slide around like a poached egg would. Place a coddled egg atop a slice of whole-grain bread, along with a swipe of Greek yogurt, slices of smoked salmon, and crunchy cucumbers and radishes for a pretty, protein-packed breakfast. Or make my favorite coddled egg dish, the Coddled Huevos Rancheros in The Essential Diabetes Instant Pot Cookbook, for a colorful and nutritious start to your day.
Coddled Huevos Rancheros
Huevos Rancheros, or “Ranch Eggs,” are a popular Mexican breakfast dish. There are numerous versions across the country, but tortillas, eggs, and salsa are the common thread. Coddled Huevos Rancheros is an easy, semi-homemade take on the classic. Warmed corn or whole wheat tortillas are topped with a scoop of black beans, a coddled egg, some store-bought salsa, and a sprinkle of cheese or a few slices of avocado. For bonus points, add some shredded lettuce and chopped cilantro. It is such a satisfying breakfast, and it works well for a diabetic-friendly diet since you’ve got protein, fat, and fiber to balance out the carbs in the tortillas.
More on The Essential Diabetes Instant Pot Cookbook
I wrote The Essential Diabetes Instant Pot Cookbook to help people with diabetes, prediabetes, and other insulin resistance-related conditions cook Instant Pot recipes that fit their dietary needs. It’s a subject that’s close to home, as my husband, Brendan, is a Type 1 diabetic. He was diagnosed in his mid 30s, after we’d been married for a few years. The story of that evening and the days that followed is a harrowing one, filled with doctor appointments and stress, but suffice to say it felt like lightning struck, and our lives were completely changed overnight.
As we were adjusting to the shock of it all, I quickly figured out how to cook meals that would work for both of us, counting carbs and calculating nutrition information for every meal so Brendan could properly dose himself with insulin. And then when I decided to write a cookbook on the subject, I took a class on nutrition for prediabetes through the Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center at OHSU and worked with Brendan’s doctor and dietician there to be sure that I was on the right track with my nutrition advice and recipes. A few years after publication, it’s still so gratifying to hear from people who have found my cookbook to be a useful tool in their diabetes journey.
Now that we have two young children, meals look a little different in our house. There are plenty of carbohydrate-rich foods around at mealtimes, a lot more than when it was just two of us. Still, I make use of my diabetes nutrition knowledge to make sure that each meal has the right components to feed everyone well. Eggs are a crowd-pleaser here, and coddled ones will always have a place on our breakfast table.
