Got a muffin tin? Then you have the secret to making a dozen poached eggs all at once in the oven — with less time and effort than the traditional hot water method. Now invite your friends over for an eggs Benedict brunch and get cracking!
Scrambled eggs and sunny-side up eggs get all the love, but there’s something so fancy about poached eggs. With that just-set egg white and a nice runny yolk, they’re great for adding protein to a dish without adding fat — because unlike fried eggs, poached eggs are cooked without any oil at all.
Not sure how to poach an egg in the first place? The classic way is to crack an egg into a ramekin, boil of pot of water and stir it to create a gentle whirlpool, then slide the egg into the almost-boiling water.
Easy enough. But the problem with traditional poaching is making more than one egg at a time can be a pain. Plus, if you don’t master the method, the egg can break apart in the water — and then you end up with egg drop soup.
You could buy a special egg poaching pan (as if you needed one more gadget taking up kitchen space). But we’re sure you already have a muffin tin, which means you have everything you need to make poached eggs en masse. Just crack an egg into each muffin cup, spoon a tablespoon of water on top of each one, then pop ’em in the oven.
It usually takes three minutes to poach an egg in hot water, so making poached eggs in the oven does take a bit longer (10 – 15 minutes, depending on how runny you like your yolks). But it doesn’t take an egghead to see that you’re actually saving a ton of time with the muffin tin method, if you think about how long it would take to poach six eggs individually the traditional way.
Here are some eggcellent ideas for how to enjoy your perfectly poached eggs:
- eggs Benedict doused with Hollandaise sauce
- Korean bibimbap
- vegetarian tacos
- huevos rancheros
- niçoise salad
- pasta carbonara
- on top of an avocado rose on toast
- breakfast potato hash
Muffin Tin Poached Eggs
Makes 6 – 12 eggs
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 6 – 12 eggs
- 6 – 12 Tablespoons water
- kosher salt, to taste
- ground black pepper, to taste (optional)
Equipment
- muffin tin
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Crack one egg into each cup of a 6 or 12 cup muffin tin. (You may want to crack the eggs into separate ramekins before adding them to the muffin tin, in case an egg breaks.)
- Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
- Add 1 tablespoon of water to each cup in the muffin tin.
- Bake the eggs for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the egg whites are set and the yolks are cooked to your liking. If you like runny yolks, poach the eggs for about 10 – 12 minutes. If you prefer your yolks to be a little more cooked, poach the eggs for about 13 – 15 minutes. During the cooking process, the water will rise and sit on top of the eggs; keep this in mind when you’re checking the egg whites for doneness, since it can be easy to mistake the water on top for an egg white that has not fully set.
- Remove the muffin tin from the oven and let the eggs stand for 1 minute in the muffin tin. Then scoop the poached eggs out of the muffin tin with a spoon. Gently pat each egg dry with a paper towel. Serve warm.
Recipe adapted from Eggs.ca