It’s kind of easy to make hard-boiled or soft-boiled eggs. Just put eggs in water and boil the concoction on your stove. Voila, you’re done. With that said, you can also easily make boiled eggs in your microwave. It’s best to do so with the assistance of an egg boiler or poacher though.
So can you microwave boiled eggs? Keep on reading to find out.
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Can you Boil Eggs in the Microwave?
Whether you wish to cook hard-boiled or soft-boiled eggs, you need a special apparatus to do so when cooking with a microwave. You can’t get away with boiling them inside an oven like you would with a stove. Otherwise, doing so is relatively quick compared to ordinary stove boiling.
You have to take into account rising pressure from how radiowaves react to the egg’s water molecules. If your home has limited space and can only fit a mini-fridge, you can purchase a half dozen of eggs then boil them together inside your microwave.
Afterwards, it’s just a matter of storing them then puling 1-2 out for every meal. With that said, the likeliest and easiest type of egg you can cook on the microwave is poached egg or soft-boiled egg, since it takes a bit of work to make that egg yolk soft and solid instead of liquid and runny.
Further reading: The Best Microwave Egg Cooker
How to Boil Eggs in the Microwave Using a Bowl of Hot Water
There are various ways to boil the perfect egg using the microwave. The key here is to avoid making the egg explode due to internal pressure built up inside its shell. You should also be aware of the nature of radiowaves and their effect on water molecules.
Here’s one way to go about it.
- Heat up a bowl of water in the microwave. Should take about a minute or two to almost boil.
- Take the bowl out of your microwave. Place the raw egg into a bowl of hot water with salt.
- Now cover the bowl with a plate serving as its lid then microwave that at 50 percent power for 4 minutes.
- If you wish for the yolk to be runny and the egg soft-boiled, you should take the egg out and peel it. You’re good to go.
- If you wish for a cooked yolk and hardboiled egg then leave the egg to cook on the hot water for two more minutes before taking it out and peeling it.
How to Boil Eggs in the Microwave with an Egg Poacher or Boiler
Boiling eggs in your microwave carry some risks. The best methods should consistently give you cooked eggs the way you want it. However, they can end up not cooked all the way, with the egg whites not cooked at all. Some might even end up with a nasty gray ring around it as well.
With that said, here’s how you can consistently cook poached or hardboiled eggs with a plastic egg poacher accessory.
- Place your egg inside the tray of an egg poacher or boiler.
- Carefully add boiling water atop every egg to the fill line then cover the poacher with the included lid before placing the whole setup inside your microwave oven.
- Afterwards, nuke the eggs and egg poacher for a minute and 20 seconds.
- Carefully remove the egg poacher from your microwave then allow it to simmer for a minute with the lid on.
- Take off the lid and enjoy the poached eggs. You can let it cook more in hot water for longer to get soft-boiled or hard-boiled eggs instead.
How to Boil Eggs in the Microwave while Preventing Egg Explosions
There’s also this method of egg boiling you can follow. One of the most consistent problems with using an egg poacher is the risk of exploding eggs. This is why it’s also sometimes recommended that you prick the egg with a hole to serve as its pressure release point.
More to the point, do the following.
- Get a bowl that’s big enough to submerge your egg or eggs in water.
- Like with the other methods before, use hot water instead of tepid water.
- You can microwave the bowl of water with your oven for 3 minutes straight.
- Prick the bottom of your egg with a thumbtack or safety pin to keep it from exploding.
- Place that egg with a hole (or eggs with holes) in the bowl of hot (not boiling) water.
- Let it microwave for 4 minutes this time at 50 percent power.
As you can clearly see, there’s more than one way to skin a cat or boil an egg. The things they have in common include placing the egg in already hot water and using only half the strength of your microwave to prevent superheating the egg.
The Many Ways to Enjoy Microwaved Eggs
Some of us here prefer our eggs sliced open and hardboiled, with a sprinkle of salt included.
Others can deal with deviled eggs or soft-boiled eggs that you can enjoy in things like warm rice, ramen, or tamago gohan (a Japanese rice dish that uses raw egg or soft-boiled egg with the runny yolk).
Hardboiled eggs are delicious with tuna or ham sandwiches as well as breakfast items like bacon and ham. Personally, I’d rather my eggs sunny-side up or medium-boiled.
Just remember that these microwaved eggs should be cooked with holes poked in them or with salted water. You should also use half the power of your microwave for gradual cooking. This prevents egg explosions inside your oven.
Let me tell you from personal experience, it’s neither pleasant nor easy to clean up a microwave with exploded egg bits inside it. It’s particularly though to wipe the stick yolk out of the sides of your microwave interior. You’ll also have to take out the turntable and roller for dishwasher cleaning.
Read more: How to Cook Eggs in the Microwave
The Final Judgment
Can you microwave boiled eggs? It depends on what you meant by that question. If you mean can you microwave eggs that have already been boiled, don’t do that. You could lead to it exploding inside your microwave. If by that you mean you can microwave a raw egg and turn it hardboiled, yes.
However, you should use a special egg poacher and boiler container to boil eggs the right way. This ensures fewer wasted eggs that explode due to the way a microwave cooks any food (radiowaves excite water molecules).
References:
- Stephanie Pass, “How to Boil Eggs in the Microwave“, JusMicrowaaveIt.com, April 9, 2020
- Kristyn Merkley, “Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs“, Lilluna.com, March 10, 2020
