Taiwanese Tea Eggs in the Instant Pot

These delicious boiled eggs are the perfect on-the-go snack, and they’re so popular, you’ll find them at every 7-Eleven in Taiwan.

Now, I know, Internet, that you are obsessed with gooey soft-boiled eggs. There are lots of blogs trying to get tea eggs to be all runny in the middle. Sorry, not sorry, these are supposed to be hard boiled eggs. You’ll see student tourists shoving eggs into their backpacks by the half-dozen at Taiwanese hostels (HELLO free breakfast buffets!) so they can hike up Elephant Mountain, or spend the entire day shopping at the Wufenpu Garment District. These healthy little 70 calorie snacks are full of protein and will keep you going.

I like my tea eggs just set, with yolks still lovely and yellow, and the Instant Pot will help you get your eggs exactly as you want them.

INGREDIENTS

• 6-9 eggs, depending on size
• 1 cup of water
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine (you can substitute Mirin though it’ll be a bit sweeter)
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (optional, use some more light if you don’t keep both types)
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce — I use Kikkoman
• 1 tsp sugar (omit if you used Mirin)
• 2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 sachet of Spice for Spiced Foods (see below)
• 2 tea bags (any strong black tea)
• 2 star anise

Ok, yes, it’s sort of silly translation, but this is your classic Taiwanese braising spice pack: cinnamon, fennel, ginger, cumin, and clove. You can find this brand and similar spice sachets at Ranch 99 markets, larger pan-Asian supermarkets, as well as tiny shops in SF Chinatown.

Put all of your ingredients (minus the eggs) into the Instant Pot, then place your steaming rack on top.

Space your eggs out evenly on the steam rack. I tried 9 on my first test run, though I’ve found that 8 fits better in the marinating phase for the large eggs we usually buy.

INSTANT POT: 5 minutes on low pressure. Quick release.

Have a bowl of cold water ready so you can pull the eggs out right after quick-releasing — silicone tongs are your best friends for Instant Pot cooking!

Take a spoon and smack the eggs all over (the steeping liquid will go into the cracks, flavoring your eggs). Drop them back in the bowl of water as you go.

Once they’re all done, dump the water out of the bowl, leaving the cracked eggs, and cover with the hot marinade from the Instant Pot. Try to cover the eggs with the steeping liquid, or rotate the eggs as the marinade cools so that the eggs finish cooking evenly, and absorb the flavor from the tea.

Leave the eggs steeping until the marinade cools enough to pop everything into the fridge. I usually get hungry at this point and eat one. If you are an egg thief like me, enjoy the warm yummy texture, but know that the flavor will be better the next day. The tea will do its magic, getting into all the cracks you whack-a-moled.

After a few hours, the tea eggs will be ready! Enjoy with rice porridge for breakfast, as a garnish on a bowl of noodles, or take them on-the-go in the shell. The eggs will keep up to a week in the fridge. And yes, you can re-use the steeping liquid for your next batch! Just top up with some more soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, sugar, and spices as it suits your palette.

Let me know if you try it!