Can You Cook Hard Boiled Eggs In The Air Fryer?

Who said that hard-boiled eggs needed to be boiled? Okay, sure. The folks at Merriam-Webster might get persnickety about the definition, but we're a little more lenient. Boiling isn't the only way to cook an egg in its shell: Believe it or not, you can get the same result from air frying.

Air-fried hard-boiled eggs aren't just a fun way to stick it to Big Dictionary. They're also a practical kitchen hack. While egg cookers might be the best way to cook hard-boiled eggs, air fryers can work double-duty if you don't want to shell out for another appliance. They make it easy to cook eggs en masse, without waiting for water to boil. Plus, the method doesn't take up stovetop space — valuable real estate when cooking for a crowd.

To cook eggs, preheat your air fryer to 270 F. Once it's ready, place the eggs inside and set a timer for 15 minutes. If you prefer a barely-set yolk, keep them in for 12 minutes. Ten minutes will leave you with a runny, soft-boiled yolk. Once the eggs are done, dunk them in a bowl of ice water. It'll keep them from cooking further and make them easier to peel.

No air fryer? No problem. You can also bake eggs in the oven. It'll take longer, though: Keep your eggs in for 30 minutes at 350 F.

If you've ever microwaved eggs, you might be reluctant to try zapping them with small kitchen appliances again. Microwaved eggs explode, so it's pretty logical to assume that air-fried eggs would face the same fate. Microwaves and air fryers employ very different cooking methods, though, so you should be good to go.

Nobody knows for sure why eggs explode in microwaves. It's one of those deceptively simple questions that science still struggles to answer. However, most theories point to the way microwaves heat food. The radiation from a microwave causes the water molecules in food to vibrate, creating heat through friction. In an egg, this creates superheated pockets of steam with no place to go but out. Air fryers and ovens, meanwhile, heat food by warming the air around it.

Since the eggs are cooked from the outside in, the chances of an explosion are low. Just follow the basic rules for using an air fryer and don't cook eggs at temperatures over 300 F. You might hear cracking sounds from the air fryer, but don't fret — that's normal. Wait till time is up to check on them. And if they do explode, it's a chance to give your air fryer a deep clean.