You can hard-cook eggs in your air fryer—and it’s really fast

The list of things you can cook in an air fryer just keeps getting longer. It started with simple stuff, like fries or chicken nuggets, and now includes desserts, corn on the cob and pizza rolls.

Add one more to the menu: Hard-cooked eggs. Not boiled! Cooked, because these eggs are heated in the air fryer.

A TikTok video with nearly 800,000 likes may have helped spread the word. TikTok user Jackie Hartlaub — who goes by the handle @lowcarbstateofmind
— shared this little cooking hack in 2021.

Hartlaub sets her air fryer to 275 degrees, grabs some eggs and pops them in for 15 minutes. See below:

After a 5-minute ice bath, they come out perfectly! Hartlaub slices the eggs in half lengthwise, then gives them a generous sprinkle of everything bagel seasoning. (I’m a Tony Chachere’s fan myself.)

Is it the perfect snack? Perhaps — either these or deviled eggs, which you could also make with the air fryer.

If this technique sounds strange, consider that the air fryer is basically a tiny convection oven. Hot air circulates around and through the eggs, much like boiling water does in the traditional method.

A writer at Mashable decided to give the air-fried eggs a whirl in their own kitchen. Predictably, their eggs came out looking just as good as Hartlaub’s.

But why use the air fryer when a pot of water works just as well? Time. Martha Stewart’s method, for example, advises cooks to heat the water to a boil slowly, on medium heat. Then you’re supposed to let the eggs sit for 12 minutes before removing to cool.

With no need to wait for boiling water, the air fryer finished the job in a speedy 15 minutes. And since it’s always nice to have a few cooked eggs hanging out in the fridge, replenishing your supply is a snap — 20 minutes, minimal cleanup, and you’re done!