Name: Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 4 eggs ((or as many as you want to cook))

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Instant Pot hard boiled eggs turn out perfectly every time, and they are easier to peel than traditional hard boiled eggs. Whether you like the yolks a little runny or totally cooked through, I’ve got you covered in this tutorial below.

Hard Boiled Eggs Without The Green Ring

Growing up, I always thought hard boiled eggs naturally had a green ring around the yolk. I didn’t know that was the result of overcooking them!

My mom has always had the tendency to over-cook food because she’s paranoid of salmonella contamination (no raw cookie dough for me– my kids are lucky we make Edible Vegan Cookie Dough), so I didn’t know any better. But now I do.

To prevent the green ring, it’s important to place the eggs in a cold water bath immediately after cooking them. This stops the cooking process. Use the cooking times below to make sure you don’t overcook them, too.

How Long to Pressure Cook Eggs

I decided to do a little experiment, cooking my eggs anywhere from 2 minutes to 5 minutes in the Instant Pot, all with a 5 minute “natural release” before releasing the rest of the steam pressure. (If you’d like to watch a video tutorial showing the difference between a quick release and a natural release, watch my How to Use Your Instant Pot video.)

Below are the results of my experiments for hard cooked egg yolks.

As you can see, after 5 minutes the yolks are very well done, and after two minutes they’re softer, but still not runny. For a runny egg, use the “quick release” method, which means you immediately release the steam after the cooking cycle is over.

Soft-Cooked Eggs

If you prefer an egg with a runny or “jammy” egg yolk, you’ll want to perform a quick release instead of a natural release.

Here are the cooking times for a soft-cooked eggs in the Instant Pot:

3 minutes = very runny yolk with the whites mostly set
4 minutes = gooey yolk with totally set whites
5 minutes = jammy yolk, with the outer part of the yellow starting to set
6 minutes = slightly jammy center and slightly hard-cooked yellow edges

With all of these cooking times, you’ll perform a quick release as soon as the timer goes off. The eggs will continue to cook until you plunge them into an ice bath, so you want to work quickly if you’re looking for runnier egg yolks.

Do White and Brown Eggs Cook Differently?

I was recently asked if there was a difference between cooking eggs that come in a white or a brown shell. I usually work with brown eggs, so I bought a batch of white ones to test how they pressure cook.

Following the directions in the recipe below, I cooked a batch of brown eggs and a batch of white eggs, and found that they both peel easily, and cook in the same amount of time as each other. (I tested them both at 5 minutes of high pressure cooking.) So, this method should work for whichever variety you have on hand.

How Long Do Hard Boiled Eggs Last?

You can keep them for up to one week in the fridge, either with the shell on or peeled. I find that hard boiled eggs are the easiest to peel soon after cooking them, so I like to peel them first, then store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Do They Need to Be Refrigerated?

Yes, they do. Unlike raw eggs, which can sometimes be stored on the counter, cooking the eggs can make them more susceptible to bacteria contamination due to changes in the shell.

It’s recommended that you discard hard boiled eggs if they’ve been out on the counter for more than two hours.

Can You Freeze Hard Boiled Eggs?

If you make too many eggs, or your eggs accidentally freeze in the back of your fridge, keep in mind that the white part of the egg doesn’t thaw well. You can freeze the yolks to use for later use, for up to 3 months in an airtight container. (I’d peel the eggs and freeze just the yolks to make your life easier– peeling a frozen egg doesn’t sound fun.)

Which Instant Pot is Best?

I’ve found the 6-quart Instant Pot to be sufficient for every recipe I’ve made for my family. If you have more than 4 family members, you might want the 8-quart for making larger quantities.

Whether you use them for a quick breakfast, snack, or a salad topper, I hope you’ll find this method for cooking hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot helpful.