I like poached eggs. I’ll order poached eggs in a restaurant, but I rarely make them at home.
I used to make poached eggs by cracking eggs directly into boiling water for a few minutes. I’d let the water drain off and put the poached eggs on a piece of toast. They kind of looked more like fried eggs over easy.
At some point, later rather than sooner, I got a set to make poached eggs. Basically a circular plastic thing with holes in it where cups sit for the poached eggs. I can’t say that I ever used it much, but it’s there in case the urge to make poached eggs strikes. The poached egg maker came as part of a pot that I’ve lost track of. Apparently I decided the poached egg set might be worth hanging onto when I ditched the pot!
You just never know when the craving to have poached eggs might hit.
Seeing as how the Instant Pot is supposed to make life a little easier by pressure cooking our foods, I wondered if I could make poached eggs in my Instant Pot.
After all, the Instant Pot makes nice hard boiled eggs.
Let’s get started.
(Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links. if you click the link, you’ll be taken to Amazon. If you make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission for the referral.)
First off, you need an Instant Pot. There are a few different models and sizes available, and even some copycat programmable pressure cookers out there.
I bought mine on Black Friday, 2016 when it was on sale, about $30 off I think, which is pretty much the regular Amazon price for an Instant Pot now! Depending on how close you are to Black Friday, you might want to hold off until then, and hope it’s on sale.
Next you need eggs. I usually buy my eggs from a local small wildlife rescue because I like the idea that I’m contributing towards animal care. My eggs are free range, but I’ve also used store bought eggs when poaching in the Instant Pot. One of my dogs was having issues and I was giving her bland food, which meant hard boiled eggs and it was convenient for me to pick them up at the store. Then I had to use them up before they expired, which is what led to experimenting with poached eggs in the Instant Pot.
Put one cup of water into the Instant Pot. Next, put in the steaming tray that came with the Instant Pot. No point in going out and buying extra stuff when what I have on hand works just fine!
You will need a cup that is used to cook poached eggs. If you don’t have one, you could try improvising with heavy duty tin foil, curling it up into a cup.
These silicone cups for poaching eggs are really popular on Amazon if you’re in the market to buy them.
Again, I can’t stress enough to use what you already have on hand. I’m frugal, so I don’t want to go out and buy a bunch of gadgets. Especially if I don’t know if this is something I’m going to keep cooking and eating.
Whatever cup you’re using for the Instant Pot poached eggs, give it a good coating with non-stick spray.
I always crack my eggs into a small drinking glass. With free range eggs, you never know when you’re going to get a blood egg. Yuck! Sometimes the poor hen had a little trouble laying the egg. Also, it gives me a chance to inspect for egg shells. If I’m happy with the egg, I use it. Otherwise I put it into a mug, stick it in the microwave for 25 seconds, and then my dog will enjoy it with dinner.
Put the eggs into the poacher cups. Set them on top of the wire steamer. Put the lid onto the Instant Pot and make sure the valve is in the Seal position.
Use the manual button and the +/- buttons until the number 4 appears.
That means the Instant Pot poached eggs will cook for 4 minutes.
However, the Instant Pot will spit and hiss for a few minutes before pressurizing and the seal pops up.Then the 4 minutes will count down.
When the Instant Pot reaches 0:00, it goes into warming mode and starts counting up the minutes.
Leave it alone for 2 minutes, and then push the valve to release the steam.
Once the pot has depressurized and the valve drops back down, remove the lid.
Take out each cup with the perfectly poached egg. There will be condensation on it from the steaming process. I tip it slightly in the sink to drain out the water.
Careful! You don’t want to lose your poached egg into the sink. Remember you used non-stick spray before putting the egg in the cup.
Once you’ve poured off the water, knock the poached eggs onto a plate or on top of toast if that’s your eating plan.
These days I don’t usually have bread in the freezer so I’ll dice and pan fry a potato when I’m eating poached eggs.
If I have a bagel in the freezer, I’ll defrost and toast it for my Instant Pot poached eggs.
Have you tried making your own bagels at home? I found a super easy recipe at Hungry-Girl that uses one of their favorite spices – Trader Joe’s “Everything But The Bagel”. It’s called Easy Everything Bagel and there’s nothing I can do to improve on it! They call it 3 ingredients, but it’s really 4 when you add in the Trader Joe’s spice. If you don’t have that, you can use whatever spices you have on hand, or just leave it as a plain bagel.
About the only ingredient I don’t normally keep on hand in the house is plain Greek yogurt. So when I make the Hungry-Girl bagels, I’ll have leftover plain yogurt. Well, what’s a girl to do? Make skinny blackberry muffins and then freeze them.
Depending on how runny or firm you like your poached eggs, you might want to adjust the amount of time the poached eggs sit inside the Instant Pot once it’s started the countdown in the keep warm setting.
Here’s what the poached eggs look like after 2 minutes in the keep warm setting, and then I manually release the vent.
You might want to release the vent at 1 minute or maybe 3 minutes depending on your preferences for runny or firm. Play around with it until you get it right. I find 2 minutes is about medium, just the right amount of runny yolk for me.
The whole process, from cracking the eggs to using the 2 minute and then manual release, takes about 15 minutes in the Instant Pot to get poached eggs.
And that’s how you make poached eggs in the Instant Pot!
As my mother would say: QED.
Quite Easily Done!
