Simple Pickled Eggs Recipe

This pickled eggs recipe is perfect for all your extra eggs, to have on hand, ready to eat for a quick, protein-rich snack to share with all your neighbors!

This is the time of year when hens start picking up egg laying after their winter rest, which leads to the pressing question: what do we do with all these eggs?!

As someone who currently has several large bowls of eggs sitting on my pantry countertop, I feel this question deeply.

This is one of the reasons I love making pickled eggs so much! While we’re not canning them exactly, they’ll last for quite a long time in the refrigerator, which makes them perfect to keep on hand as a ready-to-eat snack.

One of frustrating things about snack time is it’s so easy to make carbs through muffins or breads – which is great, and nutritious in its own way. But it’s not as easy to grab and serve protein.

But pickled eggs make easier.

I have loved having these in the refrigerator to hand out to friends who stop by, or send with my husband to a men’s get-together.

Easy pickled eggs ideas

One of my favorite way to make quick pickled eggs is to drop boiled and peeled eggs into pickled beet juice. This is especially fun because they dye both the egg whites and to some degree, the yolk, and nice fuchsia color, and together with the pickled beets make a nice little side dish with vibrant color.

The same can also be done with other pickling brines. Leftovers from all types of pickles work well. I tend to prefer sour or dill pickle brines, but you can also use the brine from bread and butter pickles, and other sweet pickles if you like those flavors.

Ingredients needed for making pickled eggs

• Eggs. I like to use eggs that are several days old – even a few weeks old. In my experience, using older eggs is key to them peeling easily after being boiled.
• Vinegar. This is one area where you could create some variation. The important thing is that you use 5% acidity. I typically use white vinegar, or you can use apple cider vinegar, or another vinegar that you prefer.
• Water. For diluting the vinegar. You might be asking why we want to be sure to use 5% acidity in our vinegar if we’re just going to dilute it. The important thing is the overall acidity and salinity for having a preserving and pickling effect on your eggs. You could use a lower percentage, but you would need to do some math to figure out how to adjust the amounts of both vinegar and water to achieve the correct overall acidity.
• Salt. Another component in the pickling and preservation process. You will want to be sure to use non-iodized salt such as kosher or pickling salt for this.

Remaining ingredients: Note here that the remainder of ingredients are for flavoring, so you can change and customize them as you see fit. I love this combination for its pizazz, and garlicky dill flavor, but there’s no rule that you have to use it.

• Dill. I use dried dill weed when I don’t have fresh available. If I can, I like to use a large sprig of fresh dill seed heads for a really lovely, pungent dill flavor.
• Mustard seeds. These add a nice, slightly spicy flavor to your pickles. You can crack the seeds before adding them to make the flavor more pungent, and release more quickly into your pickling mixture.
• Red onion. These add a nice flavor, and also, become pickles themselves. You can add more than strictly necessary if you would like to have some pickled onions on hand for garnishing various dishes.
• Garlic. This is another pungent flavor that permeates the whites of boiled eggs very nicely, and helps add complexity to your pickled eggs.
• Red pepper flakes. You could also consider adding a whole chili, cayenne, or jalapeño pepper. These add heat, and are much loved by the men in my family. Keep in mind that whatever hot pepper you add will intensity over time. This is especially true of sliced peppers, which release their heat into the pickling brine quickly, so err on the side of less if you’re unsure.

Other ingredients: turmeric can be a nice addition to dye your eggs yellow. this is especially fun if you’ve marinated some of your eggs in pickled beet brine to dye them purple. You can almost have a rainbow of pickled eggs to serve if you have some of each to serve.

How to make pickled eggs

1. If your eggs are stored in the refrigerator, remove them several hours ahead of time to bring them down to room temperature. This prevents cracking of cold eggs when they hit the boiling water.
2. Bring a large pot half full of water to a rolling boil, and add your eggs.
3. Set timer for eight minutes, keeping the heat high to bring eggs back to a rapid boil quickly.
4. After timer reaches zero, immediately remove pot of eggs from heat and place in sink with cold water running into it.
5. Let water run for 2-3 minutes, until the water in the pot has run completely cold. Remove eggs from pot and place in a colander or on a towel to dry the shells (it’s easier to peel them if wet shells aren’t sticking to your fingers).
   
   
6. Remove shells from eggs. I do this be giving them a firm whack on the corner of the table or rim of a bowl. The goal is to crack the egg, but not shatter the sell into a bunch of tiny pieces that you have to pick off the egg, so gently tapping on a flat surface isn’t the best idea.
7. Peel eggs, using the sharp tip of a knife to break the film under the shell if it didn’t break when you cracked the egg.
8. Set aside while you prepare brine.
9. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, water, and salt, and bring to a simmer. Stir a bit to dissolve the salt.
   
   
10. In a quart jar, combine remaining ingredients, then pack in eggs over the spices.
    
    
11. Pour pickling liquid over eggs, and screw down lid firmly.
12. Let cool, then store in the fridge for 3-4 months.

Note: the USDA does not recommend pickled eggs for home canning. However, these last for quite some time as they are.

Other recipes for you:

• Quick and easy pickled okra
• Pickled green beans recipe
• watermelon rind pickles
• Pickled celery recipe
• How to make pickled jalapeños 

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