How to Make the Best Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs

Updated: Jul. 27, 2023

Making Instant Pot eggs couldn't be easier. Check out our Test Kitchen's foolproof method for how to make hard-boiled eggs in an Instant Pot.

Instant Pots are all the rage—and with good reason! The multi-cooker is equipped with an easy-to-use panel of buttons, accompanied by an Instant Pot manual to help you use them all correctly. In order to perfect the best instant pot recipes, start with the simpler of techniques first. I always have hard-boiled eggs on hand for a quick snack or lunch, but had never made my hard-boiled eggs in an Instant Pot before. (It seems perfect for deviled egg recipes, too!)

After hearing that the machine was able to cook big batches of perfectly hard-boiled eggs in a flash, I asked my friend, chef and dietitian Abbie Gellman, MS, RDN, to bring over her Instant Pot to see if the hype was true.

Don’t have an Instant Pot yet? Here’s how to choose the best Instant Pot for you.

How to Cook Hard-Boiled Eggs in an Instant Pot: The 5-5-5 Method

The 5-5-5 method is easy to remember off the top of your head! Five minutes pressure cook, five minutes release and five minutes to cool. Don’t have an Instant Pot? This can be modified for an electric pressure cooker.

You’ll Need

1 cup of water
Eggs
Instant Pot

Directions

Hardboiled Egg Recipe Instant Pot Taste of Home

Pour water in Instant Pot. Place a steamer basket or trivet on top of water. Carefully place eggs on top of trivet or basket.
Secure the lid. Set the pressure release to Sealing.
Select Manual setting and set the cooking time to 5 minutes at High Pressure.**
While cooking, prepare an ice bath.
When cooking is complete, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Then, move the pressure release to Venting to release all remaining steam.
Open the pot and transfer the eggs to the ice bath to cool for 5 minutes. Peel when ready to eat or use.

We’ve heard that cooking time should be increased to seven minutes for extra-large eggs and eight minutes for jumbo eggs. You can also reduce to three minutes for soft-boiled eggs.

Love your Instant Pot? Here are a few Instant Pot accessories that will make cooking so much easier.

How to Peel Hard-Boiled Eggs

After making your hard-boiled eggs in the Instant Pot, knowing just how to peel a hard-boiled egg will save you a lot of trouble. We recommend using a spoon to separate the egg from the shell, peeling the cracked hard-boiled egg with your hands under cold running water or shaking the hard-boiled egg in a mason jar with water (it should fall right off!).

How to Store Hard-Boiled Eggs

You can store hard-boiled eggs both in their shells or peeled. Either way, keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator to keep them fresh and ready to eat, whether you like them plain or plan to turn them into egg salad.

How Long Hard-Boiled Eggs Last

Hard-boiled eggs in their shells will last for up to a week in the refrigerator (making prepping for deviled eggs that much easier). If you peel a hard-boiled egg, make sure to eat it the same day.

Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs Tips

When you are deciding how to cook an egg, consider an egg’s freshness: Older eggs will work better for hard boiling, while fresher eggs are best for other methods such as frying and scrambling.
Pay attention to the size of your egg before you set the cook time on your Instant Pot: If you have extra-large eggs, set the cook time to 7 minutes, and if you have jumbo eggs, set the cook time to 8 minutes. You can hard boil any size of egg!
Make sure to only fill your steamer basket with just enough eggs to fill it—no more. Overfilling your basket creates a higher chance that your eggs won’t cook evenly (or even crack!) while cooking.

The Pros & Cons of Making Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs

Hardboiled eggs and Instant Pot Taste of Home

Pros

The hard-boiled eggs were super easy to peel! I can’t explain the scientific reason for this, but it’s a breeze. Gellman noted that it’s nice to program the Instant Pot and walk away. No need to watch the water boil, set a timer or worry about things boiling over. The eggs are on the interior rack, so they won’t bump into each other and crack. The eggs are also beautiful in color, so perfect to use for deviled eggs or other pretty recipes. (Like these 12 delicious deviled egg recipes!)

Cons

Using the Instant Pot to make hard-boiled eggs won’t save you any time. But since you can just set it and move onto another task, it doesn’t seem like a con. If you don’t want to make Instant Pot hard-boiled eggs, don’t worry—there are plenty of other options when you are deciding how to boil eggs! Or, check out these Instant Pot tips so you know you’re making the most of your Instant Pot.

In the end, my friend and I agreed that this method was going to be our new go-to. It’s official: you can make almost anything in your Instant Pot! Check out our best Instant Pot recipes.

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