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Air Fryer Eggs (Soft, Jammy & Hard — Easy Peel)
Eggs cook in the air fryer at 270°F (130°C) with no water at all: 9–11 minutes for soft, 12–14 for jammy, 15–17 for hard. The detail that makes or breaks the recipe is not the cooking — it is the ice bath immediately afterwards, which stops the yolks at your chosen doneness and shocks the shell away from the white so the eggs peel cleanly. Run one test egg first in your own fryer, note the result, and you own this recipe forever.
| Prep time | 1 min |
|---|---|
| Cook time | 15 min |
| Temperature | 270°F (130°C) |
| Servings | 6 |
| Category | Breakfast & Sweets |
Ingredients
- 6–12 large eggs, straight from the fridge
- A large bowl of ice water
Method
- Preheat the air fryer to 270°F (130°C) for 3 minutes. (Fryers that only go down to 300°F: use 300°F (150°C) and subtract about 4 minutes, then rest the eggs longer in the bath.)
- Place the eggs in a single layer in the basket — they can touch, but not stack.
- Cook to your doneness: soft/runny yolk 9–11 minutes; jammy 12–14; hard 15–17.
- The second the timer ends, move the eggs straight into the ice bath for at least 5 minutes. Do not skip or shorten this — it is half the recipe.
- Peel from the wide end, where the air pocket sits: crack, roll gently to spiderweb the shell, and peel under a thin stream of water if any patch clings.
- Season and serve, or refrigerate unpeeled up to a week.
Tips that actually matter
- Slightly older eggs peel easier than farm-fresh ones — save the freshest eggs for frying.
- A grey-green ring around the yolk means overcooking or a skipped ice bath, not bad eggs; it is harmless but avoidable.
- For a crowd, the method scales to as many eggs as your basket holds in one layer.
Why this recipe works
An egg cooks from the outside in, and the yolk's texture is simply a question of how far the heat travelled before the ice bath stopped it. Dry air-fryer heat has a bonus: it loosens the bond between white and membrane as the egg cooks, which is why these eggs peel with a cleanliness boiled eggs rarely match.
Variations to try
Small changes, new dishes: eggs become devilled, curried or ramen-style (marinate peeled jammy eggs in soy and mirin); baked apples take a crumble topping, a spoon of peanut butter in the filling, or a savoury turn with cheddar and thyme instead of sugar.
What to serve with it
On toast with flaky salt, into ramen and salads, devilled for guests, or eaten standing at the fridge door — the egg's natural habitat.
Storage & reheating
Unpeeled eggs keep 7 days in the fridge; peeled eggs 2 days. Never reheat peeled hard eggs in the air fryer — the whites turn rubbery.
Frequently asked questions
- Why cook eggs in an air fryer instead of boiling?
- No pot, no watching for a boil, no cracked shells in water — and the dry heat makes them famously easy to peel. The ice bath does the rest.
- Can an egg explode in the air fryer?
- Rarely, and almost always at temperatures above 300°F or with a hairline-cracked shell. Inspect eggs before cooking, stay at 270°F, and the risk is minimal.
- Do the eggs need to come to room temperature first?
- No — these timings are written for fridge-cold eggs, which is how everyone actually cooks them. Room-temperature eggs finish about 1 minute sooner.
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