You Can Completely Boil the Eggs in the Deep Fryer
Hard-boiled, air-fried eggs are a pedant’s nightmare. They are not fried or boiled, and yet it would be very difficult to choose them from the composition of hard-boiled eggs, since they are “not like the others.” It’s basically a hard-boiled egg and you can cook it in a deep fat fryer (which, again, is n’t fried).
Like most fryer “recipes”, it is very simple. You heat the deep fat fryer to 270 ℉, put a few cold eggs in the basket and let them simmer for 10-13 minutes, depending on how firm you like the yolk. The eggs in the photo you see at the top of this blog were cooked for 11 minutes and then submerged in a bath of ice water to stop the cooking process.
The eggs that come out of the basket, as you can see, are virtually indistinguishable from most hard-boiled eggs. They are not perfect, but more than serviceable. They peel well, although not as easily as eggs in an Instant Pot or eggs dipped in a pot of boiling water, but I managed to remove the shells from both eggs with minimal damage. This is a perfectly reasonable way to boil an egg hard.
One aspect that I really appreciate is the lack of water. My water bill has been insanely high lately (because it’s insanely hot and dry here and I’m trying to keep my garden alive) and every little bit really helps. Obviously, this method is anhydrous and you don’t need to worry about anything boiling over.
You also don’t need to worry about retrieving the eggs immediately. Although the fryer basket remains quite warm after the cooking time has elapsed, the element stops actively heating up, so leaving them in the basket is not the same as leaving them in a pot of boiling water. As a forgetful person, I appreciate that.
As with all things under capitalism, deep fryers differ from brand to brand, so try one or two eggs using the above temperature and time until you find a sweet spot, and keep in mind that you will probably need to lengthen the time if you add a lot of eggs to the basket. (A dozen eggs fill the basket in a different way than a couple, so add a couple of minutes if you’re making a large serving.)