The Best Way To Chop Eggs For Egg Salad

We won't be giving you a detailed guide on the best axis to slice your hard-boiled eggs for egg salad. No matter how hard you try, chopping hard-boiled eggs will almost always yield jagged, uneven pieces of white flesh and chalky yolk crumbles — and that's okay. This is why we prefer the easier, stress-free method of smashing. But not just any smashing: We've found that using a whisk is better than using a fork, or even pushing those pesky eggs through a gridded cooling rack. And although there was a brief trend of grating hard-boiled eggs for a snowy, melt-in-your-mouth texture, the chunky egg salad ultimately stands the test of time. 

If you chop your hard-boiled eggs with a stiff whisk, you'll find that the thin steel twine cuts through the egg whites perfectly while mixing in the yolks for the egg salad. It's a win-win situation: Less work for you, and more even pieces for the perfect egg salad. The whisk leaves you with large enough pieces of egg whites to still give you a tender and supple bite while breaking up the brittle yolk into a soft sauce.

For the easiest and quickest method, make sure to whip out a large enough bowl for all of your eggs and mayonnaise. While the whisk method cuts down on lots of prep time, we suggest that you still slice your hard-boiled eggs in half. After doing this work, place your eggs with the sliced cross-section flat against the bowl. That way, if you try to tackle the eggs with a whisk, they won't slide and bounce all over the place. Once you're ready, mash the eggs to your heart's content. You could crush the eggs a couple of times for a chunkier egg salad or many times for a finer texture. Either way, the whisk is the perfect tool that manages to chop the eggs evenly in mere seconds.

After you've diced your eggs sufficiently, you can add in your standard mayonnaise and salt, or you could elevate it with some flavorful ingredients. There is also the option of smashing your eggs with all of the condiments, herbs, seasonings, and briny vegetables already in the bowl. The best part of using a whisk is that it's a versatile tool: Chop your eggs with it, make aioli, and mix all of your egg salad ingredients afterward. You'll be left with only a whisk and a bowl to clean, with not a bit of yolk residue on your workstation.