How Long To Boil Deviled Eggs For The Absolute Best Texture

Deviled eggs are easily one of the best appetizers. They're a fun spin on hard-boiled eggs and an absolute must at any gathering where the food needs to both look and taste good. But there is one devilish issue you might run into when making this dish — the yolks could end up with poor texture, taking the whole ship down with them. Tasting Table caught up with Nelson Serrano-Bahri, chef and Director of Innovation at the American Egg Board, to ask him about the best tip for ensuring the yolks are cooked to textural perfection for making deviled eggs. "A normal hard-boiled egg is cooked anywhere from 10-12 minutes, but I recommend slightly reducing that time to have the perfect yolk," he told us. More specifically, the chef's advice is to boil the eggs for 9-10 minutes.

Serrano-Bahri highlighted the importance of a firm and creamy texture for deviled eggs and told us that "the yolks should be fully cooked and set, but still moist to avoid any dryness." A simple deviled eggs recipe is made from hard-boiled eggs that are halved and filled with a creamy filling made of seasoned yolks mixed with mustard and mayo (and, optionally, other creative ingredients if you're looking to upgrade your deviled eggs). If the yolks are overcooked, they will come out dry and flaky, ruining the ideal texture. The chef says that keeping your egg yolks moist when cooking, "will also help for making the filling creamy without needing to add too much mayo or liquid ingredients."

In order not to overcook the eggs, it's important to stop the cooking process as soon as you take them out of the boiling water. Chef Nelson Serrano-Bahri advises putting the cooked eggs in an ice bath immediately, and notes that this practice will also ensure easy peeling. If you've ever had the experience of botching a perfectly good egg with an unsuccessful peeling that left most of the egg stuck to the shell (a devastating outcome for any dish that requires the eggs to look flawless), remember this advice. It's one of our key tips for peeling hard-boiled eggs.

After your yolks are cooked to perfection and the eggs are expertly peeled, the creative part can begin. Though the base of the creamy filling for the deviled eggs usually consists of mayo and mustard, you can replace the mayonnaise with Greek yogurt, sour cream, or even cream cheese. As for the reason this dish is called deviled, it has to do with the spice. Deviled foods are supposed to be seasoned with some kind of hot spice. This can be anything from powdered spices to chilli-based sauces, so if the gentle heat that comes from mustard is too tame for you, don't be afraid to turn up the temperature in your deviled eggs by adding some chili flakes, cayenne pepper, or hot sauce to the creamy filling.