FOOD – Fried Eggs

If you can’t fry an egg then you might be a candidate for the Worst Cooks show on Food Network. But there is a real challenge in properly frying an egg. How do you get the white all the way cooked and still have the yolk nice and runny? If you are putting that egg on top of a dish so the yolk runs out and provides a sauce for it, getting the egg cooked properly is not easy. It takes a long time for the white to fully cook, as shown in the picture, and by then the yolk is usually overcooked and turning solid.

For years I would order my eggs in a restaurant “over VERY easy” and most times them came out OK. Basting the egg in the fry pan with butter or oil works but is a pain and significantly adds to the calorie count of that meal. On Beat Bobby Flay he shared his trick for fried eggs and after using it successfully, I am passing it on here.

Before you start with the eggs, turn the broiler on in your oven and get it fully up to high heat. Then fry your eggs in a fry pan that can be put in the oven under the broiler. I like the MadeIn Carbon Steel pans for this but cast iron will also work well.

Leave the pan under the broiler for 15-20 seconds. Keep an eye on it because it can go from fully cooked whites to hard cooked yolks in just a few seconds. You can always pull it out to check and put it back for another couple of seconds but you can’t recover if the yolks have been hard cooked. In the picture you can see the whites are fully cooked now and the yolks are still soft and runny.

I then served the eggs on some Corned Beef Hash that Beth had made us for Brunch and the yolk provided a rich sauce for that delicious meal.

Poaching an egg is another approach and many recipes call for a poached egg to give that rich egg taste and the enjoyment of breaking it open with your fork and seeing the yolk streaming over the dish. But I don’t have any secret tricks on how to simply poach an egg and this approach that gives a perfect fried egg is my go to when I want to top off a dish with an egg that has a nice runny yolk.