How to Poach an Egg (Perfectly)

Today I’m going to show you how to make a classic poached egg. It’s one of my very most favorite ways to eat eggs, and I have a special visitor: my lovely mother, Rita. Hi, everyone! She is here to visit the grandkids, but I wrangled her into the kitchen. Me, son, and me—she loves me, too. I love… So this isn’t your most favorite way to eat eggs, but so simple to do, yet many people are really, really intimidated by it because I think they just try, like, dump an egg in water. It doesn’t work out; they’re like, “Uh, not going to happen.”

What You Need

Here’s what we’re going to do. We have a pot of simmering water—very… I feel like I’m getting a facial; it’s nice. We need a fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh egg. If we were making a macaron, we’d want old eggs—we’d age the egg whites because they get more liquidy and runny, better for a macaron. But for a poached egg, we want really thick, gelatinous egg whites; they hold together better.

Strain the Egg

Before we do anything, we’re going to crack our eggs over a fine-mesh sieve over a little bowl. That egg has a lot of watery egg whites, and they’re going to fly away into tiny wisps. So crack it over the bowl, let that excess egg white drain off, and then you’ll have just that gelatinous center part. It’ll really hold together well, and you’ll have a beautiful poached egg.

Prepare the Water

After your water comes to a boil, take it down to low, and now we can add in one tablespoon or so of a light-colored vinegar. Any vinegar will do; it’s going to help the eggs stay together—trust me—and you’re not going to taste the vinegar because it’s only a tablespoon.

Create a Vortex

Give the water a nice swirl, create a vortex. That’ll help hold things together, and then gently release your egg into the center of that vortex. You’ll see the egg whites wrap around the egg, and you just let it sit. Let it cook for about 3 minutes; that’ll give you a nice soft yolk with a harder white. If you want to fully cook one, just boil an egg. Three minutes… Can we cover it? We’re going to cover it as well—my mom wants it to have all that steamy goodness to really cook the inside of the egg.

While the Egg Cooks

While that’s happening, you can get your toast ready, some avocados, some smoked salmon—whatever you like. You can salt a little bit of lime juice on the avocado, season the egg with salt and pepper, and enjoy.

Check for Doneness

See what happens… Is that ready yet? No, but the egg yolk got covered; it got cooked a little better, and the other was the opposite—the whites cooked first. Yeah, we had one that isn’t an adequate poach, but it’s not super pretty, so we’re like, “Nope—for you, we’re going to make it look nice and do a better job.”

Remove and Finish

Okay, so we’re using a slotted spoon to remove the egg. I don’t think it’s done yet. It is done—beautiful! Look at this egg! Let’s do that one more time: swirl the water, gently release your strained egg. You don’t have to strain the eggs, by the way; you’ll just have some more flyaways, and it’s not as appealing visually. After 3 minutes, use a slotted spoon, gently pull that egg out, transfer it to a paper towel. You can see it’s a beautiful egg. Look at this!

Final Touches

So we have our perfectly poached egg. If there’s any stragglers of whites hanging around, just cut them away with a spoon or a fork for that beautiful, compact look. I am so excited! All you really need to do is add a little sprinkle of salt—some golden sea salt—and then a little bit of pepper. I’ll do it. Thank you!

Serving Ideas

You can have this on top of an English muffin, a biscuit, with a little bit of wilted spinach or Swiss chard, or any green salad—yeah, some smoked salmon, that works.

Enjoy the Result

Okay, let’s cut into this—you have to see the yolk. Look at that! Look at that beautiful yolk! And I have a little toast soldier going to sop that all up. Yum, yum! You get the next one. Do you think the boys would like poached eggs? They would love them. It was that simple!

Thank you so much for helping me out—you’re really a lifesaver. My poached egg was not going to be this pretty, but Mom’s guidance carried me through.

I kind of want some smoked salmon, a little bit of wilted greens, a nice, beautiful biscuit. I have the best biscuit recipe—I don’t know tooting my own horn—but… Mmm, avocado, yes! Anyways, hope you get to make these. Thanks so much—bon appétit!