These tea eggs retain their runny yolks without sacraficing flavours. Experiment with different tea leaves to add another dimension. For example, you could use roasted or smoked tea leaves to give the eggs a roasty or smokey flavour.
Course Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine Chinese
Keyword eggs, tea
Author Jan Chan
Ingredients
8-10Large Eggssee notes
Marinade
5-8gBlack Tea (loose leaf) or 2 tea bagssee notes
2.5cupsWater
4tbspLight Soy Sauce
2tbspDark Soy Sauce
2tspSugar
1tspSea Salt
2Bay Leaf
1tspSichuan Peppercorns
1Star Anise
1Small Cinnamon Stick
Instructions
Make the Marinade
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
Once boiling, reduce heat to low or medium-low to keep a steady simmer. Let the mixutre simmer for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Remove tea leaves or tea bags once the mixture is at room temperature.
Cook the Eggs to Your Preference
While you wait for the marinade to cool, boil a large pot of water, enough to cover all the eggs. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, carefully lower each egg straight from the fridge into the water using a ladle.
With a spoon or chopsticks, gently stir the eggs in the water in a circular motion. This will help the yolk settle in the middle of the egg whites.
Lower the heat to medium-high and cook the eggs to your preference. In the photos, my eggs were cooked for 6-7 minutes.
Once the eggs are done cooking, immediately transfer them into a bowl filled with ice and water (ie. ice bath). You may also run the eggs in cold tap water for a few minutes to stop the cooking process.
Marinate the Eggs
Prepare a large food zipper bag that can hold all the eggs and the marinade.
When the eggs are cool enough to handle, hold one egg in your palm and tap the back of a spoon all around the egg to create cracks. If you made soft-boiled eggs, be careful not to hold or tap the eggs with too much force.
Place the cracked egg into the zipper bag and continue with the rest of the eggs.
When all the eggs are cracked, pour the marinade into the zipper bag and squeeze out as much air as you can while closing the bag.
Leave the eggs with the marinade in the fridge for at least 24 hours. If some eggs are not fully submerged in the marinade, you'd want to move some eggs around while they hang out in the fridge so all of them will get a chance to fully soak in the marinade.
Enjoy the eggs after 24 hours. The marinade will help preserve the eggs and they can be kept refridgated in the marinade for up to 5 days. Note that the eggs will get more flavourful and saltier the longer they are left in the marinade. The egg yolks will also get more cured over time.
Notes
There is enough marinade in this recipe to make up to 10 large eggs using a zipper bag. If you wish to make more or if you're going to use a container to marinate the eggs, I'd suggest doubling the marinade recipe to ensure that all the eggs are able to be submerged in it.
The amount of tea can be adjusted based on the tea you're using. I've been making mine with a very bold smokey black tea and 5 grams of this tea was enough to get the smokey tea flavour. If you're unsure, start with 5 grams then taste the marinade once it finishes boiling to see if you need to add more tea to bring out the tea flavour.
If you are unable to find some of the spices, you can substitute the spices mentioned above with 1/2 teaspoon of five-spice powder.