The Grandma-Approved Trick to Next-Level Hard-Boiled Eggs
Barbara “Babs'' Costello, social media’s favorite grandma, became a TikTok sensation in 2020 during the Covid lockdown when her daughter Liz convinced her to start posting her helpful, charming videos. Three years later, the 74-year-old grandmother has almost 50 million likes on TikTok, 3 million followers on her @brunchwithbabs on Instagram and a cookbook.
She's known for her practical recipes and life tips and her sunny personality. I love following along with her and when I recently saw her making a grilled egg salad (yes, eggs on the grill!) I stopped in my tracks. It seems that I'm not the only one. The post got racked up more than 28,000 likes in less than 24 hours.
I was intrigued by the method because it's fun and unusual and I might have a history of struggling with hard-boiled eggs. Although graduated from culinary school with honors and have spent years as a recipe developer, recipe tester and food writer, my hard-boiled eggs often end up looking a lot like the Death Star. I've tried many methods, but have had very little luck. Could grilling them be the key to success (or at least an entertaining summer project)? Here's what happened when I tried Babs' grilled egg salad in my backyard.
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What You Need for Babs' Grilled Egg Salad
You’ll likely already have most of the things you need for this recipe in your fridge or pantry. Eggs are key here, of course. Babs cooks for a crowd, so she calls for a dozen large eggs. You'll also need mayo and mustard (Dijon is best, but I used a mix of spicy brown and yellow mustard as that’s all I had left in my fridge). Babs’ recipe has some chopped fresh dill and one wild-card ingredient: pickle juice. She seasons everything with salt, black pepper and paprika.
Once the egg salad is made, you can eat it as is, use it as a filling for sandwiches and wraps, or serve it as a side. I went with the grilled ciabatta Babs recommended.
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How to Make Babs' Grilled Egg Salad
First, you preheat your grill to 400° (more on that later), then pop your eggs on the grates, close the lid, and prepare an ice bath while they're cooking. Babs says to cook the eggs for 12 minutes for jammy yolks and 15 minutes for firm yolks. I went for the jammy 12-minute option. Transfer the eggs from the grill to the ice bath and let them chill out for 10 minutes or so. Peel the cooled eggs, transfer them to a large bowl to chop them, then gently fold in the ingredients in a couple of stages. That's it!
Tara Holland
What I Thought of Babs' Grilled Egg Salad
This recipe couldn’t be easier to follow, and I absolutely LOVED the flavors and seasonings —it will officially now be the only egg salad recipe I ever use. To be honest, I’ve never been the biggest egg salad fan, but this has completely converted me!
Would I choose to grill eggs for egg salad rather than use the stovetop? The quick answer would be yes. But the process takes a little longer, especially because you need to preheat your grill. However, grilling season will (sadly) be over soon, so I don’t need an excuse to cook al fresco while I still can. And the added bonus was the very faint smokiness I could taste in the eggs.
In the video, Babs says to preheat the grill to about 400°, but I noticed in the comments it said 350°. My grill generally runs cooler than most, so I took a risk and went for the higher 400° option. Unfortunately, my risk didn’t pay off. When I opened the grill to take a peek after about 6 minutes of cooking I noticed a few of the eggs had cracked. I also got a few grill marks that penetrated through the shell onto the egg white of some of the eggs, though that could have been because I used standard store-bought eggs, which can have somewhat thin shells. (Babs used fancier eggs in her video.)
On my cracked egg casualties, the surface of the white had turned a little brown and rubbery in a few spots, so I was initially concerned this would affect the overall texture of the egg salad. However, I honestly couldn’t even tell once the eggs were chopped and everything had been mixed in. The 12-minute grill time yielded jammy-ish yolks, but I think they would have been even jammier on the lower heat!
And now for the peeling (my nemesis!). I was pleasantly surprised that the shells slipped right off on the eggs that didn’t crack on the grates, with not a Death Star in sight! The eggs with grill marks were trickier to peel in those specific areas, so I admit, I did have a few crevices here and there, but generally, it was a big success!
Related: How to Make Air Fryer Hard-Boiled Eggs
Tara Holland
Tips for Making Babs' Grilled Egg Salad
? Go for 350°. To prevent cracked eggs, I'd suggest grilling at 350° instead of 400°.
? Make it ahead. If you want to grill the eggs ahead of time, they'll keep in the fridge for 7 days unpeeled. The entire egg salad can also be made ahead and kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.
? Make it your own. Egg salad is one of those blank canvas dishes. Mix in your favorite kind of mustard, add the herbs you have on hand and/or toss in some chopped celery or pickles. And bacon. Bacon is always a good addition.
? Take the recipe camping. This is a fun thing to make at home, but it would also make a great camping hack. No more heating up pots of boiling water over the coals or the camp stove. Yay!
? Save the shells. This is a tip from Babs and is for all the plant parents out there. In the video, she suggests steeping the eggshells in water, then using the water for plants. The nutrients in the shells will help keep your plant family happy and healthy. Thanks, Babs!