Transform Your Egg Salad By Swapping Hard Boiled Eggs For Fried
There are plenty of ways to elevate your egg salad game with unexpected ingredients – such as this spicy egg salad recipe. But you can also do so by changing one simple technique: how you prepare those eggs. So before you put a pot of water on the stove to boil, consider breaking out the skillet instead. Yes, you read that right: Fried eggs can truly transform your egg salad!
As tasty as hard-boiled eggs are, they're also drier than their fried counterparts. While fried egg yolks maintain a delectable creamy texture, yolks from hard-boiled eggs will inevitably crumble -- not to mention the risk of those yolks turning an unappetizing green if they cook even a moment too long. In addition to being moister, fried eggs also have a richer, nuttier taste thanks to something called the Maillard reaction -- which happens when glucose and protein interact during the cooking process.
Read more: 14 Liquids To Add To Scrambled Eggs (And What They Do)
It's A Faster And Easier Way Of Making Egg Salad
The worst part about making egg salad is, arguably, the peeling process. Not only is it time-consuming, but it's super messy, too. It's also way too easy to end up with minuscule pieces of shell in your salad if you're not careful. By using fried eggs instead, you can eliminate that risk, as well as all of the work involved in peeling.
It isn't just skipping the peeling that will speed up your fried egg salad over the traditional hard-boiled version -- it's also the cooking process itself. Whereas it takes roughly ten minutes to boil eggs (which doesn't include the time spent bringing the water to a boil or running them under cold water to stop the cooking), they can be fried in just five or six minutes, depending on how hard you want the yolk. Altogether, it will take a fraction of the time to prepare your eggs in the skillet instead.
A Third Option For Egg Salad
Another quick way to prepare the eggs for your salad is by scrambling them. Scrambling the eggs into bite-size chunks will eliminate any need for cutting them, which will save even more time. Naturally, scrambled eggs have a slightly different flavor than both fried and hard-boiled ones, so this option will also change the flavor as well as the texture of your egg salad. The Maillard reaction won't occur since you won't be browning the eggs, but if you're looking for a soft, fluffy texture, then scrambling is the way to go. Just be sure to whip them first for the fluffiest outcome.
As a bit of a comfort food, the classic egg salad recipe will probably be a mainstay for a long time to come. But it's still worth switching it up from time to time with fried or even scrambled eggs instead. You might even find that it becomes a new favorite.
Read the original article on Daily Meal.