Whether you like to meal-prep your eggs, or you’re fixing up a girl dinner for a group of friends, poaching a lot of eggs at once using the traditional method can be time-consuming or downright frustrating. But with a muffin tin, you can poach a dozen at once with no problem and no headache.
The idea is to use the oven as your gentle heating source, which buys you a little more time, and the 12 divots of a muffin tin act as tiny individual shaping cubbies. If you’ve ever left your poached eggs for just 30 seconds too long, or had all the egg whites fly off using the “swirl” method, you know shape and doneness are the most troublesome aspects of poaching.
Cooking 12 eggs at once in the oven means you don’t have to hover over the pot of water for each egg and get 12 different results. Oven poaching your eggs is hands-off and allows you to prepare other parts of the meal on the stove top (or make yourself a mimosa). All of the eggs in the oven will cook at nearly the same rate, and everyone gets hot eggs at the same time.
Justin Chappele from Food & Wine explains how to do this clever technique in this video:
How to poach eggs in a muffin tin
Table of Contents
- Pour 1 tablespoon of water into each muffin cup.
- Crack an egg into each cup.
- Put the muffin pan in a 350°F oven for 8-10 minutes.
- Use a slotted spoon to scoop the eggs out.
Just before you commit to scooping out the eggs, check for doneness. Take the pan out and use your finger to gently prod the yolks (or use the tip of a rubber spatula to give them a bop). Depending on how you like your eggs, the whites should be firm, and the yolk should feel anywhere from liquidy to hard. If you like very soft eggs, the tops of the whites might not yet be firm, but a little gelatinous, and the yolks should be like little water balloons.
If some of the outer eggs are finished but the inner ones aren’t, scoop the cooked ones out onto a dish. Any eggs that could use more time can go back in the oven to continue cooking, but check every minute to see how they’re doing because it won’t take long.
With this technique, you can make enough eggs to easily serve at a brunch or to meal prep for the week. If you don’t need a dozen eggs, use a smaller muffin tin or just leave some of the cups empty.