Make delicious hard boiled and soft boiled marbled tea eggs that are bursting with flavor. {Gluten Free adaptable}
Chinese tea eggs were one of my favorite snacks growing up. Yes, while you might have been snacking on chips or cookies, back in China, we snack on savory eggs 🙂 The tea eggs are so popular and you can find them everywhere – from a breakfast street vendor who has a big pot of these eggs constantly ready on the side of her cart, or packaged peeled tea eggs at Seven Eleven.
The tea eggs have a beautiful marbled surface. They are simmered in a savory liquid with star anise, cinnamon sticks, Sichuan peppercorns, and black tea until soaked with the flavors of the spices and a refreshing tea fragrance.
Why this recipe
Traditionally, tea eggs need to be cooked twice. The eggs are cooked until hard boiled the first time, and then cooked in a savory marinade for several hours. The reason they are cooked for such a long time is that, as a street food, they need to be preserved when refrigeration is not available. The result is that they will end up extremely overcooked, with a rubbery texture. Although I like the flavor of those tea eggs, I’ve always wanted my eggs cooked to the tenderness I like – with a set white and runny yolk.
That’s why I developed this recipe, which creates the most flavorful marbled tea eggs with a perfectly cooked texture, to whatever doneness you like.
Here is the trick if you’re making soft boiled tea eggs. If you let the eggs marinate a bit longer, two to three days, the egg yolk will start to get thicker and turn a beautiful light brown color. It’s so creamy and bursting with flavor. Top it on a bowl of simple noodle soup or simply on some steamed rice, and you will feel such happiness when you bite into the savory creamy egg yolk.
How to make tea eggs
1. Dry ingredients
You just need to prepare a few dried ingredients to make the tea egg marinade liquid – black tea bags, cinnamon sticks, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and bay leaves. Then you need to boil all the ingredients with the soy sauce and water to infuse the flavor.
Don’t have these ingredients on hand? No worries! Simply use 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder and you’ll make a marinade liquid just as tasty!
2. How to properly crack the eggs
You can either gently rotate and knock the eggs on a hard surface, or use the back of a spoon to crack the eggs. Handle the eggs carefully if you make soft boiled eggs. You want the egg shells to crack enough to let the marinade in without breaking the eggs apart.
3. A trick to use the minimal amount of marinating liquid
I use a quart bag to marinate the eggs so I can use a minimal amount of marianting liquid to soak the eggs. If you plan to use a container instead of a quart bag, you should double the amount of marinade so you have enough to cover all the eggs.
4. Leftover marinade
The tea egg marinating liquid, if stored properly, can be used more than once. If you plan to do so, make sure to use a clean spoon to remove the eggs from the liquid. And you should boil the liquid and let it cool again the next time you use it.
I like to batch-cook tea eggs and store them for later. They make a perfect breakfast, noodle topping, and between-meal snack!
I hope you enjoy the recipe and happy cooking!
More egg recipes
- 3-Ingredient Egg Fried Rice
- Instant Pot Eggs (Perfect Hard-Boiled & Soft-Boiled Eggs)
- Chinese Egg Drop Soup
- Shrimp Egg Foo Young
- Chinese Egg and Green Onion Crepe
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Chinese Tea Eggs (w/ Soft and Hard Boiled Eggs, 茶叶蛋)
Ingredients
- 12 large eggs
Marinade (*Footnote 1)
- 4 tablespoons light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 star anise
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 black tea bags (or 2 tablespoons black tea leaves)
- 2 1/2 cups water
Instructions
- Mix all the marinade ingredients in a small pot. Cook over medium heat until bringing to a boil. Turn to medium-low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from your stove and let cool completely. Once done, remove and discard the tea bags.
- To boil the eggs, heat a pot of water (enough to cover all the eggs) over high heat until boiling. Turn to low heat. Carefully place the eggs in the pot using a ladle, to prevent the eggs from cracking.
- Boil 5 minutes for soft-boiled eggs, 7 minutes for medium eggs, or 10 minutes for hard-boiled eggs.
- While cooking the eggs, prepare an ice bath by combining ice and tap water in a big bowl.
- Once the eggs are cooked, immediately transfer them to the ice bath to cool for 2 to 3 minutes. If you don’t have ice on hand, simply run cool tap water over the eggs for a couple minutes until they cool down.
- Gently crack the eggs using the back of a spoon. You want to make sure the egg shells are cracked enough so the marinade will reach the interior, without cracking the eggs apart (especially if you made soft boiled eggs). If you’re in a hurry, you can also peel the eggs and marinate them peeled. The eggs will be ready in 12 hours this way.
- Transfer the eggs to a quart-size ziplock bag, then carefully pour in the marinade along with the dry ingredients. Marinate overnight for peeled eggs, or 24 hours for cracked “marble” eggs.
- Peel the eggs and enjoy them cold or at room temperature!
- You can store the leftover eggs in the marinade for 4 to 5 days in the fridge. The marinade will help with preserving the eggs. Note, the eggs will become more flavorful and saltier over time.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
The post was originally published on May 4, 2014 and updated on June 1, 2018.
This looks fantastic! I can’t wait to try it out. By the way, what kind of caviar did you use?
Thanks for commenting and glad you like the recipe! 🙂
I used the cheap caviar of lumpfish in this one, but it worked out just great.
I finally got around to cooking this and the eggs came out wonderfully. I cooked them pretty soft, and the tea and spice flavors went really well with the runny yolk. The caviar was the icing on the (already very delicious) cake.
Thank you for trying out my recipe and sent me the delicious picture! The eggs look great!
I really like the idea to cook the eggs very soft with running yolk. I will try it next time 🙂
Hi Maggie! I am a huge fan of your blog, your recipes are always delicious. It just crossed my mind to cook tea eggs and sure enough, I found your recipe immediately! I’ll try it ASAP. Thank you and greetings from Germany!
I love this recipe. This reminds me of what we do in England we pickle eggs so I think I would love this recipe and I love the caviar. Great recipe.
I love tea eggs and it looks so delicious!I’ll definitely give it a try, thanks for sharing…
Thanks for stopping by, chinablue! Maggie and I have been on a tea-egg marathon in the past couple weeks. Even as someone who didn’t grow up eating them, it is great having a lot of them on hand to eat at any time of day 🙂
I made a huge mistake reading your blog while I’m hungry. Now I am stuck at work while my mouth is watering.
Thank you! I will defenitely try as i love tea eggs.
These were so delicious, especially on the 3rd day!!! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
I’ve made this tea egg recipe multiple times. Never fails to be delicious! I make them soft boiled so it’s slightly runny when you cut it in half. I’ve thrown these into my steel cut oatmeal with a dash of soy sauce, making this dish savory, and they totally work with each other. The perfect warm and gooey dish on a cold morning. Thank you for the recipe! There’s nothing I would change.
Try what you’re doing with a little bit of LanGaoMa Spicy Chili Crisp added as a bit of a condiment… Oh Lordy, that’s Good!!!
Hi! I was really excited for this recipe but things I went wrong somewhere. I thought I followed everything exactly and they marinated in a bag for 18 hours and when peeled I didn’t have any of that pretty marbling. Could I not have cracked deep enough or not used enough soy sauce? I appreciate any advice 🙂
I think maybe you didn’t crack the eggs deep enough to break up the membrane (the thin film between the shell and the egg white). When you use soft boiled eggs, it’s a bit tricky to crack the eggs deep enough without breaking apart the inside. For a marbling result, you can take out the marinating eggs, try to peel off a very small piece of the shell and make sure to break the film to let more marinade to soak inside.
The anise taste was a bit strong for me. I think next time I will leave it out. Still good all the same and they look so pretty.
These were one of our favorite snacks when we lived in HangZhou! I can’t wait to try your recipe!
thank you for the recipe, I used easter eggs so with your marinade recipe. Delicious.
My eggs are currently marinating in the fridge. I followed the recipe as is and then realized something was missing. The bay leaves! It’s not listed in the ingredients 🙁 can I throw the leaves into my bag? Is it too late?
Hi Rebecca, sorry I left the bay leaves out of the ingredient list! I think the eggs should still come out pretty good even you didn’t add the leaves. I have updated the recipe now. Thanks for letting me know!
I’d like to try your recipe and have never had tea eggs before. I have a question about your recipe. In step 7 it says, “Transfer the eggs to a quart-size ziplock bag, then carefully pour in the marinade along with the dry ingredients. ”. Step 1 has all the marinade ingredients in the pan. What dry ingredients are left for step 7?
Hi Diane, sorry about the confusion! I was talking about the dried ingredients from the pan (you’ve already added them in step 1).
These turned out perfectly. I was looking for a salty, non-carby snack and these hit the spot.
On a whim, I also took the leftover liquid and reduced it down to see if I could use it as a glaze for fish. It has been perfect on every piece of fish I’ve tried it on. I’m going to give it a try on chicken wings tonight.
I just made these and they are soaking, in the cracked shells in the fridge. The directions say they will be ready in 5 days. At that time, do I discard the shells and brine and continue to store in the fridge?
Or do I continue keeping the eggs in brine until eaten?
How long do you think they’ll last??
Hi Cleo, the eggs will be ready the next day (not after 5 days), after you marinate them overnight. Then you can store the eggs in the marinade for another 4 to 5 days. The eggs will taste more flavorful over time in the marinade, plus the salt in the marinade will help preserve the eggs.
I think my instructions might be a bit misleading. Thanks for bringing it up. I will do some minor editing now.
Hope you enjoy the eggs!
Hi! Thank you for a wonderful recipe! How long will the eggs keep in the fridge afterward, if stored in the marinade for a few days? I’m definitely gonna try this soon!
I think you can definitely store the eggs for a week.
Hi there, I’m thinking of trying this recipe. Should I not have the dry ingredients, does it mean that the five-spice powder (which I do have in my pantry) can be used to replace the peppercorns, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, star anise AND the black tea bag/leaves? Or should I use five-spice powder with the black tea bag/leaves?
Hi Rebecca, if you plan to use five spice powder to replace the spices, you should use five spice powder with the black tea bag.
If using the five spice do I still add the sugar and salt or just the five spice and tea?
Hi Sally, you will need to add sugar and salt if using five spice and tea.
Hello! Are the eggs supposed to be marinated outside or in the refrigerator? I think they should be outside but just double checking!
Hi Sonu, actually you need to marinate the eggs in the fridge, to preserve their freshness. You can definitely leave them outside for a couple of hours to speed up the process, but I would always store the eggs in marinade liquid in the fridge, so they can stay good for about 1 week.
can I keep the hard boiled egg insulated with the hot marinade overnight?
You can keep the eggs in the marinade overnight but I would always chill the marinade, so the eggs will stay soft inside. If you use hard boiled eggs, it’s totally to use the hot marinade.
These are delicious every time! I like to add a couple of dried chilis for a kick.
You mentioned the marinade being good for another go with proper storage – what would be considered proper storage?
Also, can these be frozen and thawed for storage? eating 12 eggs in 5 days is a bit much for a family of two.
Spent two years in Taiwan and made this recipe back in the U.S. Yum!