How To Cook The Perfect Instant Pot Poached Eggs

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Poached eggs in just a few minutes that are almost completely hands off with no swirling vortex of water required! These Instant Pot poached eggs are the easiest way to top any breakfast sandwich or piece of toast for the perfect meal in no time.

After renovating three kitchens in less than eight years, I’ve become well versed in how to feed our family without access to a stove, oven, or even microwave. During these experiences, I have been very thankful for appliances like my Instant Pot and crock pot to bridge the gap.

These Instant Pot poached eggs were birthed out of our second kitchen remodel and needing another way to cook eggs in the Instant Pot besides hard boiling them. After our first attempt, these Instant Pot poached eggs have been regularly requested – kitchen remodel or not!

The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich

When eggs are abundant on the homestead, it’s almost always eggs for breakfast. While scrambled is a common choice for our kids, when it comes to making breakfast sandwiches or topping a piece of avocado or cheesy toast, these Instant Pot poached eggs are my favorite.

The hands-off time while the eggs are getting to pressure allow me to get the rest of the ingredients ready. Toast the bread, slice the cheese, cook the bacon, all of these things can be done while the eggs are poaching to make the best breakfast sandwich in under ten minutes!

What Is Needed to Make Pressure Cooker Poached Eggs?

You will need three things to make these Instant Pot poached eggs.

1. An Instant Pot. We just have the most basic Instant Pot out there – the Instant Pot Duo. We’ve had it for six or seven years now and it’s still going strong with a lot of miles put on it.

2. Pressure cooker safe cups for poaching your eggs. You can purchase Instant Pot compatible egg poaching cups which would be perfect for this job! However, our style is to use what we have. We already had silicone muffin cups and we’ve found that they work great to poach eggs in our Instant Pot.

3. Eggs! Depending on the cups you are using and the size of your pressure cooker will determine how many eggs you can cook at a time. With our basic Instant Pot and using silicone muffin cups, we can poach four eggs at a time. However, with the poaching cups, you could do up to seven eggs at a time from what I’ve seen.

How to Make Poached Eggs in your Instant Pot

The easiest way we have found to make poached eggs in the Instant Pot is to first remove the wire rack that comes with your Instant Pot and pour 1-1.5 cups of water at the bottom of your Instant Pot.

Then place your silicone cups on top of your wire rack.

Crack one egg into each cup.

CAREFULLY lift the wire rack with eggs on top and place it back into your Instant Pot. We’ve tried cracking eggs straight into cups already inside the pot but found that it was much more tricky to properly aim. More than once this resulted in a bit of a mess.

Cook on manual, high pressure for 2-4 minutes (more on this below).

Quick release your Instant Pot as soon as the timer goes off.

Remove from pot and let cool for a couple of minutes.

Using a dull butter knife or edge of a spoon, carefully release the egg from the sides and bottom of the silicone cup.

How Long to Cook Your Poached Eggs?

From doing some research for this post, I’ve read others cooking their poached eggs in the Instant Pot for as little as 1 minute and as high as 5 minutes.

From our experience with the Instant Pot Duo and using 4 silicone muffin cups each time, we have found the 2-4 minute range to be best. In our opinion, 3 minutes is the sweet spot to get the perfect cooked, gooey yolk poached egg.

You can see from the picture the difference between an egg cooked from 2 minutes versus 3 minutes. After cooking for 2 minutes, the yolk is very runny. Cooking for three minutes results in a still runny yolk but not quite as oozy. An egg cooked for four minutes would result in an even less runny yolk, more of a gummy texture.

It is worth noting that the type and size of Instant Pot you have as well as the the material, size, and shape of the vessel you use to cook your egg can all make subtle differences in how long it will take to cook to get the perfect poached egg for you. You’ll want to experiment a bit to find how long is the right fit for your setup.

If you find that the egg is not cooked enough, simply put the lid back on and cook for an additional minute on high pressure.

Instant Pot Poached Eggs Recipe

Ingredients:

Eggs

Directions:

Remove the wire rack that comes with your Instant Pot. Pour 1-1.5 cups of water at the bottom of your Instant Pot.

Then place your silicone cups on top of your wire rack.

Crack one egg into each cup.

CAREFULLY lift the wire rack with eggs on top and place it back into your Instant Pot.

Cook on manual, high pressure for 2-4 minutes (see notes above on how long to cook poached eggs).

Quick release your Instant Pot as soon as the timer goes off.

Remove from pot and let cool for a couple of minutes.

Using a dull butter knife or edge of a spoon, carefully release the egg from the sides and bottom of the silicone cup.

Serve warm and enjoy!

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Notes for Making the Perfect Instant Pot Poached Eggs

– You may notice some water droplets or a small amount of water pool up on top of your egg when you open the instant pot lid. This is just water condensation from the pressure. Carefully pour the water off of each cup.

– From my experience and reading from others, the number of eggs cooked doesn’t affect the amount of time you cook the eggs for. So, whether you are cooking one poached egg or four, the cooking time should remain the same.

– You could use oil or non-stick spray on the muffin cups to prevent sticking. But in our experience, we just omit the spray and carefully remove with a spoon. The sticking is minimal.

Can you Re-Heat Poached Eggs Made in the Instant Pot?

If you find yourself with leftover poached eggs, you can reheat them. To store in fridge simply store in a sealed container in the fridge for no more than a couple of days.

To reheat, heat water in a small saucepan to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and carefully lower the egg on a large spoon or spatula into the warm water. Let it heat up in the hot water for 30-60 seconds. Remove and serve.

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Now the age old question – How do you like your eggs? Let us know in the comments below!

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