Serving deviled eggs at a party never fails to impress. Not only are they sinfully tasty, but the recipe is easier than you may expect.
Nothing screams eat me more than deviled eggs at a party. The minute they appear on the table, your guests will be impressed that you boiled eggs and artfully filled them with a silky egg yolk mixture that you made yourself. And, mostly likely, those same guests will eat the the devlied eggs right away.
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But down to the details: Deviled eggs are savory, creamy morsels that are great to serve as an appetizer for a few guests or as part of a spread for 20 or more people. Plus, you can customize the filled demi-eggs to fit your taste and mood. You can add curry for a British/Indian kick or your best Mexican chili powder for a spicy taste of the American Southwest. You can even add a touch of five spice and soy sauce if you crave the flavors of Hong Kong.
Additionally, you can be an artist when it’s time to decorate the deviled eggs. Sure, you could simply use two spoons to fill the eggs. However, there’s nothing more fun and rewarding for a home cook than filling a piping bag and creating neatly decorated morsels of yolky goodness.
Every time you make and refine the deviled eggs recipe, you’ll only get better. Who knows? Maybe you’ll enjoy piping eggs so much that you’ll try cake decorating next.
A Brief History of Deviled Eggs
Although people have likely filled eggs for hundreds, and maybe thousands, of years, the first known recipes for deviled eggs can be traced back to Andalusia, Spain. Brits later brought the eggy wonders to the United States where the dish became standard party fare and a signature food all over the nation.
Today, deviled eggs aren’t just served at parties – they’re served at restaurants too. Some of the best ones we’ve eaten have been in Southern American food cities like Charleston, Nashville and New Orleans as well as in Austria and India. And, while those restaurant deviled eggs were all special, there’s no reason why deviled eggs can’t be great when they’re made at home too.
Fun Fact
It’s believed that deviled eggs got their name from the dish’s hellishly spicy ingredients.
Ingredients
A basic deviled eggs recipe has three key ingredients – eggs, mayonnaise and dijon mustard. This one has a few more ingredients, all of which you probably have in your refrigerator or pantry. Here’s the full list:
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
How To Make Deviled Eggs
Borrowing a method from Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen, we like to cook our eggs by steaming them. Not only does the steam cook the eggs, but the sudden change of heat from high to medium low helps the eggs liberate from their shells. This method is genius as it ensures easy peeling and beautifully done, non-discolored eggs. That being said, you can boil your eggs whichever way you choose.
Steaming/Boiling the Eggs
Start by bringing water to a rolling boil. Place the eggs into a steamer insert or a steamer basket. Place the steamer insert or basket into the boiling pot, cover and then, after 30 seconds, reduce the heat to medium low. Steam the eggs at that temperature for 13 minutes.
About a minute before the eggs are done, make an ice bath in a shallow bowl. Place the eggs into the ice bath and let them cool for 15 minutes.
The America’s Test Kitchen recipe recommends keeping the eggs in the ice bath, covering the entire bath and shaking off the shells. While that shaking step technically worked for us, too many of our eggs broke which wasn’t ideal. We’re making deviled eggs here, not egg salad.
In order to make foolproof eggs for deviling, we recommend a different method. After removing the eggs from the ice bath, gently crack the oblong end of each egg before gently peeling off the shell.
Once you get a little air under the shell with your fingers, the shell should peel off easily.
Making the Egg Yolk Filling
Ok, now that your eggs are peeled, it’s time for some fun. Slice the eggs oblong in half with a sharp paring knife, using a towel to clean the knife after you slice each egg. (You want to keep the knife clean so that you don’t get debris on the whites.)
You should be able to easily remove the yolks from the eggs using either a spoon or (preferably) your fingers. (We’ve found that using our fingers allows the yolks to scoop out cleaner and and more easily.)
Scoop all of the egg yolks into a mixing bowl. We recommend using a bowl with a flat bottom so that you can easily mash the eggs. Set the hollowed egg whites aside for now.
Once the egg yolks are in the bowl, mash them with a fork until they’re the consistency of small pebbles.
Add the mayonnaise, dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Using a rubber spatula, mix and mash these ingredients with the egg yolks until smooth.
We like our filling to have body with a dense texture that’s not super smooth. Therefore, our mixture has a homespun quality that retains the essence of yolk. You can add extra mayonnaise, a tablespoon or even more, if you want your mixture to be silky smooth.
Filling the Egg Whites with the Yolk Mixture
You can certainly use a spoon to fill the egg whites. However, we recommend using a piping bag since piping bags are clean and fun to use. For this recipe, we used a star tip to create a decorative flair.
While using a bag isn’t difficult, home cooks who are new to the process may feel a little lost. If that’s you, fear not and follow the following instructions.
Start by placing a piping tip into the bag. (If you’re using a disposable bag, cut the end off according to the bag’s instructions.) Place the unfilled bag into a cylindrical container like a tall glass or quart-sized container, and wrap the edge of the bag around the container’s rim. (Doing this will make the bag easy to fill.)
Twist the top of the bag until the egg yolk mixture is concentrated at the tip.
Pipe the yolky mixture into each egg white by placing the bag tip all the way into the egg white. Squeeze the bag from the top with one hand while holding tip of the bag with the other hand. Move in a circular motion and twist until you’ve reached the top of the egg white.
Once you’ve filled all of the eggs, the final step is to garnish them.
We like to garnish our deviled eggs with finely chopped chives. Sometimes, when we’re feeling spicy, we sprinkle a dash of curry powder on top of each egg to achieve a totally different flavor.
Feel free to get creative with your eggs. You can garnish them with other herbs, bacon bits and different spices You can even splurge and garnish them with salmon roe or beluga caviar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Deviled eggs are hollowed egg whites that are artfully filled with with a creamy, seasoned yolk mixture.
While deviled eggs can be traced back to Spain, people have been seasoning eggs yolks for centuries if not millennia.
Hard Cooked Eggs, Mayonnaise, Dijon Mustard, Salt, Pepper, Spices and Garnishes
Deviled egg garnishes include chopped herbs like chives and tarragon, spices like chili powder and paprika, bacon bits, salmon roe and even beluga caviar.
You can prepare deviled eggs up to three days before serving them at a party assuming that you refrigerate the devlied eggs until you’re ready to serve them. We recommend pulling them out of the fridge an hour before serving so they can warm to room temperature.
Deviled Eggs Recipe
Making deviled eggs at home is easy to do with just a few simple ingredients. This recipe shows you how to cook, peel, cut and fill them with ease.
Servings: 6
Calories: 56kcal
- 6 eggs
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (ground)
- salt (to taste)
- pepper (to taste)
- 1 teaspoon chives (finely chopped for garnish)
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Bring water to a rolling boil in a pot with a steamer insert or steamer basket. Place the eggs in the steamer and cover, cooking on high heat for 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium low and steam for 13 more minutes.
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In the last minute of steaming, fill a bowl with ice and water to make an ice bath. When the eggs are cooked, transfer them to the ice bath and let stand for 15 minutes.
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Gently remove the shells from the eggs by tapping them with a spoon and removing the cracked shell by hand. Slice the eggs oblong in half with a paring knife, wiping off the knife with a kitchen towel after cutting each egg. Scoop out the egg yolks from the eggs into a bowl with a spoon or (preferably) your hands. Set the egg whites aside.
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Mash the yolks until they’re as smooth as possible. Add the mayonnaise, dijon mustard, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Mix and mash the ingredients until you form a smooth paste.
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Scoop the mixture with a rubber spatula into a piping bag. Pipe the mixture into the empty egg whites in a creative pattern of your choosing.
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Top the deviled eggs with fresh chives unless you prefer other garnishes.
- Boil two or three extra eggs in case any of the eggs have issues.
- Hard cooked uncracked eggs can be stored up to seven days in the refrigerator.
- The finished deviled eggs can be stored up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Calories: 56kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.3g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 83mg | Sodium: 67mg | Potassium: 34mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.1g | Vitamin A: 134IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 0.4mg
