Sous-Vide Soft-Poached Eggs Recipe

While our recipe for perfect sous-vide soft-boiled eggs will get you to the point where the egg is just barely set, some people might want a bit more texture.

Perfect Sous-Vide Poached Eggs

Once we've gotten our tender-and-barely-set 145°F 45-minute eggs, the only thing we need to do to convert them into bona-fide poached eggs is to, well, poach them. This is a technique I first saw employed by Nick Anderer, chef at New York's Maialino.

Here's how you do it.

1. Crack

   Start by cooking the egg to the desired degree of tenderness. I prefer mine at 143 to 145°F for 45 minutes. At this stage, you can let the egg rest at 130°F indefinitely until ready to serve, or even refrigerate it overnight before proceeding with the rest of the steps.

   To remove it from the shell, crack the large end of the shell on a flat surface, then carefully peel away a window with your fingertips while still holding the egg with your other hand. The watery, loose white will begin to drip out. This is ok. You won't be need that part.
   

2. Dump

   Gently flip the egg out into a bowl. Out should come a perfectly egg-shaped object consisting of the gelled soft white and yolk, surrounded by the watery, barely-set loose white. Our goal is to leave that loose white behind.

3. Separate

   To do this, I use a perforated spoon to carefully lift the eggs before dumping the loose whites out.
   

4. Slip

   From here, the eggs get slipped into a pot of water that is just below a simmer. They should immediately start to set up around the outside.
   

5. Poach

   Swirl the water in the pan occasionally to make sure the eggs aren'y sticking to the bottom and becoming flat on one side. Since the eggs are already mostly set, this is not as big a problem as it is when poaching raw eggs. The eggs need only about a minute to develop a skin.
   

6. Drain

   Finally, fish out the egg with the perforated spoon. What you end up with is the platonic ideal of a poached egg. Ivory white and opaque with a perfect egg shape and a tender outer skin that just barely holds in the liquid contents inside. Your eggs Benedict will never be the same.

   The best part? Once cooked, you can chill the eggs in an ice bath and store them in water in the refrigerator for up to a few days. To serve them, just submerge them in warm (130 to 140°F water) for ten minutes or so and they're as good as fresh.

I use these eggs as the foundation for all sorts of dishes. Need a way to turn those sautéed vegetables or that salad into a meal? A perfect poached egg will do the trick.