I love tea eggs. They are hard boiled eggs slowly cooked over low heat in black tea and spices for hours. The resulting egg has a wonderful salty and tea-infused flavor that’s addictive. Furthermore, the eggs take on a beautifully intricate web-like design from the tea.
You can buy pre-made tea-egg packs at Asian supermarkets. However, my mom has an even easier recipe that still tastes fantastic and requires just a few ingredients you may already have on hand. Note – if you can’t get star anise, you can try substituting with 5-spice powder and/or cinnamon.
For a printable version of the recipe, click here.
Recipe
1 dozen eggs
2 tea bags (I used Lipton’s black tea bags)
1 star anise
2 tsp salt
Make hard boiled eggs. There are several ways to make this. My mom recommends filling a pot with 12 eggs and adding enough water to comfortably cover the eggs. Bring to a boil and cook for 3-5 minutes. Then let the eggs cool.
Once cool, lightly tap the egg on a hard surface all the way around the egg. You want to lightly crack the shell but not remove it. The cracks will allow the tea to infuse even more into the egg.
Put the eggs into a clean pot and fill with water, comfortably covering the eggs. Add salt, tea bags, and star anise.
Cook at medium heat for about 30 minutes, and then let soak overnight or let simmer for at least 2-3 hours. Alternatively, you can make this in a crockpot and cook at low setting for 8-10 hours.
Sometimes, over time, the pot will start to lose water and the tops of the eggs will peek out. Make sure to turn the eggs around so that all sides get exposed to the tea.
Enjoy!
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These Tea Eggs totally bring me back to my childhood in Shanghai. My grandma used to make them all the time and we’d eat them for breakfast. SO simple and yummy! I really need to make these myself!
I dont know how you say “SO simple” when you have to wait overnight to eat?
its ok to eat eggs that sit overnight?
Anonymous – I guess it’s simple because the steps are not complicated. It’s true, though, you do have to wait. My mom told me letting the eggs sit overnight is OK because they are quite salty. However, if you are uncomfortable with that, you can use a crock pot and cook on low heat for 8 hours and that should work too.
I love the lacy pattern on the eggs. Thanks for the recipe, I didn’t realise they were so easy to make.
oh I love tea eggs! I just made them the first time but with a special packaged tea egg spice. I think there’s more to it than just anise, probably all the five spices out of 5-spice-seasoning.
the recipe says either let it simmer for at least 2 hours or let it sit (cold) overnight, right?
I would also add soy sauce (instead of salt) for more taste and color to the egg.
These look so interesting! I’m definitely going to give them a try!
The tea eggs are gorgeous!
I just finished reading the Eggs section of Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” and he has a whole section on preserving eggs. I’ve never had these, but Im going to try making them. They look so pretty.
as I don’t have pre-packaged tea egg spice anymore, I’m cooking it using this recipe here.
12 rather small eggs, 3 lipton black tea bags, 3 teaspoons of 5-spice-powder, 3 table spoons light soy sauce, 1 table spoon dark soy sauce, 2 table spoons salt (as the sauce didn’t seem enough salty). As a special, I added three drops of very hot sauce!
I’m really curious about the result and can’t wait to taste it 🙂
Yan – that sounds like a great recipe! Hope it turns out. My mom told me that she didn’t add soy sauce, so I’m just following her recipe, but I’m sure the soy sauce will add an interesting dimension in flavor. My mom also doesn’t eat very salty, which might explain why the eggs might not taste salty enough for some people.
Jen, I’m really sorry for being so rude and just overtaking your recipe here – I’ve just realized that my posts sound very critical. Be assured that I’m very glad to have found your recipe 🙂 even though I have changed some little things. Thank you for posting this!
awesome – I will have to try this – such a wonderful idea, and a great post for the Chinese New Year
These are SO cool!
Your recipe was very delicious and everyone ate it so quickly that I had to make a new batch!
how to cook chi-pay?
I just finished up a batch of these and can’t wait to see how they turned out!
Because I didn’t have five-spice powder, I improvised with salt, black pepper, cinnamon, and ground ginger. Only time (and tongue!) will tell if I did okay…
I love the smell of these in Hong Kong but I’ve never had the nerve to buy one. Now I can make them myself. They sound even better than I imagined.
Thanks you so much for creating this blog. It means a lot to me. I am an English teacher working in Taiwan. Needless to say I can’t speak Chinese. But I love the food but because I can’t even read a menu. I have to cook at home most of the time, I could never cook Chinese food before as books in English are not around. So once again thank you..
I was wondering. If I only want the crackle effect and not the extra flavour, could i keep away the star anise? We normally eat eggs cooked with some pepper and salt. Just for the fun look i want to make this for easter next week..
Absolutely! The tea may still give it some flavor though. I guess if you used beet juice or something else then you could even do different colors!
I’ve never heard of this…but I’m dying to see what it tastes like! Speaking of, do you know of any really good asian food online stores to buy from?
Wow. This recipe did work for us to. My family just finished the eggs immediately. Is there any other spices that we can add besides star anise?
I feel like a complete beginner for asking this but how do you get the eggs to come out so perfectly formed? The shell of my completed tea-eggs don’t come away easily. Is there a specific “tapping” method you use?
ns9212 they are not perfect. I live in Taiwan i see perfect eggs everyday at 7-11 and every where else Tea eggs are very much a part of Chinese culture.
I think a lot of that depends on how old your eggs are. Older eggs are easier to peel than really fresh eggs! Other than that, there’s no special method I use. Sometimes it comes off easily, sometimes it doesn’t!
I had these for the first time at a Chinese New Year’s celebration. I was so impressed with the beautiful pattern that I actually took pictures of it! I just made some of my own and used a black tea that had cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, and star anise mixed in. Can’t wait to try them after they sit overnight. Thanks for the recipe!
That seem to be so interesting… I bet the flavor is also interesting… Can’t wait to try. Thanks!